The Chicago Daily News, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 21, 1952

98 N.L.R.B. 1235 (N.L.R.B. 1952)

THE CHICAGO DAILY NEWS, INC . 1235
of our employees or any condition of their employment, by inquiring into
their union membership or activities, or in any other manner interrogating
or questioning them with respect to their union membership or sympathies.
WE WILL NOT in any manner interfere with, restrain, or coerce our em-
plpyees in the exercise of their right to self-organization, to form labor or-
ganizations , to join or assist OIL WORKERS INTERNATIONAL UNION, CIO, or
any other labor organization, to bargain collectively through representatives
of their own choosing, and to engage in concerted activities for the purpose of
collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection or to refrain from
any or all of such activities, except to the extent that such right may be
affected by an agreement requiring membership in a labor organization as a
condition of employment as authorized in Section 8 (a) (3) of the Act.
WE WILL offer to Nolan W. Duncan immediate and full reinstatement to his
former or substantially equivalent position without prejudice to any senior-
ity or other rights and privileges previously enjoyed, and make him whole for
any loss of pay suffered as a result of the discrimination.
All our employees are free to become or remain members of the above-named
union or any other labor organization. We will not discriminate in regard to
hire or tenure of employment or any term or condition of employment against
any employee because of membership in or activity on behalf of any such labor
organization.
MAGNOLIA PETROLEUM COMPANY,
Employer.
Dated --------------------------- By ----------------------------------
(Representative ) ( Title)
This notice must remain posted for 60 days from the date hereof, and must not
be altered , defaced, or covered by any other material.
THE CHICAGO DAILY NEWS, INC. and CIIICAGO NEWSPAPER GUILD,
AMERICAN NEWSPAPER GIIILD-CIO, PETITIONER. Case No. 13-RC-
2319. April 21,1950
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 Irving M. Friedman,
hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are
free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.,
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
1 After the close of the hearing, the Employer moved to supplement the record by includ-
ing therein copies of contracts between the American Newspaper Guild or its local sub-
divisions and newspapers throughout the country. The Petitioner objects to the receipt
of such evidence on the grounds, among others, that there is no showing that the evidence
was unavailable at the time of the hearing and that both parties agreed to strike from the
record similar contracts offered in evidence at the hearing by the Petitioner In view of
the position taken by the parties at the hearing and the objection of the Petitioner, the
motion to supplement the record is hereby denied.
98 NLRB No. 189.
1236 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain
employees 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 Petitioner seeks to add the following employees to a unit of
editorial and news department employees which it now represents :
Advertising, accounting, and promotion department employees, cir-
culation office employees, and administrative and residual employees
(unrepresented employees in departments represented by craft
unions), but excluding part-time telephone canvassers and outside cir-
culation employees. Alternatively, it asks for separate departmental
units. The Employer contends that the part-time telephone can-
vassers and outside circulation employees, specifically, city home
delivery district managers, country and suburban branch managers,
suburban solicitors, and depot boys should be included in the unit.
The Employer opposes the establishment of separate departmental
units.
Part-time telephone canvassers are part of the circulation depart-
ment. They solicit over the telephone subscriptions for the Em-
ployer's newspaper and the accident insurance policies which the
Employer makes available to subscribers. They work in the main
plant for 3 hours each evening and all day Saturday, utilizing the
equipment which telephone solicitors of classified advertising use
during the regular working day. They are paid on a commission
basis with a minimum guarantee.
City home delivery district managers act as liaison men between
the Employer and the independent distributors of its papers in the
city of Chicago. They check on the work of the distributors and
pickup insurance premiums collected by carriers. They work en-
tirely outside the plant, calling personally there only to receive their
salary checks and occasional mail. They work no set hours, but are
expected to put in 40 hours each week at their job.
Country and suburban branch managers are in charge of the dis-
t ribution of the Employer's newspaper to subscribers outside the city
of Chicago. Each manager has an assigned territory, a group of
carrier boys who make the actual deliveries, and usually an office the
rent for which is paid by the Employer. Some of the managers have
office assistants whom they have hired. All of them recruit
carriers, direct their work, and terminate them when their work is
unsatisfactory.
Country and suburban solicitors solicit new subscribers and acci-
dent insurance policies by personal door-to-door calls in cities and
THE CHICAGO DAILY NEWS, INC. 1237
towns outside the city of Chicago. They are paid entirely on a com-
mission basis and do not enjoy the employment benefits of other
employees.
