Paramount Pictures, Inc.

In the Matter Of PARAMOUNT PICTURES , INC , and SCREEN READERS i GUILD OF NEW YORK In the -Mattel of TWENTIETH CENTURY Fox FILM CORP , and SCREEN READERS GUILD OF NEW YORK In the Mattel of R K O. RADIO PICTURES, INC , and SCREEN READERS GUILD OF NEW YORK In the Matter Of UNIVERSAL PICTURES CO, INC , and SCREEN READERS GUILD OF NEW YORK In the Matter of COLUMBIA PICTURES CORP. and SCREEN READERS GUILD OF NEW YORK In the Matter of LoEw's, INC and SCREEN READERS GUILD OF NEW YORK Cases Nos R-250 to R-.557, inclusive, respectively SUPPLEMENTAL DECISION AND ORDER July 9, 194 On July 15, 1941, the National Laboi Relations Board issued a Decision and Direction of Elections in the above-entitled pioceedings 1 On September 17, 1941, the Board issued a Certification of Repiesent- atives 2 On December 22, 1941, counsel for Screen Readers Guild of New York, herein called the Guild, the labor organization certified as exclusive repiesentative of the employees in the units found ap- piopriate heiein, notified the Board that the Guild had affiliated with Screen Office & Professional Employees Guild, Local 109, affiliated with the United Office & Professional Employees Woikers of Amei- ica, C I O, herein called the C I 0., and iequested that the Boaid substitute the name of the C I 0 for the name of the Guild in its Certification of Representatives On Januaiy 3, 1942, the Board issued a notice, duly served on the paities, stating that it would amend the Certification of Representatives unless sufficient cause to the contrary was presented. Thereafter, one of the Companies in- 133 N L R B 447 z 35 N L R B 464 42NLR B,No50 221 222 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD volved contested the proposed amendment On March 12 , 1942, the Board issued an order reopening the record and authorized the Re- gional Director for the Second Region (New Yoik City) to issue a notice of supplemental hearing Thereafter, a hearing was held on April 20 and 21, 1942 , at New York City, before Fiederick Living- stone, Trial Examiner . All parties appeared , participated , and 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 piejudicial error and are hereby affirmed. Upon the entire record in the case, the Board makes the following. SUPPLEMENTAL FINDINGS OF FACT In its Decision and Direction of Elections of July 15, 1941, the Board found that the inside readers of each of the Companies in- volved constituted an appropriate unit The Board held that the outside readers employed by the Companies were not employees within the meaning of the Act and excluded them from the units On July 18, 1941, the Guild held a meeting attended by 32 of its 40 members in good standing Eighteen of the persons present were outside readers and 14 were inside readers within the marts found appropriate by the Board The Guild held this meeting to decide what to do in view of the fact that the Board excluded out- side readers from the units The persons attending the meeting voted unanimously for a resolution, the sense of which was to affiliate with the C I O, subject to ratification by a majority of the membership 3 On August 6, 1941, the elections were conducted as directed by the Board Nineteen inside readers were eligible to vote and voted for the Guild 4 - On September 19, 1941, the C I 0 held a meeting attended by 20 persons All members present were also members of the Guild Nineteen of those present, of whom 8 were outside readers and 11 inside readers, voted to deed all property of the Guild to the C I O. i The resolution reads as follons Finally, the question of affiliation with the UOPWA-CIO vas iaised as the only really practical solution of the problem of the Guild in the face of the NLRB decision After full discussion a motion was made that the Screen Readers Guild recommend to the screen Guild Council that one or more member guilds of the Council investi- gate the possibilities of obtaining a charter from the UOPWA-CIO for a Motion Picture Local, and that if such a local be set up, that the Screen Readers Guild affili- ate with it, subset only to ratification of the charter by a ni Jority vote of the 'membership of the Readers Guild This MOTION was passed unanimously The record is barren of any evidence of ratification by the membership of the Guild except as may be inferred tiom the evidence of the September 19 meeting of the C I 0, discussed below, and from the members' designation of the C 1 o , discussed below - There are three employees in the appropriate unit at Paramount , five it twentieth Century , two at R K 0, two at Universal , two at Columbia and five at Loew s PARAMOUNT PICTURES, INC. 223 At the further hearing, the C I. O. presented 57 membership application cards, 41 of which bore apparently genuine signatures of former members of the Guild 6 The Companies contend that the Board should give no effect to the alleged affiliation of the Guild with the C. I 0 unless it be shown that a majority of the inside readers in each unit voted to affiliate. Although the record indicates that the members of the Guild voted to affiliate with the C I 0 in a body, and that 14 of the 19 inside readers participated in the move, theie is no evidence as to the participation of a majority in any one of the 6 appropriate units In- asmuch as the certification of the Guild has been in effect for almost a year, and to allay any doubt on the part of any of the Companies as to the bargaining repiesentative of its employees, we shall deny the motion to amend without piejudice to the filing of new petitions for investigation and certification of *repiesentatives of employees of the Companies - ORDER IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the motion for amendment of our Certifi- cation of Representatives in this proceeding, be, and it hereby is, denied 6 The C I 0 appeared at the further healing by the same attorney as appeared originally for the Guild The statement in the text constitutes the Trial Examiners oral statement on the record on a check made by him of C I 0 application cards against a membership roster of the Guild