W. F. Hall Printing Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 22, 1943

51 N.L.R.B. 640 (N.L.R.B. 1943)

In the Matter of W. F. HALL PRINTING COMPANY and CHICAGO MAIL-
ERS' UNION No. 2, SUBORDINATE UNION OF THE INTERNATIONAL
TYPOGRAPHICAL UNION OF NORTH AMERICA
Case No. R-5554.-Decided July , 0°,, 1943
Mr. Otto A. Jaburek , of Chicago , Ill., for the Company.
Messrs. Leon M. Despres , Francis D. O'Mara and A. Giacola, of
Chicago, Ill., for the Union.
Mr. William C . Baisinger , Jr., of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Upon petition and amended petition duly filed by Chicago Mailers'
Union, No. 2, Subordinate Union of the International Typographical
Union of North America, herein called the Union, alleging that a ques-
tion affecting commerce had arisen concerning the representation of
employees of W. F. Hall Printing Company, Chicago, Illinois, herein
called the Company, the National Labor Relations Board provided
for an appropriate hearing upon due notice before Russell Packard,
Trial Examiner . Said hearing was held at Chicago , Illinois, on June
11 and June 16, 1943. The Company and the Union appeared, partici-
pated, and were afforded full opportunity to be heard, to examine and
cross-examine witnesses , and to introduce evidence bearing on the
issues . The Trial Examiner 's rulings made at the hearing are free
from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. All parties were
afforded opportunity to file briefs with the Board.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following:,
FINDINGS OF FACT
I I. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
W. F. Hall Printing Company, an Illinois corporation , is engaged'
at a plant in Chicago, Illinois, in the business of printing , binding
and shipping magazines, catalogues , and other printing matter. Dur-
51 N. L . R. B., No. 108. -
640
W. F. HALL PRINTING COMPANY 641
ing the fiscal year which ended March 31, 1943, the Company pur-
chased for use in its Chicago plant approximately $2,000,000 worth of
raw material, of which about 50 percent was shipped to the plant
from points outside the State of Illinois. During the salve period, the
Company's sales exceeded $8,000,000, of which approximately 75 per-
cent was sold and. transported to purchasers outside of the State of
Illinois. The Company admits that it is engaged in` commerce within
the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED
Chicago Mailers' Union No. 2, Subordinate Union of the Interna-
tional Typographical Union of North America, is a labor organization
admitting to membership employees of the Company.
III. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
On or about May 3, 1943, the Union advised the Company that, it
represented a majority of the employees within the unit claimed by it to
be appropriate and, requested recognition as their exclusive bargaining
representative. The Company refused recognition because it disputed
the appropriateness of the unit sought by the Union.
A statement of the Regional Director, introduced in evidence at the
hearing, indicates that the Union represents a substantial number of
employees in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.'
We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concerning the
representation of employees of the Company within the meaning of
Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The sole issue in the case concerns the appropriateness of the bargain-
ing unit sought by the Union. The Union contends that the unit should
be comprised of all employees in the mailing, bundling, shipping, and
imprinting departments of the Company's Chicago plant, including
foremen and assistant foremen, instructors, sweepers, quality checkers
and inspectors, and roving employees, but excluding clerical em-
ployees, intraplant truck drivers, the plant superintendent, the assist-
ant plant superintendent, and seasonal employees.
The Company, on the other hand, contends that the unit should be
comprised only of skilled male employees in' the mailing department,
inelding foremen and assistant foremen, but excluding the super-
1 The Regional Director reported that the Union submitted 123 authorization cards
bearing apparently genuine signatures of persons whose names appear on the Company's
pay, roll of June 10, 1943, which contains the names of 208 persons within the alleged
appropriate unit.
642 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
intendent and assistant superintendent. This definition would limit
the unit to the approximately 15 male hand wrappers, addressers, ma-
chine operators, and the foreman and assistant foremen in the mailing
department. In the event that this narrow unit is not found to be ap-
propriate, the Company takes the alternative position that the bar-
gaining unit should be limited to employees in the mailing and bund-
ling departments, including supervisory employees below the-position
of assistant superintendent, sweepers, and roving or utility employees,
but excluding intraplant truck drivers, clerical employees, seasonal
employees, instructors, and all women employees.
. The Company prints a large volume of periodicals, advertising
pamphlets, mail order catalogues and cheap paper editions of books.
