National Broadcasting Co., Inc.

396 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD National Broadcasting Company, Inc. and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, Cleve- land Local National Broadcasting Company, Inc. and National Association of Broadcast Employees and Techni- cians, Local No. 42, AFL-CIO-CLC. Cases 8-RC-8476 and 8-RC-8495 March 14, 1973 DECISION, ORDER, AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION BY CHAIRMAN MILLER AND MEMBERS FANNING AND JENKINS Upon separate petitions duly filed under Section 9(c) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a consolidated hearing was held before Hearing Officer Marc J. Bloch.' Following the hearing and pursuant to Section 102.67 of the National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regula- tions and Statements of Procedure, Series 8, as amended, these cases were transferred to the Nation- al Labor Relations Board for decision. The Employ- er2 filed a brief, and the Petitioners filed a joint brief. Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the National Labor Relations Board has ,delegated its authority in this proceeding to a three-member panel. The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's rulings made at the hearing and finds that they are free from prejudicial error. They are hereby affirmed. Upon the entire record in these cases, the National Labor Relations Board finds: 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act, and it will effectuate the purposes and policies of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein. 2. The Petitioners are labor organizations claim- ing to represent certain employees of the Employer. 3. Questions affecting commerce exist concerning the representation of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Sections 9(c)(1) and 2(6) and (7) of the Act. 4. The Employer is the owner and operator of Television Station WKYC-TV, in Cleveland, Ohio. According to the Employer, the basic operations of the station, each with several subdivisions,3 are as follows: program, sales, advertising and promotion, technical or engineering, editorial, news, and busi- ness. Case 8-RC-8476 The news operation, with which Case 8-RC-8476 is solely concerned, comprises a newsroom with 54 employees, including 27 newsmen represented by American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, Cleveland Local, herein called AFTRA; 23 news film men represented by IATSE,4 not involved in this proceeding, and 4 unrepresented desk assist- ants, of whom 2 are full-time employees and 2 are part-time employees. The newsmen, including an assignment editor, news producers, and newscasters, gather, assemble, write, and deliver news over the air. AFTRA currently seeks to add the four newsroom desk assistants to its unit on the ground that they are the only unrepresented employees in the newsroom. The Employer contends that the desk assistants, whom it also calls news clerks, are essentially a part of its unrepresented office force, claimed to number some 34 employees, other than those involved in this proceeding, including 17 secretaries, 7 billing clerks, 4 telephone operators, 3 sales service assistants, I accounts payable clerk, 1 mail clerk, and 1 offset operator; and that, as AFTRA thus seeks to represent but an arbitrary segment of the office clerical group, its unit request is based solely on the extent of its organization of those employees and its petition should, therefore, be dismissed. In June 1965, the Employer commenced hiring desk assistants, who since that time have engaged in the following routine newsroom functions previously handled by the newsmen, in addition to their regular duties: supplying and pulling copy from teletype news machines, buying and distributing morning newspapers to newsmen, distributing mail in the newsroom, preparing and running copies of assign- ment sheets, monitoring and checking out police, fire, and other emergency radio calls for possible news stories; handling routine sports news items, such as scores, preparing and distributing fact sheets, carrying audio cartridges and film headlines to other departments, shipping and receiving tapes, routinely assisting in election coverage, and running errands, which include the delivery of company cars to garages for repairs and picking them up thereafter and obtaining airline tickets for management person- nel. On weekday nights, and especially on weekend overnight shifts, including Saturdays and Sundays, the desk assistants have increased responsibilities, due to fewer reporters on duty and, at times, the complete absence of reporters and producers during I The hearing was held on February 18 and 25, March 1, 2, 3, 9, 10, 20, or subdivision thereof, or whether either can strictly be called departments, 22, 23, 24, and April 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 25, 1972 The cases were consolidated a resolution of those questions is not deemed essential to a resolution of the for purposes of hearing on April 5, 1972 unit issues herein 2 The Employer's name appears as amended at the hearing. 4 International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving 3 Although the parties disagree as to what constitutes a basic operation Picture Machine Operators of the United States and Canada, AFL-CIO. 202 NLRB No. 77 NATIONAL BROADCASTING COMPANY such periods. Thus on Saturday and Sunday night shifts, the desk assistant may be the only one in the newsroom, and on such occasions he is responsible for monitoring fast-breaking news stories, both within the local area and within a four-state area for which the newsroom alone is functioning at that time, and for reporting the same to his supervisor. The supervisor, in turn, may instruct him to order a newsroom crew to the scene of a news story, if he feels that the story is sufficiently newsworthy. Desk assistants are required merely to have a high school diploma, whereas the other members of the news teams require a degree in journalism or some other type of professional or technical expertise. Desk assistants are the lowest paid employees in the newsroom, do not interchange with employees in other departments, and perform work only for the newsroom. They have no substantial regular contacts or a direct community of interest with the office clerical employees, which include employees outside the newsroom in sales service, accounts payable and receivable, payroll, billing, general services, the telephone and receptionist area, and the secretarial staff. In the above circumstances, and in view of evidence indicating that the desk assistants spend their time performing newsroom work, act as an integral part of the newsroom, and are the only eligible unrepresented employees in the newsroom, we find that they constitute an appropriate residual group eligible for inclusion in the existing AFTRA unit, if they so desire. Accordingly, we shall direct that an election be conducted among the employees classified as desk assistants or desk clerks in the Employer's newsroom, excluding all other employees and supervisors as defined in the Act. If a majority of these employees select AFTRA as their bargaining representative, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to be included in the newsroom unit of newsmen currently represented by AFTRA. If, on the other hand, a majority of these employees vote against AFTRA, they will be taken to have indicated their desire to remain unrepresented.5 Case 8-RC-8495 The program operation division with which Case 8-RC-8495 is concerned comprises approximately 50 employees in the following agreed-upon subdivi- sions: traffic and compliance, production, and public affairs. IATSE currently represents the film editor and approximately seven cameramen in public affairs. 