Field Enterprises, Inc.

In the Matter of FIELD ENTrItPRISES, INC., EaiPLOYLR and CHICAGO NEWSPAPER GUILD, PETITIONER Case No. 13-R-3918.-Decided April 3, 1947 Meyer, Meyer, Austrian d Platt, by Messrs. Harry Adelman and John J. Padulo, all of Chicago, Ill., for the Employer. Messrs.,I. Nash McCrea and 'Bernard Averbauch, of Chicago, Ill., and Isserman, Issernaan & Kapelsohn, of Newark, N. J., for the Petitioner. Mr. Benj. E. Cook, of counsel to the Board. DECISION AND ORDER Upon a petition duly filed, hearing in this case was held at Chicago, Illinois, on October 7, 1946, before J. L. Hektoen, 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 the case, the National Labor Relations Board makes the following : FINDINGS OF FACT 1. THE BUSINESS OF THE EMPLOYER Field Enterprises, Inc., a Delaware corporation with its principal office located in Chicago, Illinois, is engaged in the publication of numerous newspapers throughout the United States. This proceeding involves only The Chicago Sun, one of the papers owned and operated by the Employer. During the year from September 1, 1945, to Sep- tember 1, 1946, the value of newsprint, ink, and metal purchased for The Chicago Sun exceeded $2,000,000, substantially all of which was shipped from points outside the State of Illinois. Approximately $10,000,000 is derived annually from the sale of advertising and from the circulation of newspapers. Over' 20 percent of the advertising 'The hearing officer reserved i uhng on the Employer's motion to dismiss the petition on the ground that the unit sought was inappropriate. For reasons set forth in Section IV, mnjre, the Employer 's motion is granted. 73 N. L. H. B., No. 23. 141 142 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD sold is national in scope, and 10 percent of the paper's circulation is outside the State of Illinois. The Employer admits and we find that it is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. I I. TILE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED The Petitioner is a labor organization affiliated with American Newspaper Guild, Congress of Industrial Organizations, claiming to represent employees of the Employer. III. TILE QUESTION CONCERNING REPRESENTATION The Employer refuses to recognize the Petitioner as the exclusive bargaining representative of employees of the Employer until the Petitioner has been certified by the Board in an appropriate unit. We find that a question affecting commerce has arisen concern- ing the representation of employees of the Employer, within the meaning of Section 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. IV. THE ALLEGED AI'I'ROJ'RLVIE U--,; IT The Petitioner seeks to represent the Employer's telephone opera- tors and telephone clerks and requests that they be merged with the established unit of editorial employees which the Petitioner currently represents.2 The Employer opposes a consolidation of the telephone operators and editorial employees in the editorial unit and further contends that inasmuch as the telephone operators constitute a sub- division of the commercial department, any unit less than the entire commercial department would be inappropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining. There are nine full-time telephone operators and one part-time operator who comprise a subdivision of the Employer's commercial department. These employees work under the immediate supervi- sion of the chief operator, who in turn, is directly responsible to the assistant manager in charge of the commercial department. In addition to handling outgoing toll and long distance calls, these tele- phone operators assist other departments in answering inquiries and supplying news information to the general public. With the ex- ception of the part-time operator, who works only 14 hours per week, the telephone operators work on alternating day and night shifts of 371/2 and 35 hours, respectively. They serve all departments of the Employer's newspaper and other than receiving and transmitting telephone calls, they have no special contact with the editorial de- 2 See Matter of Marshall Yield, doing business as The Chicago Sun, 46 N. L. A. B. 1335. FIELD ENTERPRISES, INC. 143 partment employees, nor do they perform any editorial functions. We are of the opinion that the interests and duties of the telephone operators are not sufficiently allied to those of the editorial employees to warrant their inclusion in the same lnnit.3 The alternative of establishing a separate unit of telephone opera- tors is also unwarranted. Although the Board has found smaller than plant-wide units to be appropriate when they are confined to noncraft groups and organization has not extended beyond such groups, in each instance, the unit so established constituted a depart- ment or other functionally coherent and distinct division of the Em- ployer's operations. Here, the unit sought is confined to only a portion of the employees in the commercial department, and does not follow any administrative division of the Employer's operations. Nor has such divergency of duties or interests been shown between the telephone operators and remaining employees in the commercial department as would justify the establishment of a separate unit composed of the former employees at this time. We shall, therefore, dismiss the petition herein. ORDER Upon the basis of the above findings of fact, and the entire record in the case, the Board hereby orders that the petition for investiga- tion and certification of representatives of employees of the Field En- terprises, Inc., filed by the Chicago Newspaper Guild, Chicago, Illi- nois, be, and it hereby is, dismissed. CHAIRMAN HERZOG took no part in the consideration of the above Decision and Order. 'See Matter of Ma,cellus Murdock, Sole Snrwe,ng T,astee of the Victoria Murdock Estate, doing business as The iV,ehtta Eagle, 69 N ' L R. B. 12 70, Matte, of The Brooklyn Citizen, 52 N L It B 6731 " See Matte, of Forest City Knitting Company, 69 N L R B 89 ' 739926-47-vol 73-11