All of this material, after printing, binding and trimming, is proc-
essed by the mailing, bundling and shipping departments. Certain
items, such as advertising circulars prepared for distribution by large
general stores, are handled only by the imprinting and shipping depart-
ments. In general the work of these departments is to wrap, label,
address, bundle or carton the items and place them in mail sacks or
on freight cars for out-bound shipment. The books and magazines are
delivered by the intraplant truck drivers to the mailing department
where wrapping machines wrap them. The next process is the label-
ing of these items with specially prepared addressed labels by means
of power operated machines known as Cheshire machines, or, in some
instances, by means of a hand-operated machine called a Hand Dick
machine. The printed material is next sent to the bundling department
where a machine known as a Bunn tying machine ties or binds the
books or magazines into 25 to 50 lot bundles. The Cheshire and wrap-
ping machines are located in the mailing department while both the
mailing and the bundling departments use the Bunn tying and Hand
Dick machines. The work performed in these two departments is very
similar. At the end of the wrapping machines in the mailing room a
shipping room employee fills the mail sacks and takes them through
the bundling department to the shipping room for final checking and
processing and occasionally when unlabeled work comes from the
bundling department the shipping room employees affix address labels
on the bundle. If an order is short, shipping room employees go to
the bundling room and make up the odd number required. Approxi-
mately 75 percent of all work going through the mailing and bundling
departments requires further processing by the shipping room em-
ployees. During the rush season employees may be borrowed from one
or another of the several departments involved since the operations are
similar and can be performed by employees in any one of these depart-
ments. The mailing, bundling, and shipping departments are all
located in the eastern half of the plant with no physical separation
W. F. HALL PRINTING' COMPANY 643
between the various operations. The mailing department employs ap-
proximately 95 persons including 5 supervisory employees. There are
about 70 employees in the bundling department, 1 of whom is the fore-
man. In the shipping department there are about 45 production
employees, 5 clerical employees, and 1 foreman.
The fourth department involved is the imprinting department
which employs only three or four persons. It is on the west side of
the Company's plant near the pressroom. Imprinting is a process
by which the customer's name and address or other legend is printed
on a blank space left on the face of the catalogue or circular when the
booklet is printed. Imprinting employees not only do the printing
of such legends but occasionally bundle and address their own prod-
ucts. Separate pay rolls are maintained for the mailing, bundling,
and shipping departments while the imprinting employees are carried
on the pressroom pay roll. When work is slack in the imprinting
department, these employees work in the pressroom as helpers. This
may occur three or four times a year.
The record indicates that the Union has collective bargaining con-
tracts with the majority of the companies located in Chicago. Illinois.
engaged in job and book printing. In all such contracts the four
above-discussed departments are grouped together in a single unit.
Although the Company does maintain separate pay rolls for these
employees, they enjoy the same working conditions and privileges and
work in the same large room of the plant, with the exception of the
three imprinting department employees, and their 'work is so func-
tionally integrated that we are of the opinion that they may
appropriately be grouped together in a single unit. While the
imprinting employees do work in another section of the plant, their
work is so closely related to that of the mailing, bundling, and
shipping employees that we shall include them in the appropriate unit.
The Company and the Union disagree with respect to the inclusion
of certain categories of employees in the four department bargaining
unit.
The Company asserts, and the Union denies, that instructors should
be excluded from the unit. During the company's rush seasons 2 a
few of the permanent employees are detailed to instruct newly hired
unskilled employees. At the close of each rush period these tempo-
rary instructors go back to regular production jobs. They receive no
higher wages and enjoy no different working conditions when acting
as instructors than they do during the normal production period.
Since these employees spend the majority of their time as regular
2The Company experiences two rush seasons each year , during which semiannual
catalogues and "flyers" of certain mail order houses are printed During these periods
the pay rolls of the departments involved increase approximately 100 percent.
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644 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
production workers, performing the same duties as other employees
in their department, we shall include them in the unit.
The Company contends, and the Union denies, that women em-
ployees should be excluded from the unit. The Company's position
is apparently based on the theory that women are not eligible to
membership in the Union. The record indicates that this is an erro-
neous assumption, since the Union introduced evidence showing that
it had about 10,000 women members. There is no difference between
the work performed by men and that performed by women in the
departments involved. We perceive,no valid reason for differen-
tiating between male and female employees with respect to the com-
position of the unit.
