A. H. Belo Corp.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Nov 10, 1972

200 N.L.R.B. 238 (N.L.R.B. 1972)

238 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
A. H. Belo Corporation ' and Dallas Mailers Union
#20, affiliated with International Typographical
Union, AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Case 16-RC-6039
November 10, 1972
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF
ELECTION
BY CHAIRMAN MILLER AND MEMBERS
FANNING AND PENELLO
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9(c) of the
National Labor Relations Act, as amended, a
hearing was held before Hearing Officer T. Lowry
Whittaker of the National Labor Relations Board.
Following the close of the hearing the Regional
Director for Region 16 transferred this case to the
Board for decision. Thereafter, the Employer and the
Petitioner filed briefs in support of their respective
positions.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the
Act, the 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 this proceeding, the
Board finds:
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within
the meaning of the Act, and it will effectuate the
purposes of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein.
2. The labor organization involved claims to
represent certain employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concern-
ing the representation of certain employees of the
Employer within the meaning of Section 9(c)(1) and
Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Employer publishes the Dallas Morning
News, and operates radio station WFAA and
television station WFAA-TV in Dallas, Texas. The
Petitioner seeks an election in a unit of all mailroom
employees of the Employer at its newspaper plant,
Dallas, Texas, including all regular part-time em-
ployees, but excluding office clerical employees,
irregular part-time employees, professional employ-
ees, guards, watchmen, and supervisors as defined in
the Act. The parties are in agreement that the
requested unit is appropriate with the exception of
the definition of regular part-time employees.
i The name of the Employer appears as amended at the hearing.
2 For the reasons stated herein , the Employer 's motion to dismiss is
denied as without merit.
3 The Employer also contends that in a prior proceeding involving its
mailroom employees there was no indication that any of the part-time
employees in the mailroom were excluded from the scope of the decision,
165 NLRB 22. In its decision , the Board found that Respondent Employer
violated Sec. 8(a)(1) of the Act by discharging and refusing to reinstate 68
mailroom employees who had engaged in protected concerted activity.
200 NLRB No. 39
At the hearing, the Employer moved to dismiss the
petition as amended on the ground, inter alia, that it
does not describe a unit that is appropriate because
of the reference to regular part-time employees in the
inclusion, and the reference to irregular part-time
employees in the exclusions.2 In its brief, the
Employer contends that either all part-time employ-
ees or none of them should be eligible for representa-
tion.3 In the alternative, the Employer contends that
the only fair alternative to the all or none approach
would be to use the broadest possible segment of
time and the lowest reasonable number of hours to
determine eligibility, so as to arrive at a formula that
would enfranchise as many part-time employees as
possible.
The Petitioner proposes the following eligibility
formula: (1) The employee must have worked in
more than 8 of 28 work periods indicated on the
Employer's computer printout list received in evi-
dence in this proceeding.4 (2) The employee must have
worked in excess of 134.7 hours in the 28 work
periods indicated therein. (3) The employee must
have done some work in each of 7 of the last 14 work
periods indicated therein. To be eligible, all these
standards would have to be satisfied.
The record shows that the mailroom receives the
newspapers from the pressroom, and that the
mailroom employees add material printed elsewhere,
package, bundle, and address the papers, and convey
them outside the mailroom ready to be picked up for
distribution or delivered to the post office for
mailing. The mailroom operates 7 days a week and is
under the supervision of a chief foreman and eight
assistant foremen. There are approximately 21
journeymen, 15 apprentices, a mechanic, a TV
machine operator, and a TV machine feeder who
work a 38-hour workweek. Working with these full-
time employees are part-time or so-called "extra"
employees who usually work 3 or 4 days per week.
As the papers are heavier on Thursday and Sunday
than on other days, there are approximately 18 part-
time employees employed on the Wednesday day
shift and 27-30 on the night shift. There are
approximately 90-100 part-time employees at peak
daytime production on Saturday and 30 on Saturday
night. If a part-time employee does not work on
Saturday, he is not eligible to work on Sunday,
Because material matters relating to a bargaining order, which would
include the appropriate unit, were neither alleged nor litigated in that
proceeding, the Board did not adopt the Trial Examiner's recommended
order that Respondent bargain upon request with "whatever bargaining
agent is designated as the exclusive representative of all the employees in the
appropriate unit in the mailing room ." Accordingly, the issue presented
herein was not before the Board in that proceeding and no inferences to the
contrary should be drawn from the Board's findings therein.
4 Employer's Exh. 10.
A. H. BELO CORPORATION 239
Monday, or Tuesday, which are the lightest work-
days.
