Press, Inc.

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Oct 30, 1950

91 N.L.R.B. 1360 (N.L.R.B. 1950)

In the Matter of PRESS, INCORPORATED,1 EMPLOYER and INTERNATIONAL.
MAILERS UNION, PETITIONER
Case No. 10-RC-922.-Decided October 30, 1950
DECISION AND DIRECTION OF ELECTION
Upon a petition duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National
Labor Relations Act, a hearing was held before Morgan C. Stanford,.
hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hearing
are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is a Tennessee corporation engaged in the busi-
ness of newspaper publishing at Johnson City, Tennessee, and pub-
fishes the Johnson City Press Chronicle with a daily circulation of
18,000 papers, approximately 5 percent of which go to subscribers
in States other than the State of Tennessee. The Employer receives
news services from the Associated Press and United Press, Sunday
comic strips from Southeastern Publishers Services, Inc., Greensboro,
North Carolina, and daily comic strips from King Features, NEA,
and the Chicago Tribune. During the past year, the Employer's
purchases of newsprint and ink were valued at approximately $150,000
of which 75 percent was made outside the State of Tennessee. During
the same period, advertising of a total value of $600,000 was sold by
the Employer, of which approximately $70,000 was under national
advertising programs of concerns outside the State of Tennessee.
Upon the above facts, we find that the Employer is engaged in com-
merce within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act 2
The Board has recently reaffirmed its policy of asserting jurisdic-
tion over instrumentalities and channels of interstate commerce.3 We
believe the Employer's. newspaper, through its membership in inter-
state news services, is such an enterprise. Accordingly, we believe
it would effectuate the policies of the Act to assert jurisdiction herein.
The name of the Employer appears as amended at the hearing.
z See Wave Publications, Inc., 9'0 NLRB 274.
2 See WBSR, Inc., 91 NLRB 630.
91 NLRB No. 204.
1360
PRESS, INCORPORATED 1361.
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 Petitioner requests a unit, as amended at the hearing, of all
employees of the Employer's mailing room, including flyboys, but
excluding casual employees, watchmen, professional employees, fore-
men, and all supervisors as defined in the Act. The Employer agrees
with the appropriateness of a collective bargaining unit for employees
in its mailing room but contends that three individual employees
should be excluded from the unit.
The mailing room is one of-the component parts of the Employer's
circulation department and is under the supervision of the circulation
manager. Route supervisors, spending all their time outside the
newspaper plant, and part-time employees working on week ends in-
serting comic sections in the Sunday issue, make up the remainder
of the circulation department. Mailing room personnel consists of
three men asssigned to the morning shift and five employees on the
afternoon shift. The Employer contends that employees Pettit and
Curtis should be excluded as foremen of the morning and afternoon
shifts respectively. Both Pettit and Curtis perform the regular tasks
of the mailing room including receiving the papers from the press,
labeling, wrapping, and tying bundles and subsidiary tasks. In addi-
tion, each have some duties in connection with the newspaper carrier
boys and street salesmen. While these two employees may, on oc-
casion, issue routine directions to the remainder of the mailing room
staff, it is clear that they do not have authority to hire, discharge,
transfer, reward, or discipline employees of that group. The Em-
ployer, however, contends that they exercise supervision over the
newspaper carriers. These carriers are considered to be independent
contractors by the Employer and the record shows that Pettit and
Curtis at most exert only minor and routine control over their actions.
We find that employees Pettit and Curtis are not supervisors within
the Act's definition and we shall include them in the unit.
The Employer also maintains that employee 'Ingram. should be
excluded from the mailing room unit on the ground that he spends
the majority of his time as a janitor. This employee receives the
papers as they come off the press, stacks them in groups of 50, and
4 The Employer, at the hearing , moved to dismiss the petition on the ground that there
was no showing in the record of the Petitioner' s compliance with the requirements of
Section 9 (f), (g), and ( h) of the Act. The motion is herewith denied for reasons stated
in Ozark Dam Constructors , 77 NL$B 1136.
1362 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
places them on a wagon on which they are taken to the mailing
room. Ingram also sweeps the pressroom, paper storage room, and
a washroom and spends approximately 60 percent of his time in these
janitorial duties. He is under the supervision of the circulation man-
ager and in his absence his duties are performed by another mailing
room employee. We find, on these facts, that employee Ingram's
duties are a part of the mailing room operation and we shall include
him in the unit hereinafter found- appropriate.'
We find that all employees in the mailing room of the Employer's
newspaper plant at Johnson City, Tennessee, including flyboys, but
excluding casual employees, watchmen, guards, professional em-
ployees, and all supervisors as defined in the Act constitute a unit
appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining within the meaning
of Section 9 (b) of the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication in this
volume.]
See Post Printing and Publishing Co., 59 NLRB 1115.