The New Haven Pulp & Board Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Dec 16, 1949

87 N.L.R.B. 1053 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

in the Matter of TILE NEW IIAVEN PULP & BOARD COMPANY, EMPLOYER
and INTERNATIONAL PRINTING PRESSMEN AND ASSISTANTS OF NORTH
AMERICA, A. F. L., PETITIONER
Cases Nos. 1-RC-1142 and 1-RC-1143.-Decided December 16, 1949
DECISION
AND
ORDER
Upon separate petitions duly filed, a consolidated hearing was held
before Robert S. Fuchs, 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 employees
of the Employer.
3. No 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, for the following
reasons:
The Petitioner seeks two separate units (a) of die makers and their
apprentices and (b) of stonemen and their apprentices at the Em-
ployer's New Haven carton manufacturing plant. United Paper
Workers of America, CIO, Local Union No. 457, the Intervenor
herein, opposes the severance of either group of employees from the
existing unit of production and maintenance employees, alleging (1^
that employees in the proposed units are not true craft employees; and
(2) that the close integration of their work with that of other em-
ployees at the plant, and the long history of collective 'bargaining on
a more inclusive basis preclude the establishment of the proposed.
separate units. The Employer assumes a neutral position. „ ;.
87 NLRB No. 111.
10,53'
1054 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
In an earlier representation proceeding concerning pressmen at the
Employer's plant,' the Board found that printing pressmen and cut-
ting and creasing pressmen constituted a homogeneous craft group
who might bargain with their Employer in a separate unit should
they so desire. On June 3, 1949, following an election among the
pressmen, the Board certified the Petitioner herein as their exclusive
bargaining representative. From the new craft unit thus established,
the Board, contrary to the desires of the Petitioner, excluded die
makers, stonemen, and apprentices, finding that. employees in these
categories were engaged in work which, although functionally related
to that performed by the pressmen, nevertheless involved separate
and distinct skills. The Petitioner through the instant consolidated
proceedings seeks to represent the employees in the excluded cate-
gories in two separate units apart from other employees at the plant.
Die Makers
The die makers work in the cutting and creasing and die depart-
ment under common supervision with the printing pressmen and
cutting and creasing pressmen who constitute the lately severed craft
unit. Because of space limitations due to additional machines, the
die makers presently work in a separate location. The department
supervisor divides his time between the two locations. Die makers
prepare dies used in the cutting and creasing presses. They receive
detailed specification sheets with a hand-made sample of the desired
cartons for use as a, guide. They do not work from blueprints and
they do no lay-out work. Following the specifications received, die
makers cut sheets of plywood, cut and bend steel knives and rules, fix
them with plywood blocks and back them into a chase, thus completing
the production die, which will cut the outlines and mark the creases
for the folding paper cartons which are the Employer's products.
Die makers pull die or oil sheets for the work of the stoneman-com-
positor, repair and adjust dies, resolve assembly difficulties which
arise on the presses and perform other operations required in their
department.
The Employer provides for the classification of its die room em-
ployees as die makers A, B, C, and D and apprentices. At the time
of the hearing in these proceedings, two employees were classified
as die makers A, one as die maker C, and three were classified as
apprentices. The die makers A were experienced as die makers when
hired. The Employer does not maintain any formal program for
the training of die makers. Laborers from the several plant depart-
ments bid for transfer to the die department to serve as apprentices.
183 NLRB 268.
THE NEW HAVEN PULP & BOARD COMPANY 1055
They serve a 30-day period as an aptitude test. Apprentices in the
die room. are principally employed in cleaning and corking dies for
storage, and they set dies in the storage area in and about the die
room. These die corking and storage duties require the full-time
work of two apprentices in the die room. If additional help is
needed for this work, pressmen from the cutting and creasing
presses, who also cork dies as part of their -regular work on the
presses, are brought to the die room for this work. As their corking
duties permit, however, apprentices in the die room learn to recog-
nize and use the tools in the die room, and as opportunity is afforded,
-they learn to make and repair simple dies. Their progress in learn-
ing depends upon the extent and variety of the Employer.'s die work.
No experienced die makers have been developed in the Employer's
-plant so far as the record discloses. The record shows that, in their
present positions, the Employer's die makers do not need to exercise
the skills required of journeymen die makers in the paper industry.
It is apparent in the record that the Employer's present plan of
operations does not require the work of journeymen die makers.
Although die makers are skilled employees, their general working
interests in the Employer's plant are not so clearly severable from
-those of other production and maintenance employees as to justify
-their severance from the larger unit already existing at the plant-
in an industry wherein employees classified as die makers usually
bargain in the same unit with other production employees .2 Under
-these circumstances, we find that the unit of die makers sought by
the Petitioner in Case No. 1-RC-1142 is inappropriate for bargain-
ing purposes at this time. We shall, therefore, dismiss this petition.
Stonemen
A section of the Employer's plant is known as an ink room or
ink department, the function of which is to prepare and furnish
material for the printing department. The room contains a print-
ing press, a roller making machine, and a roller cutting machine.
'There are also materials such as rollers, roller coverings, ink, electro-
type and patent bases. There is no ink made or mixed in this
department.
The two. employees in the ink department are classified by the
.Employer as stoneman 3 and stoneman apprentice or assistant. The
foreman of the department does no physical work, but he is respon-
sible for maintaining and supplying ink and other materials to the
2 Container Corporation of America , 85 NLRB 837 , and cases cited therein.
3 The stoneman is otherwise known in the record as a stoneman -compositor , which is
She Employer ' s official classification for this employee.
1056 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
printing presses, and supervises the two employees who work with
him. The foreman and the two employees in the ink department test
and check the ink as delivered to them and store it in the open area
about the ink room, carrying it daily to the press room as necessary.
The stoneman -compositor makes up forms for the printing press,
regardless of type, in the same fashion as the die makers make up
die forms for the cutting and creasing operations . He checks, pre-
-pares, mounts, and sets electrotypes for the printing press machines.
In the ink room he prints on the press samples which are submitted
to the customers for their approval. The stoneman and his assistant
cut rollers for their use and for the use of the pressmen . The stone-
man works from the die or oil sheet which is pulled for him by the
die makers . His work follows in direct sequence with that of -the
die room. Not all cartons made by the Employer are printed. The
stoneman does only stoneman or related work, and there is no inter-
change of personnel between the ink room and other departments.
Like the Employer's die makers, the stoneman-compositor does
no lay-out work. The present stoneman served as an apprentice in
the ink department for 21/2 to 3 years . He attended no school to learn
either composition or stoneman's trade. During the period as ap-
prentice, he learned how to set type, run the press , and determine the
correct ratio of composition to use with roller making.
In the paper box industry, and at the Employer's plant, the skill
required of the stoneman is relatively less than that required of
die makers. Because we have found that the die makers at the Em-
ployer's plant are not sufficiently skilled to be severed from the exist-
ing production and maintenance unit, we believe that the stoneman
and his apprentice do not constitute a sufficiently skilled group to
warrant their severance from other employees at the Employer's plant.
We therefore find the proposed unit of stonemen and apprentices
inappropriate for separate bargaining at this time. We shall, there-
fore, dismiss the petition filed in Case No. 1-RC-1143.
ORDER
.Upon the basis of the above findings of fact and the entire record
this case, the National Labor Relations Board hereby orders that
petitions for investigation and certification of representatives
ployees of The New Haven Pulp & Board Company, filed by
Aional Printing Pressmen and Assistants of North America,
be, and they hereby are , dismissed.