5 In view of our disposition of this case , we deem it unnecessary to consider AFTRA's alternative unit request for a separate unit of desk 397 National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, Local No. 42, AFL-CIO-CLC, herein called NABET, seeks a unit of the traffic and compliance employees alone, numbering five individ- uals. Alternatively, NABET seeks what it describes as a residual unit of the 16 unrepresented employees in the programing operation, including the 5 traffic employees, 4 art employees in production, 2 associate directors in public affairs department, and 5 secretar- ies attached to the program operation. The Employer contends that the employees sought by NABET are essentially office clerical employees and that, as NABET thus seeks but an arbitrary segment of the total unrepresented office clerical force, the request- ed units are inappropriate and the petition should be dismissed. As to NABET's primary request for a unit of traffic employees, the traffic and compliance subdivision is, as noted above, but a segment of the program operation. Traffic employees are responsible for compiling and updating of the FCC, or Federal Communications Commission, log to comply with its rules for the proper running of the Employer's television station. This log is also used by the Employer for billing customers and for showing daily scheduling of commercial promotions and public service announcements. The traffic and compliance employees' work requires frequent communication with employees in the following operations and their subdivisions: sales service, sales, billing, public affairs, and promotion. Each of the foregoing operations has a copy of the log for its own use, and the various clerks and secretaries in each maintain a daily dialogue with clerks in traffic over various aspects of the log. Of the five traffic and compliance employees, three are senior traffic clerks, of whom two work at a TV operations desk and one in receiving and screening commercials. The other employees include a traffic copy and program scheduling clerk and a typist. The two senior TV traffic and compliance clerks who work at the TV operations desk receive information regarding the scheduling of commercials from outside agencies or from the sales division and receive public affairs and public services announce- ments and station promotions from their respective departments. They schedule all commercials telecast by WKYC-TV in accordance with the agency or sales department instructions, pull commercials for rough logs and schedules for time period books and check them for proper time slotting, indicate unsold time, and inform the program and public affairs departments and the sales service department of unsold time so as to permit those departments to use assistants 398 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD some of their unsold time. In scheduling, they indicate the tape, film, and announcer information on the log, maintain files of the national commercial television spots, and file telex wire information. They proofread the log, both before and after the final copy is run off. They receive and sort mail from clients regarding inquiries on tapes, films, slides, and copy, prepare, and update clients' files in that regard. They receive and screen commercial materials for compliance with commercial standards; and they time films, tapes, and copies with the help of a reeditor or an engineer, and record the time. The traffic copy and program scheduling clerk compiles the copy work for logs' and programs, updates program information and sales availabilities on the operating log, while in preparation and in use, adjusts station breaks in accord with program changes, keeps files of official logs and discrepancy reports in the log compiled by the engineers, sorts and delivers telex wires to their destinations, and sees to the signing of the timesheets by the traffic employees. The typist types the rough log and the final log on the master ditto forms and runs off the log on the ditto machine. Traffic and compliance, as noted above, is a segment of the larger program operation headed by the program manager, under whom are the manager of traffic and compliance, the production manager, and the public affairs director. The manager of traffic and compliance, whose jurisdiction is alone involved in Case 8-RC-8495, has two immediate supervisors working under him: the program admin- istrator coordinator and the supervisor of film reeditors. As to the appropriateness of the NABET unit requests, we find it unnecessary to consider the Employer's contention that they are inappropriate because the employees in issue constitute but a segment of its unrepresented office clerical force, as in our opinion the units are not appropriate on other grounds. With regard to the first unit request, namely for a unit of the traffic and compliance employees alone, traffic and compliance is, as noted above, but a subdivision of the larger program operation. Furthermore, all of the subdivisions of program are primarily concerned with the common goal of creating and maintaining the station's program. Indeed, it is this attribute which distinguishes the program operation and its segments from the Employer's other operations. In these circumstances, including the close community of interest, conceded by NABET, between the traffic and compliance employees and those in the other segments of program, we find inappropriate NABET's primarily requested unit of traffic and compliance employees alone, inasmuch as it comprises but a segment of the employees performing the same or similar work. As to the alternative NABET request for a residual unit of the traffic and compliance employees, together with all other unrepresented employees in the program operation, we find the request without merit, as it does not include other groups, such as sales service and billing employees, who perform work which is closely coordinated with that of the traffic and compliance employees. In these circum- stances, and absent cogent evidence that this group has any special community of interest, in and of itself, we find the alternative unit requested by NABET inappropriate. Accordingly, we shall order that the petition in Case 8-RC-8495 be dismissed. ORDER It is hereby ordered that the petition in Case 8-RC-8495 be, and the same hereby is, dismissed. [Direction of Election and Excelsior footnote omitted from publication.]