William W. Fitzhugh, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 7, 1950

88 N.L.R.B. 537 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of WILLIAM W . FITZHUGH , INC., EMPLOYER and FOLDING
Box, CORRUGATED Box & DISPLAY WORKERS UNION LOCAL #381,
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF PULP, SULPHITE & PAPER MILL
WORKERS, AFL, PETITIONER
Case No. 2-RC-1508.-Decided February 7,1950
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Merton C.
Bernstein, 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 Murdock].
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 organizations involved claim to represent certain
employees 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 Employer operates 2 plants on 2nd Avenue at the intersec-
tions of 49th and 39th Streets respectively in Brooklyn, New York.
At 49th Street, it manufactures folding boxes, labels, and paper spe-
cialties. At 39th Street, it manufactures corrugated boxes. The 49th
Street, or folding box plant, in operation since before 1943, has approx-
imately 64 employees. The 39th Street, or corrugated box, plant,
acquired sometime in the fall of 1948, has 36 employees. The 2 plants
are one-half mile apart. A third plant, at the intersection of 47th
Street, acquired in September 1949, was not yet in operation at the time
of the hearing in this proceeding.
The Petitioner seeks a unit of production and shipping employees at
the Employer's folding box plant. In the alternative, it seeks a com-
88 NLRB No. 107.
537
538 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
bined unit of such employees at the Employer's folding box and
corrugated box plants. The Employer and New York Joint Council,
International Printing Pressmen and Assistants Union of North
America, AFL, herein called the Intervenor, contend that the alterna-
tive unit, covering employees at both plants , is the only appropriate
unit.
The 49th Street plant, in addition to producing folding boxes, labels,
and paper specialties, serves as the Employer's administrative head-
quarters. The Employer's executives and virtually its entire office and
clerical staff are situated there.' Personnel records are kept, payrolls
prepared, and applicants hired, at that plant. Ultimate supervision
over all plant operations emanates from there.
Production operations at each plant, set forth in detail in the record,
are not generally comparable, in view of the somewhat dissimilar
products which each manufactures.z On the other hand certain opera-
tions performed exclusively at one plant are essential to the successful
manufacture of finished products at both plants. For example, a
portion of the die cutting and 90 percent of the stripping operations 3
for both plants is performed at the 49th Street plant. Similarly, the
job' classifications of certain skilled employees at the plant are not
comparable. Prospective transferees in these classifications require a
certain amount of preliminary job training. Among unskilled em-
ployees, on the other hand, job classifications are generally compar-
able,4 save for minor variations in job functions and wage rates due in
large measure to the heavier nature of the work performed at the 39th
Street plant. No employees have been permanently transferred from
one plant to the other since the time when the 39th Street plant was
initially equipped. On the other hand, and more significant, 21 skilled
and unskilled employees were temporarily transferred from one plant
to the other, between January 1 and September 20, 1949.
Each plant has its own warehouse, but raw materials and goods in
various stages of production and finished products of both plants are
stored at either warehouse, depending on the availability of space.
' The factory planning clerk , and another clerk, unidentified , are the only office and
clerical eniployees at the 39th Street plant.
2 Operations at the 49th Street plant are divided into 12 departments , as follows : press-
room, varnish , cutting and creasing, composing , die stripping , baling, cutting , wrapping
and tying, gluing , shipping and' receiving , and' lithographic.
,Operations at the 39th . Street plant are likewise divided into 12 departments , as follows:
corrugator slitters , printer-slotter, open slotter, taping, flap cutting, Cottrell Press, stitch-
ing, semiautomatic folder-stitcher, partition , baling , and shipping and receiving.
`Stripping" is the removal of waste from the edges of paper, following cutting opera-
tions. Paper cut at the 39th Street plant is sent to the 49th Street plant for this process;
other operations , such as gluing , may be performed thereon before it is returned.
Comparable jobs include the following : warehouseman, roll stockman, catcher, flap
cutter operator , Cottrell Press feeder , baler helper and operator , shipping clerk, porter,
oiler, and miscellaneous factory help.
WILLIAM W. FITZHUGII, INC. 539
Transportation between the two plants is accomplished by a hired
carrier; however, hired helpers from either plant may ;accompany
drivers to help with loading and unloading operations. Supervision
over the operations of each department at the two plants is in the
several department foremen, who in turn are responsible to the respec-
tive plant superintendents. Ultimate supervision over all operations
is in the Employer's vice president at the 49th Street plant.
On March 6, 1943, and on January 26, 1945, in a later proceeding
the Board certified the Intervenor as the collective bargaining repre-
sentative for production and shipping employees at the Employer's
folding box plant 5 The Intervenor's latest contract bears an expira-
tion date of October 31, 1949. Following the Employer's acquisition
of the corrugated box plant in 1948, it obtained for that plant its
present quota of employees, transferring thereto 10 employees from
the 49th Street plant and hiring 26 new employees. On November 15,
1948, the Employer and the Intervenor by written agreement extended
the coverage of their contract for production and shipping employees
at the folding box plant to include the same classifications of employees
at the new plant. Wages for these latter employees, however, re-
mairied the subject of oral agreement until April 5, 1949, when the
Employer and the Intervenor executed a supplemental wage agree-
ment for these employees.
The Employer's folding box and corrugated box plants are in close
geographical proximity and are integrated to a considerable degree,
administratively and functionally. Employees at each plant have
essentially similar interests and conditions of employment. In ap-
parent recognition of the close interdependence of these plants, col-
lective bargaining has, since the commencement of operations at the
Employer's second plant, been conducted on a two-plant basis. Under
these circumstances, we conclude that the alternate two-plant unit
requested by the Petitioner, covering employees at both plants and
approved by the Employer and the Intervenor, is the appropriate
unit at this times The parties are in agreement that the categories
of employment in the unit found appropriate in the earlier proceed-
ings and covered in the past collective bargaining contracts should be
included in the unit.
We find that production and shipping employees at the Employer's
folding box plant at Second Avenue and 49th Street and its cor-
rugated box plant at Second Avenue and 39th, in Brooklyn, New York,
excluding executives , office and clerical employees , professional em-
6 47 NLRB 606 ; 59 NLRB 1230.
Cf. Lone Star Producing Company, 85 NLRB 1137 , and cases cited therein ; Continental-
Diamond Fibre Company, 83 NLRB 1143 , and cases cited therein ; North Memphis Lumber
Company, 81 NLRB 745 , and cases cited therein.
540 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
ployees, time keepers, the press man, press tender, fly boy, and camera-
man in the lithographic department,7 maintenance employees, guards,
watchmen, and supervisors, constitute a unit appropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 (b)
of the Act .8
DIRECTION OF ELECTION 9
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 super-
vision 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 payroll period immediately preceding the date
of this Direction of Election, including employees who did not work
during said payroll 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
they desire to be represented, for purposes of collective bargaining,
by Folding Box, Corrugated Box & Display Workers Union Local
#381; International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite & Paper Mill
Workers; AFL, or by New York Joint Council, International Printing
Pressmen and Assistants Union of North America; AFL, or by neither.
7 These employees are represented by Amalgamated Lithographers Union, Local 1, CIO.
8 This unit finding is made without reference to the Employer ' s recently acquired third
plant at Brooklyn . At the time of the hearing in this proceeding, no employees were
working at this plant.
6 Any participant in the election directed herein may, upon its prompt request to, and
approval thereof by , the Regional Director , have its name removed from the ballot.