Riegel Textile Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 15, 1949

87 N.L.R.B. 637 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter Of RIEGEL TEXTILE CORPORATION (WARE SHOALS DI-
VISION ), EMPLOYER and MACHINE PRINTERS BENEFICIAL ASSOCIATION
OF THE UNITED STATES, PETITIONER
Case No. 10-RC-690.Decided December 15, 1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was. held before Clarence D.
Musser, 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 National Labor
Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a three-member panel [Chairman Herzog and Members
Houston and Gray].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the National Labor Relations 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 a unit composed of all machine printers, in-
cluding line foremen, journeymen, and apprentices, employed at the
Employer's textile plant at Ware Shoals, South Carolina. The Em-
ployer opposes a unit limited to the above employees only. It con-
tends that the appropriate unit should include all employees in the
printing department, or, alternatively, all employees in the print
room, a major segment of the printing department. The Employer
further contends that, should the Board refuse to find appropriate
either of the above units proposed by it, whatever unit is found ap-
propriate should include, in addition to the machine printers, the 31
back tenders, grey tender, and inspectors (also known as swingmen)
who work on the printing machines with the machine printers and
who, with the latter, constitute the printing machine crews.
87 NLRB No. 104.
637
638 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The Employer is engaged in manufacturing, processing, and finish-
ing cotton and rayon textiles at its Ware Shoals plant, the only one of
its several plants involved in this proceeding. One of its finishing
processes is the printing of cloth used in making pajamas, sport shirts,
shorts, ladies dress goods, bagging goods, and similar products. The
printing of the cloth for these purposes is done in the Employer's
printing department. Of the employees in the printing department
the Petitioner seeks only the machine operators, who operate the print-
ing machines, whereas the Employer contends, in effect, that the unit
should be coextensive with the printing department.
The printing department. The printing department is composed of
a print room, an ager and soaping operation, and a color shop. It
employs approximately 100 employees excluding supervisors. These
employees operate 2 shifts a day, tinder the over-all supervision of a
superintendent of printing.
White or bleached cloth is received in the printing department in
rolls. The actual printing is done in the printing room by running
the cloth through textile printing machines. There are 69 employees
in the print room under the immediate supervision of a boss printer.
The employees in the color shop, under the immediate supervision of
a color foreman, prepare and mix dyes and other ingredients to pro-
duce the various colors used in the printing machines. The employees
in the ager and soaping operation, under separate immediate super-
vision, "age" the colored dyes in the cloth by the use of chemicals, and
remove excess color by a soaping operation. The Employer described
the work in the color shop as a preliminary operation, and the work
in the ager and soaping operation as a subsequent operation, to the
printing of the cloth in the print room.
The print room. As noted above, the actual printing of the cloth is
done in the print room tinder the immediate. supervision of a boss
printer. There are six machines, capable of printing from one to eight
colors, in the print room. The printing is accomplished by running
white cloth through the printing machine. Each machine has several
rollers, the number depending upon the number of colors in a pattern.
A roller is engraved with all designs having the same color, necessitat-
ing as many separate rollers as there are different colors in the particu-
lar pattern being printed. Each roller rotates against a furrier which,
in turn, revolves through a tray of dye. As the cloth passes around a
large drumlike cylinder, the several rollers, geared and timed so that
their particular engraved designs will strike the cloth in proper
sequence, rotate against the cloth, and produce the desired pattern
upon the cloth. Passing through the machine with the white cloth is
another cloth known as the "grey cloth." The grey cloth is under-
RIEGEL TEXTILE CORPORATION 639
neath the white cloth and serves as a blotter to absorb excess dye from
the white cloth when printed.
In addition to the 45 employees actually engaged in running the
cloth through the printing machines, and making up the machine
crews, there are 5 jack men who assist in putting on and taking off the
rollers, 5 cloth men who handle the cloth rolls before and after print-
ing, 2 back grey washers who wash the grey cloth for re-use, 2 back
grey winders who rewind the grey cloth for subsequent use, 2 patch
men who complete the processing of test samples (called "patches")
after printing, 3 elevator men who operate elevators carrying cloth
between the print room and the ager and soaping operation, 2 truck
men who move the cloth around the print room by hand trucks, and 3
sweepers who wash the colored dye from the floor around the machines
and sweep the floor in the print room.
The machine crew. Each printing machine is operated by a machine
printer. In addition to the latter, there is a back tender and a grey
tender on each machine. There is one inspector, or swingman, for
each 2 machines. The machine printer, who is responsible for the
operation of the printing machine and the quality of the printing,
stands in front of the machine while printing, observing the run of.
the cloth, keeping the color trays situated on the front of the machine
filled with dye, making adjustments from time to time to keep the
cloth in register, directing the back tender and the grey tender to
make certain adjustments, and calling on the inspector for patches
(samples of the printing) as needed. The machine printer is also
responsible for setting the machine up properly before operation.
The most important single job in setting up the machine is the instal-
lation and adjustment of the "doctor blades," long knifelike blades
that bear against the rollers and remove excess dye. A high degree
of skill is required in filing and installing the doctor blades, and
adjusting'thern so that they do not damage the engraved design on
the rollers.
