A major makeover has tripled the capacity of DC 37’s print shop and mailing facility — which was destroyed by flooding after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

“You are probably looking at the best union print shop in the tri-state area,” said Luis A. Rodriguez, manager of the print shop and mailroom. Mr. Rodriguez accompanied the union’s four top elected officers and executive board members during a tour of the revamped area on Sept. 10.

“We have moved from perhaps the 19th century to the 21st century,” Mr. Rodriguez said. “We are now in the digital age. You can e-mail us a file from anywhere in the world and we can print it, which we couldn’t before.”

The heart of the new operation is two large computerized Heidelberg presses and a pair of smaller Ryobi printing presses. With the new presses, the union can produce 27,000 items an hour, compared with 10,000 previously.

“The technological upgrading of our printing and mailing facility is very exciting. It beefs up our ability to communicate swiftly with our members,” DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts said. She also praised the work of the shop’s “dedicated and highly skilled staff.”

Each year, the shop produces millions of newsletters, programs, letters, leaflets, meeting notices, posters and political palm cards. The facility also handles mailings for DC 37’s 56 local unions and the union’s benefit programs. However, the shop cannot handle the Public Employee Press, which, like many New York City labor publications is printed at a large, unionized plant in Pennsylvania.

Besides the four printing presses, several other state-of-the-art machines will help the union dramatically improve its printing and mailing services:

A new image setter can create printing plates from e-mail files.
A mailing machine lets workers sort and weigh mail of varying sizes without grouping material by size or sealing envelopes beforehand.
An ink jet machine sprays bar codes on mailings, allowing for postal discounts.
A rapid folding machine handles several paper sizes.

Other new equipment includes several computers, two machines that insert mailings into envelopes, a photocopier, a folding machine, and a printer for creating paper or cloth banners.

Funding for the upgrading came from an insurance settlement of damage claims related to 9/11 and an allocation of additional funds by the DC 37 Executive Board.

“Even without the tragedy of September 11th, we still faced an urgent need for capital improvements,” Ms. Roberts said. “This is a substantial improvement in the services the union provides to members.”