Depot boys are high school lads who work about 20 hours per
week at depots in the Chicago area, carrying newspapers from the
delivery trucks to depot newsstands and transferring surplus news-
papers from one stand to another.
The Board has stated that the optimum bargaining unit in the
newspaper industry is one comprising employees in all nonmechani-
cal departments,2 but that units of single major. departments are
also appropriate. In a few cases the Board has held that a combina-
tion of departments may constitute an appropriate unit when the
departments performed closely related functions calling for similar
skills '3 or when there has been a history of bargaining for the em-
ployees of dissimilar departments.4 Any unit determination, of
course, must depend on the facts of each case, including the organ-
izational structure of the employer with variations in the grouping
and duties of employees, and the history of bargaining.
In the present case, the Petitioner seeks to group in a single unit
all employees in nonmechanical departments, excluding only part-
time telephone canvassers and outside circulation employees.r, The
outside circulation employees work away from the newspaper plant
and have little or no physical contact with the other employees in
the proposed unite Their work also differs from that of the other
employees. In these circumstances, we believe that they have interests
different from those of other employees and they may therefore be
excluded from the unit which, if the other employees so desire, will
include the employees of all the other nonmechanical departments 7
We believe, however, that there is no adequate reason for excluding
part-time telephone canvassers. These individuals are regular part-
time employees who work in the newspaper plant. We shall include
them in the unit.
2 Bureau of National Affairs, 96 NLRB 673, 98 NLRB 87; Capital Journal, 93 NLRB
1321; The Salt Lake Tribune Publishing Company, 92 NLRB 1411.
8 Bethlehems' Globe Publishing Company, 74 NLRB 392.
4 Sacramento Publishing Company , Ltd., 57 NLRB 1636
City home delivery district managers , country and suburban branch managers, country
and suburban solicitors , and depot boys Also excluded are truck drivers and city division
managers in the circulation department who are represented by the Newspaper Delivery
Drivers and Handlers Union, Local 706, I B T., C. W. & H of A , A. F L.
6 Advertising solicitors who are included in the proposed unit also spend most of their
time away from the newspaper plant. However, they make their headquarters at the
plant, and solicitors working in and about Chicago report to their office in the plant at
the beginning and end of each workday. There are also included in the unit two employees
working In the garage which is about a mile from the newspaper plant. However, these
are fringe employees whom we have included in the unit only because of the agreement
of both parties.
7 Cf. The Dispatch Printing Company, Incorporated , 93 NLRB 1282.
998666-vol . 98-53-79
1238 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
We shall direct an election among the following employees of The
Chicago Daily News, Inc., Chicago, Illinois, excluding outside cir-
culation employees,8 and all guards, supervisors, and professional
employees as defined in the Act.
All advertising, accounting, promotion, and administrative depart-
ment employees, office circulation department employees, part-time
telephone canvassers, and unrepresented employees in the mechanical
departments.
If a majority of the employees voting cast ballots for the Petitioner,
they will be takel4 to have indicated their desire to be part of a single
unit together with the news-editorial department employees, and the
Petitioner may bargain for them as part of such unit. The Regional
Director conducting the election directed herein is instructed to issue
a certificate of results of election to such effect.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
CHAIRMAN HERZOG took no part in the consideration of the above
Decision and Direction of Election.
e Truck drivers, city division managers , city home delivery district managers , country
and suburban branch managers , country and suburban solicitors , and depot boys.
THE BETHLEHEMS' GLOBE PUBLISHING COMPANY and NEWSPAPER GUILD
OF PHILADELPHIA AND CAMDEN, LOCAL 10, AMERICAN NEWSPAPER
GUILD, CIO, PETITIONER. Case No. 4-RC-1.157. April 21, 1952
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 0 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, a hearing was held before Harold Kowal, hearing officer.
The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing are free from prej-
udicial 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 [Chairman Herzog and Members Houston and Murdock].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds:
1. The Employer is a Pennsylvania corporation engaged in pub-
lishing a newspaper at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's
daily circulation is approximately 24,000, of which about 2 percent
goes to subscribers outside the State of Pennsylvania. The Employer
is a member of the Associated Press and the United Press, and utilizes,
distributes, and contributes to the news service of each. It also re-
ceives and publishes national features, comic strips, and advertise-
ments of nationally sold products. In connection with its publication
98 NLRB No. 191.