The back tender works in back of the machine. He is responsible
for the proper filling of the dye trays located in the back of the
machine, he tends the feeding of the white cloth into the machine,
and he makes various adjustments at the direction of the machine
printer.
The grey tender also works in the back of the machine. He is
responsible for feeding the grey cloth into the machine, he assists
the back tender in keeping the color trays filled, and he also makes
certain adjustments when so directed by the machine printer. The
back tender and the grey tender assist the machine printer in remov-
640 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
ing and cleaning the doctor blades but they do no filing or installing
of the blades.
The inspector, one for each 2 machines, is situated on the mez-
zanine above the machines where he observes the cloth as it passes
from the printing machines; he provides the machine printer with
patches (samples) when requested.
Each printing machine costs approximately $50,000 and often, in
an 8-hour day, will print goods valued at as much as $25,000. There
are three places from which each machine may be stopped-one in
front available to the machine printer, one in back available to the
back tender or grey tender, and one above the machine available to
the inspector.
The normal progression in the Employer's printing department
is from inspector to grey tender or colorist, grey tender to back tender,
and back tender to machine printer.
The practice in the industry. The Petitioner, who bargains for
over 90 percent of the 1,000 printers and apprentices among approxi-
mately 70 of the 75 printing shops in this country, has an established
apprentice training program. Under this program, a machine
printer" must serve an apprenticeship of 7 years before acquiring the
status of a journeyman printer. The apprenticeship must be served
in actually assisting in the operation of a printing machine-the
back tender and grey tender are not apprentices. The Petitioner
admits to membership only journeymen printers and their apprentices.
Accordingly, it does not admit to membership and does not bargain
for back tenders, grey tenders; or inspectors. The Petitioner's rep-
resentative testified that it has contracts with approximately 70 of
the 75 print shops in the country, and in all instances it represents
only the machine printers and their apprentices.
Conclusion. The machine printers in this case are members of a
well defined craft group which we have found capable of constituting
a separate appropriate unit for the purposes of collective bargaining.'
Although the back tenders, grey tenders, and inspectors are in the
nature of helpers to craftsmen, we find, contrary to the contentions of
the Employer, that a unit limited to journeymen and their apprentices
is appropriate in view of the universal practice in this industry, as
described above.2
We find that all journeymen machine printers and their apprentices,
excluding back tenders, grey tenders, inspectors, and supervisors
1 American Finishing Company , 86 NLRB 412 (Member Gray dissenting , is bound by
the majority holding therein ) ; Rockliill Printing Company, 82 NLRB 932 ; The Celanese
.Corporation of America, 72 NLRB 1194 ; Proximity Manufacturing Company, 54 NLRB
1179.
1 Cases in footnote 1, supra.
RIEGEL TEXTILE CORPORATION 641
within the meaning of the Act, employed at the Employer's Ware
Shoals, South Carolina, textile plant constitute a unit appropriate for
the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section
9 (b) of the Act.
5. The determination of representatives :
There are four employees 3 who spend approximately 50 percent of
their time performing the duties of a back tender and 50 percent of
-their time as machine printers. These four employees were employed
as machine printers when the Employer operated a third shift. Upon
the discontinuance of the third shift, they were given jobs as back
tenders. However these employees are now alternating 1 week as
a machine printer and 1 week as a back tender. The Petitioner con-
-tends that they should be included within the unit because they are
machine printers. The Employer contends that they are in the same
category as back tenders. Inasmuch as these employees possess the
skill of a machine printer and work, at least 50 percent of their time,
as machine printers, Ave consider them eligible to vote in the election
-hereinafter directed.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election by
secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later
than 30 days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and
supervision of the Regional Director for the Region in which this
case was heard, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National
Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations, among the employees
in the unit found appropriate in paragraph numbered 4, above, who
were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the
date of this Direction of Election, including employees who did not
work during said pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation
or temporarily laid off, but excluding those employees who have since
quit or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired or rein-
stated prior to the date of the election, and also excluding employees
on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to determine whether
or not they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bar-
gaining, by Machine Priliters Beneficial Association of the United
States. -
MEMBER GRAY, dissenting in part:
I do not agree with the majority's unit determination insofar as it
excludes back tenders, grey tenders, and inspectors from the unit.
3 They are Dudley Nahrey, Woodfin Bigby, Carl Adams, and Horace Gambrell. The
Petitioner agrees with the Employer that Grady Kay is a supervisor and should be ex-
cluded from the unit.
642 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
The duties and degree of responsibility of these excluded employees
clearly remove them from the category of a mere helper, which the
majority finds. them to be, and places them, in my view of the case,
in an apprentice classification. Admittedly this does not accord with
the alleged apprentice practices of the Union, or, indeed, the alleged
bargaining practices in the industry.
But these considerations, while relevant, are not conclusive. In
the final analysis it is the record before us in this case which should
determine our decision here.
The record before us in this case shows a close functional relation-
ship between the machine printer and his grey tender, back tender,
and inspector; and it also shows that in this plant, at least, the normal
progression is from grey tender to back tender to machine printer.
This makes this training program "the apprentice plan" for purposes
of determining apprenticeship within the meaning of a journeyman
and apprentice unit. In view of these facts I would find that, in this
case, grey tenders, back tenders, and inspectors are machine printer
apprentices and I would, therefore, include them within the bargain-
ing unit.