Wilson-Jones Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jan 30, 1942

38 N.L.R.B. 735 (N.L.R.B. 1942)

In the Matter Of WILSON-JONES COMPANY and ELIZABETH PRINTING
PRESSMEN & ASSISTANTS' UNION No. 99, INTERNATIONAL PRINTING
PRESSMEN & ASSISTANTS' UNION OF AMERICA, A. F. OF L.
Case No. R-3343.-Decided January 30, 1942
Jurisdiction : office supplies manufacturing industry.
Unit Appropriate for Collective Bargaining : craft unit composed of printing
pressmen held inappropriate where in a prior Globe election they voted for
representation in an industrial unit, and where they have since been repre-
sented under contracts together with production and maintenance employees.
Practice and Procedure : petition dismissed on ground that no question concern-
ing representation has arisen where there is no appropriate unit within the
scope of the petition.
Cox cQ Walburg, by Mr. William H. D. Cox, of Newark, N. J.,
for the Company.
Mr. Harry Wendrich, of Newark, N. J., for the Pressmen.
Mr. Samuel L. Rothbard, of Newark, N. J., for United.
Mr. Thomas B. Sweeney, of counsel to the Board.
DECISION
AND
ORDER
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
On October 1, 1941, Elizabeth Printing Pressmen & Assistants'
Union #99, International Printing Pressmen & Assistants' Union
of America, A. F. of L., herein called the Pressmen, filed with the
Regional Director for the Second Region (New York City) a petition
alleging that a question affecting commerce had arisen concerning
the representation of employees of Wilson-Jones Company, Eliza-
beth, New Jersey, herein called the Company, and requesting an
investigation and certification of representatives pursuant to Section
9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, 49 Stat. 449, herein
called the Act. On November 3, 1941, the National Labor Relations
Board, herein called the Board, acting pursuant to Section 9 (c) of
the Act and Article III, Section 3, of National Labor Relations
38 N. L. R. B., No. 141.
735
736 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
Board Rules and Regulations-Series 2, as amended, ordered an
investigation and authorized the Regional Director to conduct it
and to provide for an appropriate, hearing upon due notice.
On November 14, 1941, the Regional Director issued a notice of
hearing, copies of which were duly served upon the Company, the
Pressmen, and United Novelty & Toy Workers International Union,
Local 148, C. I. 0.,1 herein called the United, a labor organization
claiming to represent employees directly affected by the investigation.
Pursuant to the notice, a hearing was held on November 24, 25, and
27, 1941, at Newark, New Jersey, before Frederick R. Livingston,
the Trial Examiner duly designated by the Chief Trial Examiner.
The Company, the Pressmen, and the United were represented and
participated in the hearing. Full opportunity to be heard, to examine
and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce evidence bearing upon
the issues was afforded all parties. During the course of the hearing,
the Trial Examiner made several rulings on motions and objections
to the admission of evidence. The Board has reviewed the rulings
of the Trial Examiner and finds that no prejudicial errors were com-
mitted. The rulings are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following :
FINDINGS OF FACT
1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY
The Company is a Massachusetts corporation engaged in the manu-
facture, sale, and distribution of loose leaf, file, and stationery equip-
ment, indices, record keeping devices, and other general office supplies.
Its principal office is located in Chicago, Illinois, and it has manufac-
turing plants in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Chicago, Illinois, San Fran-
cisco, California, and Kansas City, Missouri. We are concerned herein
with its plant in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
During the six months' period immediately preceding November
15, 1941, 70 per cent of the raw materials used by the Company at its
plant in Elizabeth, New Jersey, having a value of $190,000, was
purchased outside the State of New Jersey. During the same period
the Company shipped from its plant in Elizabeth, New Jersey, finished
products valued at approximately $860,000, 75 per cent of which was
shipped to places outside the State of New Jersey. The Company
admits that it is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act.
II. THE ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED
Elizabeth Printing Pressmen & Assistants' Union #99, Interna-
tional Printing Pressmen & Assistants' Union of America, is a labor
1 Formerly knoon as United Loose Leaf & Blank Book workers, Local Industrial Union
No 148, C. 1 O.