The Company, in its alternative position regarding the composition
of the unit, agrees with the Union with respect to the inclusion of
foremen and assistant foremen, sweepers, and roving or utility em-
ployees, and the exclusion of the plant superintendent and his assist-
ant, intraplant truck drivers, clerical employees who perform clerical
duties exclusively, and seasonal employees. A few of these categories
warrant discussion.
Each of the departments involved employs a foreman, with the ex-
ception of the imprinting department, which, according to the plant
superintendent, is under the supervision of a working foreman. It
also appears that there are several assistant foremen in the mailing
department. The record is silent with respect to the duties and au-
thority of'these minor supervisory employees. Inasmuch as they are
traditionally included in collective bargaining contracts in the print-
ing trades, and since the parties are in accord as to their disposition,
we shall include the foremen and assistant foremen and the working
foreman in the imprinting department in the unit.' The parties agree
to include sweepers in the unit. There are sweepers in the mailing and
bundling rooms. They are maintenance employees, under the direct
supervision of the foremen of the mailing and bundling departments.
We shall include the sweepers in the appropriate unit. The roving
or utility employees are persons who have been hired recently and as-
signed to the various departments involved. These employees are des-
ignated as roving or utility employees because they may be shifted
from department to department before obtaining permanent positions.
The Company agrees to their inclusion in the unit, since it admitted
that these employees will in all probability be retained as a part of the
permanent' personnel due to the shortage of labor. We shall include
the roving or utility employees in the unit.
a Cf. Matter of Chicago Rotoprint Company, 45 N. L. R. B. 1263 , and citations therein.
The rule enunciated by the majority of the Board in Matter of The , Maryland Drydock
Company, et al., 49 N. L. R. B. 733, denying supervisory personnel the right to bargain
collectively under the Act, was not intended to disturb the collective bargaining rights
which have been traditionally exercised by foremen in the printing trades.
W. F. HALL ,RIFTING COMPANY 645
In accordance with the" agreement of the parties, we shall exclude
the plant superintendent and his assistant from the unit. We shall
likewise exclude the intraplant truck drivers who truck the finished
printed products from the bindery and trimming rooms to the mail-
ing, bundling, and shipping department; the clerical employees exclu-
sively engaged in clerical work; and the seasonal employees who are
temporarily employed during the Company's semi-annual rush seasons.
We find that all employees in the mailing, bundling, shipping, and
imprinting departments of the Company, including instructors, fore-
men and assistant foremen, the working foreman in the imprinting
department, sweepers, and roving or utility employees, but excluding
the plant superintendent and his assistant, intraplant truck drivers,
clerical employees exclusively engaged in clerical work, and seasonal
employees, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective
bargaining, within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
V. THE DETERMINATION OF REPRESENTATIVES
The Company and the Union agree that the pay-roll period of June
57 1943, should be used in determining the employees' eligibility to vote
in an election directed by the Board. They request this pay-roll
period because the Company is now operating during one of its two
yearly rush seasons during which the pay rolls of the departments
involved usually increase by 200 or 300 employees. The hiring of these
seasonal temporary employees commenced during the week of June 7,
1943. In view of this fact we shall grant the parties' request. We
shall direct that the question concerning representation which has
arisen be resolved by means of an election by secret ballot among the
employees in the appropriate unit who were employed during the pay-
roll period immediately preceding June 5, 1943, subject t_o the limita-
tions and additions set forth in the Direction.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National Labor
'Relations Board by Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act,
and pursuant to Article III, Section 9, of National Labor Relations
Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, it is hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with W. F. Hall Print-
ing Company, Chicago, Illinois, an election by secret ballot shall be
conducted as early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) days from
the date of this Direction, under the direction and supervision of the
Regional Director for the Thirteenth Region, acting in this matter
as agent for the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to
Article III, Section 10, of said Rules and Regulations, among the
646 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
employees in the unit found appropriate in Section IV, above, who
were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding June
5, 1943, including employees who did not work during said pay-roll
period because they were ill or on vacation or temporarily laid off,
and including employees in the armed forces of the United States who
present themselves in person at the polls, but excluding any who have
since quit or been discharged for cause, to determine whether or not
they desire to be represented by Chicago Mailers' Union No. 2, Subordi-
nate Union of the International Typographical Union of North
America, for the purposes of collective bargaining.