The Post Printing and Publishing Co.

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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