A Cut Above

United Federation of Teachers’ Printing and Mail Department has transformed itself in the last decade, adding a dazzling array of equipment to handle an ever-increasing amount of work. Earlier this year, the finishing department installed a 32˝ Prism paper cutter from Colter & Peterson to help speed up the process of getting work out the door to the union’s 200,000+ members — education and health care professionals working in New York City’s five boroughs.

Oscar Rivera (center) is flanked by operators Gabriel Rivera (left) and Steve Rodriguez next to the United Federation of Teachers’ Colter & Peterson Prism paper cutter.

“The Prism is a workhorse for us,” praises Production Manager Oscar Rivera, who will mark 15 years with the operation in November.

“Everything we buy is well researched, plus I watched some YouTube videos and was sold on it right away that it was the right machine for us.

“It’s funny, I remember the afternoon it was delivered. A flatbed truck pulls up with this heavy, 4,000-lb. cutter and I thought it was going to be a big production. But they got it off the truck in a snap, and we were up and cutting the following morning.”

Rivera is quick to credit local C&P dealer Rick Fassano at Summit Offset for recommending the Prism paper cutter. Fassano had placed a 27˝ Prism PC paper cutter last year at the New York Stock Exchange’s in-plant, located a short walk from UFT’s offices.

“I’ve known Rick for 40 years, when I first started in the industry as a hand typesetter, and before I moved into offset. He’s really good and always on time with getting equipment to us. Late last year, we were decommissioning an old Challenge so we needed a new cutter. I spoke with Rick and he gave me some options to consider, but the Prism was at the top of his list.”

A Well-Equipped In-plant

The 32˝ Prism joins an impressive list of equipment in the lower Manhattan operation. In addition to web and sheetfed presses, the in-plant uses various Konica Minolta bizhub presses for black-and-white and color work. It was one of the first in the nation to install a Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS C8000 — and the first shop on the East Coast to have one. Rivera and his team of 16 count on their Epson Stylus pro 9800, an HP DesignJet Z5400 and a KIP C7800 to handle the signage and large graphics work. With all that firepower, the Prism gets a workout.

“The Challenge cutter wasn’t programmable, and there was a lot of stopping and starting,” Rivera points out. “The Prism is programmable and a better, more efficient product. We set the cut, cut it, and then go on to the next one. The table bed has air running under it to lift the paper, so it makes us much faster than before.

“We go full tilt every day. A lot of our work is done on 12x18˝ sheets that we trim down to 11x17˝. Business cards, letterhead, invitations, you name it. We print everything from a few hundred up to 265,000 per run, which includes the full UFT membership.”

Like any operation, Rivera’s team at times will experience busier-than-average periods.

“No two days are alike. Sometimes it looks like ants at a rainy picnic in here,” laughs Rivera. “Summer is our downtime where we catch up on fill-in work. Once the school year begins in mid-August, the Prism cuts 40 to 50 jobs a day. We stay very busy until Thanksgiving, then do a lot of holiday-related work until the end of the year. When everyone returns in early January, we go full tilt through the end of April. The first two weeks of May, we print many certificates of achievement, middle school promotional certificates and other recognition work.”

Most managers want what’s best for the team. For Rivera, there were other selling points to the Prism that have met all of his expectations.

“This cutter has made life easier for them. That’s great because they work very hard and stay busy with many other things, so we don’t usually have to worry about the Prism,” reflects Rivera. “It is a very quiet machine and you rarely hear it. I also like the safety features. It has an electronic beam, and some of our operators were tripping it by leaning forward as it was cutting. So the machine would just stop. Once they got used to it and changed their behavior, the team became even more productive.”