WILSON-JONES COMPANY 737
organization affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, ad-
mitting to membership employees of the Company.
United Novelty & Toy Workers International Union, Local 148,
is a labor organization affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Or-
ganizations, admitting to membership employees of the Company.
III. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT
The Pressmen alleged that the appropriate unit should consist of
all printing pressmen employed by the Company at its plant in Eliza-
beth, New Jersey. The United contends that the printing pressmen
should be included in a unit together with all production and mainte-
nance employees of the Company at its plants in Elizabeth, New
Jersey, and Chicago, Illinois, with certain specified exclusions not
herein material. The Company takes no position with respect to
the appropriate unit.
On March 22, 1940, the Board, pn the petition of the Pressmen.
directed an election among the printing pressmen at the Elizabeth
plant to determine whether they desired to be represented for the
purposes of collective, bargaining by the Pressmen or the United.
or by neither.2 In its Decision and Direction of Election, the Board
stated that "If a majority in ... such election designates the United
as its representative for collective bargaining, then the [printing
pressmen] . . . will become part of the two-plant industrial unit.
If a majority . . . designates the [Pressmen] . . . then [they] .. .
will constitute a separate craft unit." In the election which was
conducted on April 22, 1940, eight of the ten employees eligible
to vote cast their ballot for the United while only two employees
voted for the Pressmen. Accordingly, on May 13, 1940, the Board
issued a Supplemental Decision in which it concluded that all pro-
duction and maintenance employees of the Company at its Elizabeth,
New Jersey, and Chicago, Illinois, plants, including the printing
pressmen, but with certain specified exclusions not herein material,
constituted a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bar-
gaining.3
As noted in our previous Decision and Direction of Election, the
Company and the United entered into a contract on May 1, 1938, in
which the Company recognized the United as exclusive representa-
tive of all the Company's employees at its Elizabeth and Chicago
plants. Again, on May 1, 1939, and May 1, 1940, the Company and
the United entered into agreements which accorded the United ex-
3Matter of Wilson-Jones Company v Employees Benevolent Assoe,atioa of Elizabeth.
New Jersey, Inc, et at ,, 21 N L R B 943
3 23 N. L. R. B 727
-I' SSGI--It -vol SS-}J
738 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
elusive recognition for the same group of employees.4 The 1940
contract, as well as the two preceding agreements, provided that it
should continue in force "for a period of one year . . . and there-
after from year to year unless modified by mutual agreement." On
April 1, 1941, the Company and the United began negotiations look-
ing toward the execution of a new contract covering employees in
the same two-plant unit theretofore found by the Board to be ap-
propriate and covered in the prior contracts.
It is thus apparent that the printing pressmen have been repre-
sented under contracts together with the production and maintenance
employees at the Elizabeth and Chicago plants of- the Company
since 1938. Moreover, a unit of production and maintenance em-
ployees was established as appropriate in 1940 as the result of an
election in which the printing pressmen, though given an opportunity
to vote for representation in the separate unit, voted overwhelmingly
for representation in the large unit. Under these circumstances, we
are of the opinion, and find, that the unit now sought by the Press-
men is not appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining.
IV. THE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION
Since, as we pointed out in Section III above, the bargaining unit
sought to be established by the petition is inappropriate for the
purposes of collective bargaining at the Company's Elizabeth plant,
we find that no question has arisen concerning the representation of
employees in an appropriate unit.
On the basis of the above findings of fact, and upon the entire
record in the case, the Board makes the following:
CONCLUSION OF LAW
No question concerning the representation of employees of the
Company at its plant in Elizabeth, New Jersey, has arisen in a unit
which is appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within
the meaning of Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act.
ORDER ,
Upon the basis of the foregoing findings of fact and conclusion
of law, the National Labor Relations Board hereby orders that the
petition for investigation and certification filed by Elizabeth Print-
ing Pressmen & Assistants' Union #99, International Printing
Pressmen & Assistants' Union of America, A. F. of L., be, and the
same hereby is, dismissed.
4 The 1939 coati act i eferred to the employees covered by it as "all factory employees"