The Post Printing and Publishing Co.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Apr 4, 1945

61 N.L.R.B. 333 (N.L.R.B. 1945)

In the Matter of THE POST PRINTING AND PUBLISHING Co. and DENVER
MAILERS UNION No. 8, AFFILIATED WITH THE INTERNATIONAL
MAILERS UNION
Case No. 17-R-1005
SECOND SUPPLEMENTAL DECISION
AMENDMENT TO DECISION
AND
SECOND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
April 4, 1945
On January 26, 1945, the Board issued its Supplemental Decision
and Order in the above-entitled proceeding? Pursuant thereto a hear-
ing was held before Robert S. Fousek, Trial Examiner, at Denver,
Colorado, on February 13, 1945, for the purpose of receiving further
evidence as to whether or not addressograph operators, stickers, and
conveyor handlers are properly within the unit found appropriate in
our Decision and Direction of Elections issued December 16, 1944.2
The Company, the IMU, and the Denver Post Circulation Employees
Association, herein called the Association, appeared and participated.
The ITU, which intervened at the original hearing herein, did not
participate in this hearing. All parties were afforded full opportunity
to be heard, to examine and cross-examine witnesses, and to introduce
evidence bearing on the issues. The Trial Examiner's rulings made
at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
All parties were afforded opportunity to file briefs with the Board.
160 N L R B . 231 The case Sias thereby severed from Matter of Denver Publishing
Company, with which it had theretofore been consolidated.
2 59 N L R. B. 1115 . The unit finding therein stated : "We find that , with respect to
the Post, all mailers employed in the mailing room, including taggers, employees in the
mailing room engaged in addressing , stamping , inserting , or stuffing , jogging of papers
for automatic machines , routing, operating tying machines , distributing and counting,
preparing lists of wrappers , sacking, tying , and dispatching of papers , handling of papers
from conveyors attached to the press, situation holders, addressograph operators in the
mailing room , the employee engaged in taking work from the color press conveyor, and
foremen in the mailing room, but excluding those employees classified as inserters who
work outside the mailing room, laborers and clean-up men, constitute a unit appropriate
tor the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Section 9 ( b) of the Act."
61 N. L. R. B., No. 44.
639675-45-vol 61-23 333
334 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
In its Decision and Direction of Election the Board included ad-
dressograph operators in the unit of mailing room employees found
appropriate therein, since it was found that their work is related to
that of the mailers and no other union was claiming to represent them.
At the reopened hearing it was disclosed, however, that these em-
ployees are presently included in the circulation department unit for
which the Association is the bargaining representative, and have been
covered, as part of that unit, by one or more contracts between the
Association and the Company.3 The addressograph operators are
under the supervision of the circulation department foreman, although
they are located in the mailing room. In connection with their work
as addressograph operators they also work in the office on an average
of 3 to 4 hours a day, and are classified as clerks in the last contract
between the Association and the Company. At the reopened hearing
it was agreed by the parties that addressograph operators should be
excluded from the mailers' unit and we shall amend the Decision and
Direction of Elections accordingly .4
In its request for a new hearing the Company stated that the Board's
unit finding was incorrect in that it failed to mention employees in the
mailing room classified as stickers. From the evidence adduced at the
reopened hearing it appears that the term "stickers" is used inter-
changeably with the term "inserters" or "stuffers" in designating
certain employees, and that the work of such employees is ordinarily
done in the mailing room.5 In our previous Decision we found that
all mailers in the mailing room, including those engaged in inserting,
were a part of the appropriate unit, and our finding appears to be
correct. However, for the purposes of clarification and to avoid any
further confusion regarding the scope of the unit we shall amend the
Decision and Direction of Elections to specifically include stickers as
well as inserters and stuffers in the appropriate unit.
Evidence was also taken at the reopened hearing regarding the
appropriateness of excluding or including employees in the mailing
room classified as conveyor handlers. The record with respect to
these employees indicates that there is no regular job classification of
conveyor handlers as such. There are six conveyors or escalators in
the mailing room, and the work on them is done by journeymen mail-
3 The most recent contract between the Association and the Company expired on Feb-
ruary 20, 1945. Negotiations are now being conducted for a new contract.
* It appears unnecessary to delete the word "addressing" from enumeration of the types
of work in which mailers in the mailing room are engaged , but we shall delete the words
"addressograph operators in the mailing room."
5 The original record indicated , contrary to fact, that certain female inserters, who are
regular part-time employees under the supervision of the mailing room superintendent,
work outside the mailing room. We therefore assumed that these employees would not
fall within the unit since we specifically included "employees . . . engaged in . . .
inserting" and excluded "employees classified as inserters who work outside the mailing
room " We shall clarify our finding , deleting the latter exclusion.
