St. Louis Post- Dispatch

316 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD Pulitzer Publishing Company , d/b/a St. Louis Post- Dispatch ' and Service Employees' Union Local No. 50, News Carriers Division, affiliated with Service Employees' International Union, AFL-CIO, CLC,2 Petitioner. Case 14-RC-7090 August 7, 1973 DECISION AND ORDER BY CHAIRMAN MILLER AND MEMBERS JENKINS AND KENNEDY Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a hearing was held on various dates from January 22 through March 1, 1973, before Hearing Officer Peter J. Salm. Following the hearing and pursuant to Section 102.67 of the National Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations and Statements of Procedure, Series 8, as amended, and by direction of the Regional Director for Region 14, this case was transferred to the Nation- al Labor Relations Board for decision. Thereafter, the Employer and Petitioner filed briefs. Subsequently, the Employer filed a reply brief. Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the Na- tional Labor Relations Board has delegated its au- thority in this proceeding to a three-member panel. The Board has reviewed the Hearing Officer's rul- ings made at the hearing and finds no prejudicial error was commited. The rulings are hereby affirmed. Upon the entire record in this case, including the briefs of the parties, the Board finds: 1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of the Act, and it will effectuate the policies of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein. 2. The labor organization involved claims to repre- sent certain employees of the Employer. 3. No question affecting commerce exists concern- ing the representation of employees of the Employer within the meaning of Sections 9(c)(1) and 2(6) and (7) of the Act, for the following reasons: The Pulitzer Publishing Company is a Missouri cor- poration with its principal office and place of business in St. Louis, Missouri, where it is engaged in the publi- cation and general distribution of daily and Sunday editions of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper. The Petitioner seeks to represent a unit of adult and suburban "A" type, home delivery news carriers who are engaged principally in the delivery of the Employer's newspapers to subscribers in St. Louis The Employer's name appears as amended at the hearing 2 The Petitioner's name appears as amended at the hearing and certain Missouri and Illinois counties surround- ing St. Louis. The Employer contends, inter alga, that the carriers are independent contractors, rather than employees within the meaning of Section 2(3) of the Act, and that the petition should therefore be dis- missed. In 1964, the Board affirmed a Decision and Order of the Regional Director finding that the carriers whom Petitioner now seeks to represent were inde- pendent contractors and dismissed a representation petition by another labor organization which sought to represent them.3 The Regional Director concluded at 305: [T]he Publisher's only retention of control is in the area of the initial establishment of the rela- tionship between itself and the carrier and in the determination of the contents of its delivered newspaper, and the frequency of its delivery. The method of delivery is established by the carrier, and all matters incident thereto with which the Publisher comes in contact are immediately re- layed to the carrier without comment or recom- mendation. We have carefully analyzed the entire record in the instant proceeding and we find that the relationship between the Employer and the carriers in question is substantially the same as it existed in 1964.4 Thus, as in the prior case, the record shows that the only control exercised by the Employer occurs when a carrier assumes ownership of a route. At that time he is interviewed by the Employer to determine such things as his credit rating, his background, and his knowledge of the area wherein his route is located. The Employer determines the content of the newspa- per and the number of editions to be printed. Any control ends when the papers are placed onto trucks owned by another independent contractor for deliv- ery to the carriers at remote points in and about the City of St. Louis. The carriers undertake to distribute the newspapers themselves and they alone determine the manner and means by which delivery is accom- plished. The Employer is concerned only with the desired result, i.e., the sale of the newspaper to home 3 The Pulitzer Publishing Company, 146 NLRB 302 4 Some minor changes have occurred in the interim , none of which either singly or cumulatively will support a finding that carriers are employees within the meaning of the Act Thus the Employer ( 1) no longer furnishes wax wrapping paper to carriers free of charge, (2) did make some changes with respect to circulation of its newspaper as a result of new production techniques and related schedule limitations when the Employer eliminated the "city edition" from publication, and (3) employed one carrier contact man in 1964 whereas at the time of the hearing herein four contact men were employed who, as in 1964, serve as liaison between the carriers and the Employer for the primary purpose of assisting and advising the carriers respecting the most efficient and profitable operation of their routes 205 NLRB No. 60 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH 317 subscribers. We find, therefore, that the status of the to dismiss the petition. carriers in question has not changed since 1964 and we reaffirm our finding that they are independent ORDER contractors. Accordingly, we shall grant the Employer's motion It is hereby ordered that the petition filed herein be, and it hereby is, dismissed.