Chicago Journal of Commerce, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 29, 1949

85 N.L.R.B. 482 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of CHICAGO JOURNAL OF COMMERCE, INC., EMPLOYER
and CHICAGO NEWSPAPER GUILD-LOCAL 71, PETITIONER
Case No. 13-RC-636.-Decided July 29, 1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Karl W. Filter,
hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing
are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.'
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3 (b) of the National Labor
Relations Act, the Board has delegated its powers in connection with
this case to a three-member panel [Chairman Herzog and Members
Houston and Murdock].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the National Labor Relations Act.
2. The labor organization involved claims to represent certain
employees 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 appropriate unit:
The parties stipulated that the appropriate bargaining unit con-
sists of all the employees of the Employer's editorial and news de-
partment at its plant in Chicago, Illinois, including the transporta-
tion editor, the commodities editor, and the oil editor, but excluding
the news editor, the assistant news editor, the managing editor, the
assistant managing editor, and all other supervisors.'
The employees of the Employer's composing room have been on
strike since November 24, 1947, and, at the time of the hearing, were
still on strike. The Employer's newspaper has been published since
'At the bearing and in its brief, the Employer moved to postpone the date of any elec-
tion which might be directed herein until after the termination of a strike being conducted
by its composing room employees . For the reasons hereinafter set forth, the Employer's
motion is denied.
2 This unit is substantially the same as that found appropriate in Matter of Chicago
Journal of Commerce, hzc., 73 N. L. R. B. 1213.
85 N. L. R. B., No. 80.
482
CHICAGO JOURNAL OF COMMERCE, INC. 483
the strike by means of a substitute method of production, known as
the varitype process, in place of the linotype operation customarily
used in publishing newspapers. In the varitype process, copy is typed
in columns on a varityper, a "justifying" typewriter which adjusts the
right-hand margin of a typed column to a straight line, and which is
equipped with type closely resembling print. Before copy is sent to
the varitype operators, it must be pretyped, that is, prepared for vari-
typing by arrangement in a 30-space line. After varityping, the copy
is pasted into an exact dummy, the headlines are set by hand and
pasted on the dummy and the dummy is then photoengraved. The
newspaper is printed from the photoengraved plates.
The employer has 8 varitype operators whom the parties have agreed
to exclude from the unit. The parties are in dispute, however, with
respect to the typists, the pasters aiid head setters, and the copy boys,
vw ho, the Employer claims; are employed only because of the strike in
the composing room. There are 8 to 10 typists engaged in pretyping,
some of whom were engaged in different work for the Employer before
the strike. Work on the dummy is performed by the pasters and head
setters, who constitute the make-up department.3 Most of the em-
ployees now engaged in pasting and head setting have been shifted to
this work from their regular duties in the editorial department, and
some • continue to perform their editorial department functions in
addition to pasting and head setting. Due to the additional movement
of copy in the pretyping process, one additional copy boy has been
employed by the Employer.
The Employer contends that the termination of the strike and
the return to normal operating conditions will affect the employment
of some of the typists, pasters and head setters, and copy boys. In view
of the indefiniteness of the termination of the composing room strike,
which has been going on since November 1947, we shall include all the
typists, pasters and head setters, and copy boys in the editorial depart-
ment unit hereinafter found appropriate.
We find that all the employees of the Employer's editorial and news
department at its plant in Chicago, Illinois, including the transporta-
tion editor, the commodities editor, the oil editor, typists, pasters and
head setters, and copy boys, but excluding varitype operators, the
news editor, the assistant news editor, the managing editor, the assist-
ant managing editor, and all other supervisors, constitute a unit ap-
propriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning
of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
'The make-up department is properly part Of an editorial and news department unit.
See Matter of A. S. Abell Company, 81 N. L. It. B. 82.
857829-50-vol. 85-32
484 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
5. The determination of representatives :
The Employer made a motion that any election which might be
directed herein should be deferred until 60 days after the settlement
of the Employer's differences with the composing room employees.
The hearing officer referred this motion to the Board. The strike has
continued for well over 18 months, and the record contains no indica-
tion as to when the strike will end. We shall under these circum-
stances not deprive the employees in the unit herein found appropriate
of the benefits of the Act during the indefinite period that the strike
may continue, but shall adhere to our usual practice of directing an
immediate election. The Employer's motion is therefore denied.
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
As part of the investigation to ascertain representatives for the
purposes of collective bargaining with the Employer, an election by
secret ballot shall be conducted as early as possible, but not later
than 30 days from the date of this Direction, under the direction and
supervision of the Regional Director for the Region in which this
case was heard, and subject to Sections 203.61 and 203.62 of National
Labor Relations Board Rules and Regulations, among the employees
in the unit found appropriate in paragraph numbered 4, above, who
were employed during the pay-roll period immediately preceding the
date of this Direction of Election, including employees who did not
work during said pay-roll period because they were ill or on vaca-
tion or temporarily laid off; but excluding those employees who have
since quit or been discharged for cause and have not been rehired
or reinstated prior to the date of the election, and also excluding
employees on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to deter-
mine whether or not they desire to be represented, for purposes of
collective bargaining, by Chicago Newspaper Guild-Local 71.