Greensboro News Co., Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jul 7, 1949

85 N.L.R.B. 54 (N.L.R.B. 1949)

In the Matter of GREENSBORO NEWS COMPANY, INC.,' EMPLOYER and
AMERICAN NEWSPAPER GUILD, C. I. 0., PETITIONER
Case No. 34-RC-130.-Decided July 7,1949
DECISION
AND
DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before John J.
A. Reynolds, Jr., hearing officer of the National Labor Relations
Board. 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 Gray].
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 named below claims to represent certain
employees of the Employer.
3. A question affecting commerce exists concerning the representa-
tion of certain employees of the Employer, within the meaning of Sec-
tion 9 (c) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Petitioner publishes two newspapers at Greensboro, North
Carolina, the Greensboro Daily News, herein called the News, and the
Greensboro Record, herein called the Record. The parties generally
agree that employees in the news and editorial departments of the
News and the Record, including bureau correspondents working regu-
larly in Asheboro, Reidsville, High Point, Lexington, and Raleigh 2
North Carolina, and in Washington, D. C., but excluding inactive em-
ployees 3 and free lance reporters or "stringers," and confidential em-
ployees, managerial employees, and supervisors,4 constitute an appro-
' The Employer 's name appears as amended at the hearing.
2 The parties stipulated that the position of Raleigh correspondent would be regarded
as being included in the unit, but that William T. Bost, presently functioning as Raleigh
correspondent , should be excluded from the unit on the ground that he is an editor or an
associate editor.
' The parties stipulated that W. A. Hilderbrand , assigned to the Employer 's Washington.
bureau, and James N. Benton , classified by the Employer as a reporter for the Record,
should be excluded from the unit because of their inactive status, but that, should they
return to work or successors be appointed , they or their successors would be regarded as
being included in the unit.
• The parties are in agreement as to the exclusion of the following : general manager,
.business manager, executive news editor, editor of the News, editor of the Record, and their
85 N. L. R. B., No. 11.
54
GREENSBORO NEWS COMPANY, INC. 55
priate unit. The parties disagree with respect to the status of the
sports editor of the Record, the State editor of the News, the head of
the News copy desk, and the Sunday editor of the News.
1. The sports editor of the Record. The Employer would exclude
the sports editor of the Record as a supervisor .5
The sports editor of the Record is in charge of the sports page of
that newspaper. He assigns the coverage of specific events either
to himself or to his one assistant, whose written articles he may change.
This assistant formerly worked in the sports department of the News
and was transferred to the sports department of the Record by the
Employer's business manager without consulting the sports editor of
the latter newspaper. The sports editor of the Record does not have
the power to hire or discharge; nor is there any showing that he may
effectively recommend hiring or discharge or responsibly direct or
discipline the assistant. When his assistant received an increase in
salary, his first knowledge of that fact came to him after the event,
when he was informed of the increase by the assistant himself. The
sports editor of the Record has no authority with. respect to his
assistant's expense account, which, like his own, is submitted for ap-
proval to the managing editor of the Record. It would seem that the
sports editor of the Record, unlike the sports editor of the News,6 is not.
supervisory in the sense of handling personnel problems.
Under these circumstances we are of-the opinion that the record does
not substantiate the Employer's contention that the sports editor of the
Record is a supervisor as defined in the Act.7 We shall therefore in-
clude him in the unit hereinafter found appropriate.
2. The State editor of the News. The Employer would exclude the
State editor of the News as a supervisor.
The State editor of the News, who is charged with the responsibility
of effecting coverage of the State of North Carolina, excluding Greens-
boro, receives, evaluates, corrects, and accepts or rejects news items
submitted by the Employer's regular bureau correspondents and by
its free lance reporters, or "stringers." s The managing editor of the
confidential secretaries ; managing editor of the News, managing editor of the Record„ city
editor of the News, city editor of the Record, sports editor of the News, society editor of
the News and Record, associate editor of the News, and part-time contributing editor.
8 When, for a period during the late war, the Employer combined the staffs of both news-
papers, general over-all supervision with respect to both sports departments was exercised,
not by the sports editor of the Record, but by the sports editor of the News, whom the
parties agree to exclude as a supervisor.
9 The record affirmatively shows that the sports editor of the News, who has three as-
sistants, has the power to hire, discharge, and approve the expense accounts of his
assistants.
