The Hartford Courant Co.

In the Matter of TJIE HARTFORD COURAXT Co IPANY, EMPLOYER and HARTFORD PRINTING PRESSMEN AND ASSISTANTS' UNION No. 83, AFFILIATED WITII PRINTING PRESSMEN & ASSISTANTS' UNION OF NORTH AMERICA, AFL, PETITIONER Case No. 1-R-3116.Decided Jammary 27, 1947 141r. Cyril Coleman, of Hartford, Conn., and lllr. Frank Phillips, of Worcester, Mass., for the Employer. Mr. Anthony J. DeAndrade. of Boston, Mass., for the Petitioner. Mr. 111artin Sacks, of comisel to the Board. DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon a petition duly filed, hearing m this case was held at Hartford, Connecticut, on August 28 and November 25, 1940, before Thomas H. Ramsey, 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 : FINDIN GS OF FACT I. TILE BUSINESS OF T11F EMMPLOY1:R' The Hartford Courant Conipan,v. a Connect lent corporation, is en- gaged in Hartford, Connecticut, in printing and. publishing a daily newspaper known as the Hartford Coul alit. The Employer annually purchases, for use in its business, newsprint worth about $200,000, all of which represents shipments from outside the State. Of the net paid circulation of the daily edit ion which amounts to 45,815 copies, approximately 3 percent represents sales outside the State. In addi- tion, of the approximately $950,000 derived annually by the Employer from the sale of advertising space, about 20 percent comes from ad- vertisers outside the State. The Employer also relies on the Associated Press and on news services of North American Newspaper Alliance for 15 percent of its news; and it furnishes daily news to the Asso- ' The naive of the Employer appears in the caption as amended at the hearing 72N L R B,No.57 292 THE HARTFORD COURANT COMPANY 293 ciated Press which distributes this news by wire throughout the United States and to some foreign countries. The Employer admits and we find that it is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. II. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED The Petitioner is a labor organization affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, claiming to represent employees of the Employer. III. THE 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 Init. We find that a. question affecting commerce has arisen concerning 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 APPROPRIATE UNIT The Petitioner seeks a unit of all journeyman pressmen in the Employer's pressroom including fly boys,2 the foreman, and the assist- ant foreman. The sole disagreement between the parties relates to the fly boys whom the Employer would exclude from the unit on two grounds; (1) that Petitioner is in effect, precluded from seeking to include these employees in the unit because it had, on August 18, 1944, entered into an agreement with the Employer for a consent elections under Board auspices In a unit of pressmen from which fly boys were specifically excluded and (2) that no sufficient community of interest exists between these employees and the pressmen to warrant their in- clusion in the same unit. We find no merit in either ground. As to the first ground, the record shows that the election held in the agreed unit did not result in a certification or in any subsequent collective bargaining history.3 2 Petitioner i efei s to these individuals as apprentices, while the Employee denies the propriety of such it designation Although, as will appear heiem, the duties performed by these fly boys may warrant the nu' of the term "apprentice" the fact that these in- dividuals are not hued with the specific underetandmg that they are preparing to become pressmen makes the term "apprentice" mappiopilate The ten in "press room helper," used by the Employer in applying for State work permits, best fits the lob performed by these employees However, for puiposes of this decision, we shall icier to the individuals in issue as f1v hove d Unfair labor piactice chaiges involving alleeations of interference with the aforesaid election which ended mconclueively and a iefusal to bargain in the agreed unit were thereafter filed by the I'etitionei In this connection, the Employer points to the finding b,1 the Tual Examiner in that proceeding that a unit consisting of "all employees of the Piess Room Department except for fiv boys" was appropriate lot the purposes of collective ha,gaining However, we note that the Boaid thereafter dismissed the complaint in its entirety 294 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD It is well settled that a Petitioner is not, under such circumstances, prevented from thereafter petitioning the Board for a unit at vari- ance with the original unit.' As to the second ground, the record shows that the employee com- plement in the pressroom consists of 16 men, viz, 12 journeyman pressmen, a foreman, an assistant foreman, and 2 fly boys. The fly boys are regularly employed -5 part-time workers of high school age who work full shifts on Friday and Saturday nights during the school year, and full shifts on 5 nights a week during summer vacations. They devote less than an hour to "cleaning up" and less than 3 hours on Friday night to "flying" the press. The balance of their working time is spent in performing, as part of the pressroom operation, such jobs as knocking clown rolls, stripping cores, spindling up rolls, locking up rolls, pasting rolls, and carrying plates. It appears that the term "fly boy" is customarily used in the locality to designate those individuals in a newspaper plant whose chief functions are to remove and carry away newspapers from the "fly" of the press and to clean up the pressroom, and that an employee per- forming the duties required of the fly boys involved herein is known in the printing trade as an "apprentice." Indeed, when the disptited individuals are absent from the plant, their work is done by journey- man pressmen, many of whom were originally employed as fly boys by the Employer. Although the fly boys' work week and degree of skill differ from those of journeyman pressmen, the record shows that fly boys, during most of their working time, are used interchange- ably with pressmen in the performance of the less skilled pressroom duties. Accordingly, inasmuch as fly boys and pressmen perform many similar duties under similar working conditions, we are of the opinion that both classifications have a substantial community of in- terest, and we shall include fly boys in the unit hereinafter established. We find, therefore, that all employees of the Employer's pressroom, including journeyman pressmen, fly boys, the foreman, and the assist- ant foreman, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of col- lective bargaining.,, DIRECTION OF ELECTION As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the purposes of collective bargaining with The Hartford Courant Coln- pany, Hartford, Connecticut, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) days from 'Cf. Matter of Endicott Johnson Corpoi ation, 57 N. L. R. B. 1473 , Matter of Louis Malina, et al , 66 N L R B 592. 6 Although the Employer adverts to the high turn-over figure of 13 flv boys between July 1945 and June 1946 , we note that the 2 individuals in issue have been employed since September 1945 and June 1946, respectively 6 Matter of A S. Abell, 27 N. L R. B. 776 and 62 N. L. R. B. 1414. THE HARTFORD COURANT COMPANY 295 the date of this Direction, under the direction and supervision of the Regional Director for the First Region, acting in this matter as agent for the National Labor Relations 'Board, and subject to Sections 203.55 and 203.56, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regu- lations-Series 4, among the employees in the unit found appropriate in Section IV, above, who were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the date of this Direction, including 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 and have not been rehired or reinstated prior to date of the election, to determine whether or not they desire to be represented by Hartford Printing Pressmen and Assistants' Union No. 83, affiliated with Printing Pressmen & Assistants' Union of North America, AFL, for the purposes of collective bargaining.