Progressive Matrix Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 21, 1951

93 N.L.R.B. 383 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

PROGRESSIVE MATRIX COMPANY 383
excluding office and clerical employees, guards, watchmen, superin-
tendents, and all other supervisors as defined in the Act.
5. The Employer contends that the petition is premature and moves
its dismissal because of contemplated expansion in the size of the
appropriate unit from 80 employees to an expected complement of
200 employees. As the record discloses that the present complement
constitutes a substantial and representative proportion of the contem-
plated working force, the Board denies the motion of the Employer
and shall follow its usual policy of directing an immediate election.5
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
' Westinghouse Electric Corporation , 87 NLRB 463
PROGRESSIVE MATRIX COMPANY and BINDERY AND SPECIALTY WORKERS
UNION No. 182, INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF BOOKBINDERS,
AFL, PETITIONER. Case No. 13-KC-1590. February 21, 1951
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before John P. Von Rohr,
hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing
are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member
panel [Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Reynolds].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9
(c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit including all employees
in the Employer's shipping department. The Employer contends
that the proposed unit is inappropriate, because it comprises an arbi-
trary grouping of employees with dissimilar skills and interests, and
because it does not include salesmen, porters, and the maintenance
man.
The Employer is engaged in the manufacture of stereotypes, mats,
and plastic ad plates at its plant in Chicago, Illinois. Its products
93 NLRB No 59.
384 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR ,RELATIONS BOARD
are sold to newspapers , advertising agencies , and other concerns, which
use them in producing printed material . It employs approximately
60 employees. The largest single group, about 25, consisting prin-
cipally of stereotypers , are in the stereotype department , and have
for some time been represented by Chicago Stereotypers Union No.
4, International Stereotypers and Electrotypers. The only other em-
ployees now included in a bargaining unit are the delivery car drivers,
3 in number , represented by Chicago Truck Drivers Local No. 705,
International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen
and Helpers , AFL. Of the remaining nonsupervisory employees, the
bulk, 22, are in the shipping department ; in addition , there are 3
porters, 1 maintenance man, 5 outside salesmen and 9 office clericals.
The employees sought by the Petitioner are classified into 5 cate-
gories. Fifteen shippers , also called servicemen , are responsible for
certain specific accounts, and deal directly with customers by tele-
phone. After receiving orders, they remove the necessary plate from
the plate file, prepare work orders , run proofs from the mat made
by the stereotype department, and prepare the mat for shipment.
They also prepare purchasing orders for new plates, and check their
quality when received . Shippers also make occasional deliveries.
They acquire adequate skill in 2 to 3 months. Two syndicate men
maintain a separate inventory of plates and other supplies. They
handle the accounts of those customers who purchase syndicated ma-
terial, such as comic strips. But for these slight differences, their
functions closely parallel those of the shippers . The mat cutters
(2 are regular and 1 works on the third shift), operate power saws
and a hand cutter; they cut and trim the mats, and break large mats
down into their component orders preparatory to shipment. Two
plate file clerks are in charge of the general file room, where they
maintain plate and proof files for 400 miscellaneous "house accounts."
They service accounts which are apparently too small and irregular
to warrant assignment to individual shippers. Because of the large
number of such accounts, these clerks require from 6 to 9 months to
familiarize themselves with the customer files. Finally, there is an
errand man, whose sole duty is to make small deliveries and to pick
up small orders, using public transportation or going on foot to per-
form these tasks. Except for the errand man, all these employees
are in what the Employer calls its shipping department, working
under common supervision and the same working conditions generally-
The record contains very little evidence as to the duties of the
remaining employees in the plant. There are three porters and one
maintenance man. As to one porter, at least, the record indicates that
he does some production work, for he "washes blankets" in the stereo-
type department. The five outside salesmen and nine office clerical
workers presumably do only the work which their jobs titles imply.
PROGRESSIVE MATRIX COMPANY 385,
At the hearing, the Petitioner attempted to justify its requested
unit-limited to the shipping department-as a homogeneous depart-
mental group exercising distinctive and similar interests. The record
does not support this position. More accurately, as the Petitioner
recognizes and argues in its brief, it embraces substantially all those.
production or operational employees not now represented in collective-
bargaining. The Employer's business is essentially a service organ-
ization. To the extent that the 15 shippers (servicemen) process
customers' orders through the plant, therefore, they are engaged in
production work. The mat cutters operate machines which put the
finishing touches on the product sold. They, like the plate file clerks,
who only maintain files, certainly have no shipping duties whatever.-
It appears, therefore, that the employees sought by the Petitioner are
inaccurately called "shipping" employees, and that in fact they con-_
stitute a residual grouping of the plant's production workers. Their-
shipping duties, as such, are but a part of their varied functions. In
these circumstances, we conclude that the proposed unit, subject to
the modifications made below, is appropriate as a residual produc-
tion unit'
Because the work of the porters and the maintenance man appears
to be closely related to the production process, we believe that they
may not appropriately be excluded from a residual unit of production_
workers. Contrary to the Employer's contention, however, the out-
side salesmen have interests in working conditions substantially differ-_
ent from those of production workers. Indeed, the Board has recog-
nized their separate interests by excluding them from production units
in the past.2 Similarly, exclusion of the office clericals, to which the
Employer apparently agrees, follows established Board precedent.3
We shall, therefore, include the porters and the maintenance man, but,
exclude outside salesmen and office clerical employees, from the unit
herein found appropriate.
We find that all production employees in the Employer's Chicago,,
Illinois, plant, including all employees in the shipping department,,
the porters, and maintenance man, but excluding all employees in the
stereotype department, delivery car drivers, outside salesmen, office
and clerical employees, and all supervisors as defined in the Act, con-
stitutes a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining
within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
Volume.]
' International Harvester Co , 82 NLRB 1S5
z Holyoke Mills Company and Potomac Drying and Finishing Corp., 90 NLRB No. 246 ;-
Herboth Tractor Co , 79 NLRB 431.
3 Newport News Children's Dress Company, 89 NLRB 442.
943732-51-26