Home News Publishing Co.

HOME NEWS PUBLISHING CO. 833 HOME NEWS PUBLISHING Co. and ELIZABETH NEWSPAPER GUILD, LOCAL 173 AMERICAN NEWSPAPER GUILD, CIO. Case No. 4-RC-2386. August 13,1954 Decision and Direction of Election Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Wm. Draper Lewis, Jr., 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 this case, the Board finds : 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act. 2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain em- ployees of the Employer. 3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa- tion of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act. 4. The Petitioner seeks to add the following employees to a unit of editorial department employees which it now represents : Business office, advertising, circulation, and mail and distribution department employees. Together these employees constitute all the nonmechani- cal employees employed by the Employer. The Employer contends that only separate departmental units of these employees are appro- priate for the purposes of collective bargaining. The Employer is engaged in the printing, publication, sale, and dis- tribution of a daily newspaper. All of its operations are carried on in or out of two buildings physically separated only by a small vacant lot. Except for the mail and distribution employees all of the em- ployees sought by the Petitioner perform their services in one of these buildings. Although located in separate buildings the mail and dis- tribution employees and the circulation employees work under the supervision of the circulation manager. Further, the record reveals that there has been some interchange of employees between the circulation and mail and distribution departments, the editorial and advertising departments, and the advertisement and business departments. The Petitioner has represented the editorial department employees under successive collective-bargaining agreements since 1942. There is no history of collective bargaining for the employees currently sought by the Petitioner and no other union now seeks to represent them. All mechanical employees are and have been represented for a number of years by various craft unions. 109 NLRB No. 121. 834 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD The Board has held that the optimum unit in the newspaper indus- try is one comprising employees in all nonmechanical departments.' The Board has so held because of the close relationship and coopera- tion ordinarily necessary among these departments for the operations of a newspaper. In the instant case we find no adequate reason to sup- port the Employer's position that only separate departmental units are appropriate. Mail and distribution employees: The Employer argues that the mail and distribution employees are mechanical employees and for that reason should not be included within a unit of nonmechanical employees. The Employer appears to base this contention on the fact that these employees operate a newspaper bundling machine in the course of their work. The record shows, however, that they per- form those duties customarily required of mail and distribution em- ployees in the industry. They are responsible for preparing lists of collections for submission to the accounting office and for depositing collections in the local bank. Accordingly, we find that they properly belong within the unit of nonmechanical employees. In view of the above facts, we shall direct an election among the following employees : All employees employed in the Employer's business office, advertising department, circulation department, and mail and distribution department, excluding all other employees, guards, professional employees, and all supervisors as defined in the Act. If a majority of the employees vote for the Petitioner they will be taken to have indicated their desire to be part of a single unit together with the editorial department employees and the Petitioner may bar- gain for them as part of such unit. The Regional Director conduct- ing the election herein is instructed to issue a certificate of the result of election to such effect. [Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.] MEMBERS PETERSON and RODGERS took no part in the consideration of the above Decision and Direction of Election. 1 See Chicago Daily News, 98 NLRB 1235; The Item Company, 108 NLRB 1261. AMERICAN FACTORS, LIMITED and HAWAII TEAMSTERS & ALLIED WORK- ERS, LOCAL 996, AFL, PETITIONER. Case No. 37-RLCi-0228. August 16,195.E Decision and Direction of Election Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National La- bor Relations Act, a hearing was held before A. L. Wills, hearing offi- 109 NLRB No. 119.