Local 235M member Socorro Bernthal packs brochures as they come out of the Texwrap folder in the bindery.

Stripping foreman and Kansas City 235M member Robert Mooneyhan said Greystone stays "extremely busy." The company operates with three shifts in 24 hours, five days a week.

Kansas City 235M member Keith Rodey revises art in prepress at Greystone Graphics. Rodey said he's "always been a computer buff and gravitated" toward electronic prepress work. The eight members in prepress use QuarkXpress, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to fine tune customers' art work.

"A good marriage" is how Greystone Graphics Pres. John Surdez describes the commercial printing company's relationship with Kansas City 235M and 16C.

"We work together," Surdez said. "Sometimes it's a lot easier for day-to-day things to be able to go to the union. It's a good thing for people to have someone to represent them."

It's a productive relationship. Greystone Graphics was formed by a June 1998 merger between Constable-Hodgins Printing Co. and Vile-Goller/Fine Arts Printing, "old-line" firms that had been in operation since the 1920s. As a result of the merger, Greystone is the largest commercial printer in Missouri. The company's bindery also is one of the largest trade binderies in the state.

Surdez, who was president of Constable-Hodgins where he'd worked for 18 years, said the "consolidation made a lot of sense." The companies wanted to "become financially strong, to stay the long distance. It's beneficial for everyone" to be profitable and to grow, he said.

About 200 employees produce a wide variety of printed materials, including greeting cards, game cards for the Kansas City Chiefs, boxes, sports calendars, day books, college cards, jewelry catalogues, holiday flyers, magazine inserts, telephone book covers, and tabs.

Surdez said the company keeps up to date with equipment. The new Komori Lithrone 40-inch is one of the company's five sheetfed presses in the 115,000-square-feet plant. The company also runs three web presses.

Greystone also is up to date with electronic prepress. "We can do a lot on the front end with computers that we couldn't do before," he said. The newest addition to the electronic equipment is an upgrade to an eight-page imagesetter, he noted.

The electronic prepress department requires highly trained and skilled computer operators, and Surdez said Greystone's union employees "are better trained than in other shops. From the human side, it's important that people stay abreast" of new technology, he said.

Local 235M Pres. James Miller noted that GCIU members have access to training through the local's school. "Most of our training is on computers" because of the demand for the skills, he said.

Despite the prevalence of electronic prepress, Surdez said, "there are still a lot of things you have to do the conventional way. There's still a lot of work that comes in on film."

Stripping foreman and Local 235M member Robert Mooneyhan said the company has been extremely busy moving to its current location in July 1998. "We've been running three shifts over 24 hours five days a week," he said. "It's coming together."

Quality inspection also is done by hand, with GCIU employees checking every sheet. Greystone is certified in inspection for one of its largest accounts. "If we say it's okay, it's okay," Surdez said.

Judy Metzger and Lee Cueni of Local 235M operate an MBO folder in the bindery at Greystone Graphics in Kansas City.