The American News Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 18, 1951

93 N.L.R.B. 1566 (N.L.R.B. 1951)

1566 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
that a unit limited .to the Providence terminal employees is appro-
priate.3 We therefore find that all mechanics and garage employees
at the Employer's Providence, Rhode Island, terminal, including
maintenance employees, but excluding foremen and other supervisors,
constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargain-
ing within the meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
8 Cf. Hpgrade Food Products Corporation, 85 NLRB 841; 85 NLRB 853; Jacksonville
Linen Service, 89 NLRB 1354.
THE AMERICAN NEWS COMPANY (TICE CENTRAL NEWS COMPANY Divi-
sioN) and PHILADELPHIA NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE CHAUFFEURS
AND HANDLERS, LOCAL UNION No. 628, AFFILIATED WITH INTERNA-
TIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, CHAUFFEURS, WAREHOUSEMEN
& HELPERS OF AMERICA, AFL, PETITIONER . Case No. 4-RC-964.
April 18,1951
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Fred G. Krivonos,
hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are
free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the Act, the Board
has delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-
member panel [Members Houston, Reynolds, and Styles].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer i is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim to represent certain em-
ployees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9
(c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The American News Company, the Employer herein, is engaged
in the wholesale distribution of books, magazines, periodicals, and
stationary at over 300 branches throughout the United States. Its
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, branch, called Central News Company
Division, is the only branch involved in this proceeding.
The Employer and the Petitioner agree that all inside employees of
the Employer's Central News Company Division, excluding outside
1 The petition and other formal papers are hereby amended to disclose the correct name
of the Employer.
93 NLRB No. 258.
THE AMERICAN NEWS COMPANY 1567
stationery salesmen, garage employees, truck drivers, truck driver
helpers, pensioners, and supervisors, constitute an appropriate bar-
gaining unit. Philadelphia Mailers Union, No. 14, affiliated with
International Mailers Union, herein called the Intervenor, how-
ever, seeks a separate unit of "mailers," contending that inside em-
ployees who work on orders of books and periodicals, including mak-
ing up, wrapping, tying, and preparation for delivery, and who do
manual work on returns of books and periodicals from arrival to
storing, are known as "mailers" in the newspaper industry, and are
entitled to separate representation as a craft group.
The Employer's Central News Company Division in Philadelphia
occupies a three-story and basement building and an adjoining build-
ing. Its inside operations are divided into four departments : office,
books, periodicals, and stationery, each under a department supervisor.
Its employees are "clerical" and "manual." These employees work
side by side generally. There are, however, no manual employees in
the office department, and no clerical employees in the stationery de-
partment.
The books and office departments are located on the second floor
of the main building and there is no partition between them. In the
books department, 10 employees make out, fill, and pack orders for
books; and in the office department, 12 employees do general office
work. In the periodicals department on the first floor of the main
building, employees make out dealers' orders and the invoices from
which orders are filled. Nineteen manual employees work in the rear
of the first floor periodicals department, filling orders for periodicals
given to them by clerical employees in the front of the second floor.
They select and assemble magazines according to the order and wrap,
tie, label, and prepare them for delivery. The returns section of the
periodicals department is located in the basement, where 22 manual
employees receive, open, sort, strip, stack, and pack return magazines,
and make out form sheets noting the number of returns and the deal-
er's name for transmittal to the office for credit. Pocket books are
opened, sorted, and stored in the adjoining building by 7 manual
employees who work there. The stationery department is composed
of 9 manual employees who pack orders for stationery items and pre-
pare them for delivery from invoices and orders received from the
office employees on the second floor. This department is located on
the third floor of the main building.
The Intervenor would include in the separate unit which it seeks,
2 of the 10 employees in the books department, the 10 manual order
fillers in the periodicals department, 19 of the 22 manual employees
who work on the returns in the basement, and the 7 employees who
work on returns in the adjoining building. It would exclude all cleri-
cal employees, and all manual employees in the stationery department.
1568 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
There is nothing in the record to justify a finding that the manual
employees requested by the Intervenor are craft employees. The
record discloses that their work is routine in nature and can be learned
in 15 to 30 minutes. The employees herein sought by the Intervenor
do not constitute a closely integrated departmental group of the type
the Board has held in the past may be appropriately severed from a
more inclusive established bargaining unit 2 There is, further, no
reasonable basis for sanctioning the segregation of the employees
selected by the Intervenor in a unit from which other manual em-
ployees with like interests and duties in this plant are excluded.
Moreover, the work of the clerical employees brings them in constant
contact with the manual employees in the plant, and their duties are
integrated with the flow of work of the manual employees, making
them essentially plant, rather than office clerical, employees. Further-
more, the Employer has had labor contracts continuously for the past
13 years covering the clerical and manual employees in its Central
News Company Division in the over-all unit herein sought by the
Petitioner.3
We find that all inside employees of the Employer at its Philadel-
phia, Pennsylvania, Central News Company Division, excluding out-
side stationery salesmen, garage employees, truck drivers, truck driver
helpers,'pensioners, and supervisors, constitute a unit appropriate for
the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section
9 (b) of the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
2 American Rolling Mills Company, 76 NLRB 1209 ; Allis Chalmers Manufacturing
Company , 77 NLRB 719, Dazey Corporation, 77 NLRB 408 . Although absent past
bargaining history, the Board has found appropriate units of shipping department
employees , it does not sever shipping department employees from a larger established
bargaining unit. C . T Dearing Printing Company, 79 NLRB 1020; Marcellus M. Murdock,
67 NLRB 1426 Cf. Bronx County News Corporation, 89 NLRB 1567.
'Even in the absence of bargaining history, plant clerical employees are included in
units of plant employees . Riverside Mills, 85 NLRB 172; Firestone Tire and Rubber
Company, 73 NLRB 246.
FLORIDA BROADCASTING CO. (WMBR-AM, WMBR-FM AND WMBR-
TV)' and ELECTRICIANS LOCAL UNION No. 177, INTERNATIONAL
BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS, AFL , PETITIONER . Case No.
10-RC-10661. April 18,1951
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before James W. Mackle,
1 The Petition and other formal papers were amended at the hearing to show the
correct name of the Employer.
93 NLRB No. 260.