Jersey Publishing Co.

In the Matter Of JERSEY PUBLISHING COMPANY, EMPLOYER and HUDSON COUNTY NEWSPAPER GUILD, AMERICAN NEWSPAPER GUILD, CIO. PETITIONER Case No. 2-R-78941 .-Decided March 2, 1948 Mr. John H. Yauch, of Newark, N. J., for the Employer. Isserman, Isserinanz cC Kapelsohn, by Mr. Irving Leuchter, of Newark, N. J., for the Petitioner. DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION Upon a petition duly filed, hearing in this case was held at Jersey City, New Jersey, on July 17, 1947, before James C. Paradise, 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 snakes the following : FINDINGS OF FACT I. THE BUSINESS OF THE EMPLOYER Jersey Publishing Company, a New Jersey corporation, is engaged in the business of publishing a daily newspaper, the Jersey Observer, with which we are here solely concerned, and in job printing at its principal place of business and main office in Hoboken, New Jersey. In addition, it maintains branch offices in Jersey City, New Jersey, and Union City, New Jersey. The value of raw materials, consisting primarily of newsprint paper and ink, which are shipped to the Em- ployer from points outside the State of New Jersey, exceeds $25,000 annually. The daily newspaper published by the Employer has an average daily circulation of 48,000 copies, of which less than 1 percent is outside the State of New Jersey. It carries a substantial amount of national advertising and nationally syndicated columns and other features. The Employer also utilizes the wire services of the United Press and the International News Service. 76 N.L.R B., No. 70. 467 781902-48-vol 76--31 468 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD The Employer admits and we find that it is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. H. THE ORGANIZATION INVOLVED The Petitioner is a labor organization affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations, 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 unit. We find that a question affecting commerce exists concerning the representation of employees of the Employer, within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. IV. THE APPROPRIATE UNIT The Petitioner seeks a unit comprising all employees in the editorial department of the Employer's newspaper, the Jersey Observer, includ- ing the advisory editor, the telegraph state and exchange editor, Jersey City editor, Bergen County editor, City editor, night editor, sports editor, and part-time reporters, but excluding the editor, the co-pub- lisher, the secretary to the Employer, and all supervisors. The Em- ployer agrees that the unit described by the Petitioner is an appropriate unit, but contends that certain of the employees included are profes- sional employees who should be given an opportunity to indicate whether or not they desire separate representation.' The employees in the editorial department regarded by the Em- ployer as professional employees apparently are those whom it con- siders of particular value to the newspaper because of their experience and capabilities and who allegedly have greater responsibilities than employees whom it regards as non-professional. In the former cate- gory the Employer would place varous special editors, rewrite men, and reporters who are assigned to towns at some distance from the home office and who, it asserts, are given wide latitude in representing the Employer and carrying out the policies of the newspaper.2 How- ' Section 9 (b) (1) of the Act, as amended, provides: "That the Board shall not . . . decide that any unit is appropriate for such purposes [collective bargaining] if such unit includes both professional employees and employees who aie not professional employees unless a majority of such professipnal employees vote for inclusion in such unit." The Employer relies upon this Section as well as established Board policy in regard to pro- fessional employees. 2 The following are listed by the Employer as professional employees : the advisory editor, telegraph editor, North Hudson-Hoboken-Bergen County editor, Jersey City editor, night editor, sports editor, Jersey City Hall reporter, Courthouse reporter , Union City editor, JERSEY PUBLISHING COMPANY 469 ever, those reporters who work in city precincts under closer super- vision of the home office are regarded by the Employer as belonging in the category of non-professional employees. The evidence indicates that all the reporters in the editorial depart- ment perform substantially the same type of work and are subject to^ the same over-all departmental supervision. Necessarily, the duties. of all are closely related ; all are responsible for gathering and report- ing news events, promoting good will, and representing the Employer in their respective territories. All receive weekly salaries and all are entitled to the same vacation benefits. Some of the reporters do not check in and out of the home office. However, all regular employees work a 40-hour week. All news stories are written and handled similarly. In each case a story is read by the city editor and in some instances by the editor before publication. It is the general policy of the Employer to transfer or promote the employees in the editorial department from one position to another. Indeed, it appears from the record that the most highly regarded employees are those who have had considerable practical experience in newspaper work and have advanced themselves over a period