Part-time employees take the papers from the
conveyor belt as they come from the pressroom into
the mailroom and stack them on skids, where they
remain until time to place them on another conveyor
to be fed into the stuffing machine which collates
preprinted materials and inserts with the various
parts of the paper. The papers are then bundled by
machmes and stacked by part-time employees as
they come off the conveyor. Next, they are transport-
ed outside the mailroom where they are picked up by
truckers for delivery. Papers to be mailed are
wrapped and labeled ready for delivery to the post
office.
Journeymen and apprentices usually perform the
machine operating duties, while part-time employees
do loading and unloading, feeding, and stacking
duties. Sometimes, however, journeymen and ap-
prentices perform the same kind of work as part-time
employees. Unlike full-time employees, part-time
employees are hired on a day-to-day basis and are
hourly paid. They have a scheduled starting time
only. When a part-time employee is hired, he fills out
a card which is retained as a resource for hiring
purposes. The normal practice is that part-time
employees already working are hired for the next
workweek by the foreman's asking them if they are
going to work, or to notify him if they are not.
Sometimes a notice is posted on the bulletin board
that there is going to be "extra" work.
Richard D. Blum, vice president of labor relations,
testified that part-time work is always available, that
part-time employees are considered for employment
until they say they no longer desire to be considered,
and, in hiring, some consideration is given to
regularity of their past employment.
The record shows that there is a high turnover
among part-time employees. High school and college
students are employed as part-time employees but
the parties agreed that their status as students made
no difference as to their eligibility to vote. The
parties agreed to the inclusion of certain regular part-
time employees because they share common vacation
benefits with full-time employees. If a part-time
employee works 1,000 hours a year, he receives a 1-
week vacation and if he works 2,000 hours, he earns
2 weeks' vacation. Full-time journeymen and appren-
tices receive 2 weeks' vacation after 1 year, or
approximately 2,000 hours of work. Part-time em-
ployees also have the same supervision and work
under the same conditions as full-time mailroom
employees.
5 We have used the 28-week period described above as a representative
base period for the purpose of measuring the average number of weeks and
hours to be worked by such part-time employees for them to qualify for
The Employer's computer printout data received in
evidence shows the weeks worked by part-time
mailroom employees, total weekly hours worked, and
total weekly wages from January 1, 1972, through
July 9, 1972. This data reveals that during this period
approximately 500 part-time employees did some
work for the Employer in the mailroom. The average
total number of hours worked by an employee was in
excess of 130, and some 150 worked more than 130
hours. The average number of weeks worked by an
employee was approximately 9 and some 180 worked
more than 9 weeks. The record also shows that the
average number of part-time employees ranges from
30 to 100 employees per day during the 3- or 4-day
workweek of part-time employees. Thus, the record
clearly demonstrates that, while the number and
identity of part-time mailroom employees fluctuates
from week to week, a substantial number of these
employees reported and worked fairly regularly over
a period of several months preceding the hearing
herein, and that a substantial number met or worked
in excess of the average time worked per employee
during the 28-week period used as a base for the
above computation.
Accordingly, we find that those part-time mail-
room employees who worked the average number of
hours and weeks during the 13-week period preceding
the payroll eligibility date set forth in the direction of
election herein have a substantial and continuing
interest in the terms and conditions of employment
of unit employees. In choosing an eligibility formula
based on a quarterly period rather than the 28 work
periods ending with July 9, 1972, as proposed by the
Petitioner, we find that the shorter, later period will
be more indicative of regularity as well as currency
of employment than the longer one urged by the
latter party. It will insure the qualification as eligible
voters of a more recent and representative comple-
ment of part-time mailroom employees in determin-
ing the representation question at hand. We find,
therefore, that those employees who worked in each
of 4 of the 13 workweeks preceding the payroll
eligibility date set forth in the direction of election
herein and who worked a total of at least 60 hours
during that period have sufficient community of
interest with full-time mailroom employees to be
included in the same unit .5 We further find that such
eligibility requirements encompass the Employer's
alternate proposal that the method used to determine
eligibility be based on the broadest possible segment
of time and the lowest reasonable number of hours,
and that this formula will reasonably insure that all
part-time mailroom employees having a community
voting eligibility . The weekly and hourly standards set forth in our formula
were arrived at by proportionally reducing the approximate averages
computed therein to a quarterly period (13 weeks).
240 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
of interest with full-time employees will be afforded
representation.
We conclude, therefore, that part-time mailroom
employees who worked in each of 4 of the 13
workweeks preceding the payroll eligibility date set
forth in the direction of election herein and who
worked at least 60 hours during that period have a
substantial and continuing interest in their terms and
conditions of employment and we shall include them
in the unit .6
[Direction of Election and Excelsior footnote
omitted from publication.]
6 Cf. The Suburban Newspaper Group-Moorestown News, Inc, 195
NLRB No. 87.