THE POST PRINTING AND PUBLISHING CO. 335
ers, who are within the unit, as an incident to their regular mailing
work. At times, when no qualified mailer is available the work is done
by laborers, who are excluded from the unit. The mailing room fore-
man is responsible for assigning employees to work on the conveyors,
and such employees are under his supervision. Since it appears that
there is no distinct job classification for conveyor handlers and the
work is apparently performed as an incident to an employee's other
duties, at the discretion and direction of the mailing room foreman,
we find it unnecessary and inappropriate to make any finding with
respect to this non-existent job classification. We shall clarify our
unit finding by deleting from the enumerated categories of included
occupations the following phrases : "handling of papers from con-
veyors attached to the press" and "the employee engaged in taking
work from the color press conveyor."
At the reopened hearing there was some discussion of laborers em-
ployed in the mailing room. In our previous Decision we excluded
such employees from the unit and this finding appears to be correct.
It further appeared at the reopened hearing that the Company
objects to the participation in the election of the regular part-time
inserters, and that both the Company and the IMU object to the par-
ticipation of certain so-called "Saturday night men." We ruled in
our regional Decision that all regular part-time employees engaged
in mailers' work shall be eligible to vote. We see no reason to alter
that ruling.°
Subsequent to the above hearing the ITU filed a motion in which it
objected to the manner in which it was designated on the ballot in the
election held in The Denver Publishing Company case,7 and requested
that it be shown on the ballot in the forthcoming election in the instant
case, as "Denver Mailers Union No. 8, affiliated with the International
Typographical Union." Appearance in this case was entered by the
ITU without any local number designation and all papers were signed
by the ITU. However, it appears from the record that there is at
present in Denver a local of the ITU known as Denver Mailers Union
No. 8, to which many of the individuals who will vote in the forth-
coming election have belonged, or do still belong. We shall, therefore,
in the Second Direction of Election set forth below, direct that the
designation of the ITU on the ballot shall be "Denver Mailers Union
No. 8, affiliated with the International Typographical Union."
"Both the unions and the Company seem to labor under a misconception regarding the
scope of our unit finding . This finding , which was cast in the phraseology of the previous
contract between the ITU and the Company, and the petition filed by the IMU, is descrip-
tive of the general term "mailers," and is no limitation on the types of work which may
be assigned to employees in the mailing room.
° See Second Supplemental Decision and Order Denying Motion in Matter of Denver
Publishing Co , 61 N. L . R B. 338.
336 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
For the reasons set forth in the Second Supplemental Decision and
Order Denying Motion in Matter of Denver Publishing Company,
which reasons apply equally to the above case, the request of the ITU
for a city-wide unit comprised of employees of both newspapers in
Denver is hereby denied.
AMENDMENT TO DECISION
In accordance with the foregoing findings the last paragraph of
Section IV of the Decision and Direction of Elections in this matter
issued December 16, 1944, is hereby amended to read as follows :
"We find that, with respect to the Post, all mailers employed in the
mailing room, including taggers, employees in the mailing room en-
gaged in addressing, stamping, inserting, sticking, or stuffing, jogging
of papers for automatic machines, routing, operating tying machines,
distributing and counting, preparing lists or wrappers, sacking, tying,
and dispatching of papers, situation holders, and foremen in the mail-
ing room, but excluding addressograph operators, laborers, and
clean-up men, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collec-
tive bargaining within the, meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act."
SECOND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
By virtue of and pursuant to the power vested in the National
Labor Relations Board by Section 9, (c) of the National Labor Re-
lations Act, and pursuant to Article 111, Section 9, of National Labor
Relations Board Rules and Regulations-Series 3, as amended, it is
hereby
DIRECTED that, as part of the investigation to ascertain representa-
tives for the purposes of collective bargaining with The Post Print-
ing and Publishing Company, an election shall be conducted as early
as possible, but not later than sixty (60) days from the date of this
Second Direction, under the direction and supervision of the Regional
Director for the Seventeenth Region, acting in this matter as agent
for the National Labor Relations Board, and subject to Article III,
Sections 10 and 11, of said Rules and Regulations, among the em-
ployees in the unit found appropriate in the foregoing Amendment
to Decision, who were employed during the pay-roll period immedi-
ately preceding the date of this Second Direction, including regular
part-time employees and employees who did not work during said
pay-roll period because they were ill or on vacation or temporarily
laid off, and including employees in the armed forces of the United
States who present themselves in person at the polls, but excluding
those employees who have since quit or been discharged for cause,
THE POST PRINTING AND PUBLISHING CO. 337
and have not been rehired or reinstated prior to the date of the elec-
tion, to determine whether they desire to be represented by Denver
Mailers Union No. 8, affiliated with the International Mailers Union,
or' by Denver Mailers Union No. 8 affiliated with the International
Typographical Union, for the purposes of collective bargaining, or
by neither.
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