of years in the service of the Em- ployer. Although judgment and discretion are involved to a greater or lesser degree in the work of these employees, much of the Employer's news coverage consists of routine news items and, in other stories, the individual reporter governs himself according to the known policies of the Employer. None of the employees in the editorial department are required to have a license or to undergo specialized training in a school of higher learning. A few are graduates of schools of journal- ism or academic colleges. No contention is made that the various special editors and rewrite men have supervisory authority or that their duties of editing and rewriting news stories require that they be considered in a different category from the reporters discussed above. In view of the foregoing, we are of the opinion that the employees asserted by the Employer to be professional employees are not profes- sional employees within the meaning of Section 2 (12) of the Act, as amended.3 Moreover, we perceive no reason to distinguish between Chancery Couit reporter , Hoboken City Hall reporter , Secaucus reporter , Cliffside Park- Edgewater-Fairview reporter , assistant sports editor , legislative correspondent and col- umnist, North Bergen reporter, Weehawken reporter , Hackensack Courthouse reporter, West Newark repot ter, Union City night reporter, Lyndhurst-Rutherford-East Rutherford-Carl- stadt reporter, and two rewrite men. 3 This section provides : (12) The term professional employee means- (a) any employee engaged in work (i) predominantly intellectual and varied in char- acter as opposed to routine mental , manual , mechanical , or physical work , (ii) involving the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment in its performance; (ill) of such a character that the output produced or the result accomplished cannot be 470 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD these employees and other employees in the editorial department on the basis of duties performed or the manner of performance.4 If any difference exists, it is one of degree rather than kind. It is to be ex- pected that the Employer may find some newspapermen better quali- fied and more trustworthy than others and make its assignments ac- cordingly. This is a matter of good administrative practice, but it does not warrant the conclusion that the less favored employees should be considered apart from their co-workers in the same department. We find that all employees in the editorial department of the Em- ployer's newspaper, the Jersey Observer, Hoboken, New Jersey, includ- ing the advisory editor, the telegraph state and exchange editor, Jersey City editor, Bergen County editor, city editor, night editor, sports editor, and part-time reporters; but excluding the editor, co-publisher, the secretary to the Employer, and all supervisors, constitute a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the mean- ing of Section 9 (b) of the Act. DIRECTION OF ELECTION As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the purposes of collective bargaining with Jersey Publishing Company, Hoboken, New jersey, an election by secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later than thirty (30) days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and supervision of the Re- gional Director for the Second Region, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62, of National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regula- tions-Series 5, 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, but excluding those employees standardized in relation to a given period of time ; ( iv) requiring knowledge of an ad- vanced type in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction and study in an institution of higher learning or a hospital , as distinguished from a general academic educaton or from an apprentice- ship or from training in the performance of routine mental, manual , or physical processes ; or (b) any employee, who (i ) has completed the courses of specialized intellectual in- struction and study described in clause (iv) of paragraph ( a) and ( ii) is performing related work under the supervision of a professional peison to qualify himself to become a professional employee as defined in paragraph (a) We find nothing in the legislative history of the Act to indicate that the Congress intended to include employees such as those involved in the instant case in the above definition of professional employees See, also, Matter of New York Times, 32 N. L. R. B. 928, foi a previous Board ruling that writeis , editors, and rewrite men in an editorial depart- ment of a newspaper were not a true craft or professional group. 4 We have in the past found that editorial department employees constitute appropriate , bargaining units See Matter of Brooklyn Citizen , 52 N L R B. 673 , Matter of George W. .Prescott Company, Inc., 64 N. L R. B. 1390. JERSEY PUBLISHING COMPANY 471 who have since quit or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired or reinstated prior to the date of the election, and also ex- cluding employees on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement. to determine whether or not they desire to be represented by Hudson County Newspaper Guild, American Newspaper Guild, CIO, for the purposes of collective bargaining. MEMBER HOUSTON took no part in the consideration of the above Decision and Direction of Election.