7 Matter of Delaware Broadcasting Company, 82 N. L. R. B. 727; Matter of Marshall
Field, doing business as The Chicago Sun, 46 N. L. R. B. 1335.
8 The Employer concedes, and we find, that it has no control over these free lance re-
porters or "stringers," and that these persons are not "employees" of the Employer within
the meaning of the Act. Cf. Matter of The Register & Tribune Company, 73 N. L. R. B. 728.
`56 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
News hires, discharges, transfers, and gives salary increases to the
Employer's regular bureau correspondents; in fact, the State editor is
not consulted about these personnel actions either before or after the
event. The State editor has one office assistant, who testified that, if
she sought a change in employment status, she would apply directly
to the managing editor. Under all these circumstances, we find, con-
trary to the Employer's contention, that the State editor of the News
is not a supervisor as defined in the Act.9 We shall therefore include
him in the unit.
3. The head of the News copy desk. The head of the News copy
desk, according to the Employer, is charged with the. general respon-
sibility of seeing that the work of the copy desk is properly done. The
horseshoe copy desk is operated by approximately seven persons : the
head of the desk, slot men, and rim men. The head of the desk receives,
evaluates, and selects all copy; designates the "head" by type size and
page; and then passes on his completed work to the slot men, who, in
turn, pass the work to the rim men for editing; the rim men return the
work to the slot men who, after checking and further editing, finally
send it to the composing room. The head of the News copy desk does
not have authority to hire, discharge, discipline, or transfer em-
ployees, or to assign vacation periods,10 he does not know the salaries
received by the other workers at the copy desk, he has never been con-
sulted about salary increases for such employees, and his voluntary
suggestions have been rejected. He has never assisted at the interview-
ing or hiring of new employees. The record does not substantiate the
Employer's contention that the head of the News copy desk is a super-
visor within the meaning of the Act."' We shall therefore include him
in the unit.
4. The Sunday editor of the News. The Employer contends that
the Sunday editor of the News has few interests in common with other
editors, and should therefore be excluded from the unit.
The Sunday editor of the' News, though he supervises no employees,
is in charge of the general make-up of the feature and "State" social
sections of the Sunday edition of the News, and of certain special pages,
such as the farm page and the builders' page for the same edition.'2
He conforms to no prescribed work schedule, and has greater indepen-
011latter of Standard Oil Company of California , 79 N. L. It. B. 1466.
10 The ultimate authority in all of these matters is reserved to the managing editor of
the News , who also supervises the head of the copy desk.
71 Cf. Matter of Dortch Stove Works, Inc., 79 N . L. It. B. 1258 ; Matter of United States
Gypsum Company, 79 N. L. It. B. 536.
12 Local social news, sports items, and general news are gathered by others , and the
Sunday editor of the News has nothing to do with the acceptance or rejection of this
material.
GREENSBORO NEWS COMPANY, INC. 57
dente of action than other editorial employees. His work, however, is
comparable to that of the other editorial workers ; he is paid on an
hourly basis, as are all such employees, and he serves under the super-
vision of a managing editor who also supervises the work of the other
employees in the news and editorial departments of the News.
In view of the foregoing, we are of the opinion that the interests
of the Sunday editor of the News are similar to those of other em-
ployees in the unit, and we shall accordingly include him in the unit 13
We therefore find that all employees in the news and editorial de-
partments of the Employer's Greensboro Daily News and Greensboro
Record, including bureau correspondents working regularly in Ashe-
boro, Reidsville, High Point, Lexington, and Raleigh, North Carolina,
and in Washington, D. C., and including the sports editor of the Rec-
ord, the State editor of the News, the head of the News copy desk,
and the' Sunday editor of the News, but excluding inactive employees
and free lance reporters or "stringers," and confidential employees,
managerial employees, and supervisors,'4 constitute a unit appropriate
for the purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning of Sec-
tion 9 (b) of the Act.
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 the Direction, under the direction and super-
vision 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-Series 5, as amended, 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 vacation 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 exclud-,
ing employees on strike who are not entitled to reinstatement, to deter-
mine whether or not they desire to be represented by American News-
paper Guild, C. I. 0., for the purposes of collective bargaining.
13 Matter of Joseph R. Osherenko and The Californian Magazine, Inc., 73 N . L. R. B.
670; Matter of Hudson Dispatch , 68 N. L. R. B. 115.
14 All those persons set forth in footnote 4, above.