The Safran Printing Company was founded in a garage in Detroit, Michigan in 1904 by Elias Safran. When Elias Safran died in 1933, his two sons, Hyman and Dave, printed grocery store circulars and did odd jobs to support the family. The company obtained its first large order in 1939--printing the weekly newsletter of the United Auto Workers. Safran Printing continued to expand its web offset lithography after World War II, printing catalogues and publications, Fortune magazine, and regional TV Guides. Hyman Safran (1913-1982) served as President of the company and was a prominent business leader. He was also a Jewish community leader for several decades.

The Company continued to adapt to changing technology and customer needs, providing, for example, continuous feed computer forms in the 1980s. Combining with later company divisions, The Safran Group, as it is now called, moved to suburban Sterling Heights, Michigan in 1987. The Lithographers and Photoengravers International Union was created in 1964 by the merger of two craft unions, the Amalgamated Lithographers of America and the International Photo Engravers Union of North America. The LPIU subsequently became the Graphic Arts International Union (GAIU) in 1972, and the Graphic Communications International Union in 1983. The LPIU Local at Safran Printing was Local 9L.

Saul Wellman (1913-2003) was a printer and union officer at the company. Previously, Wellman had been an officer in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War and a U.S. paratrooper during World War II. After the war, he became leader of Michigan’s Communist Party, in Detroit. During the McCarthy period, Wellman was the lead defendant in “Michigan Six” political trial. He broke with the Communist Party in about 1958. Wellman became a printer and a union leader, and he joined the New Left.