The Scranton Times

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Feb 24, 1955

111 N.L.R.B. 780 (N.L.R.B. 1955)

780 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
does minor cabinet and touchup work, and the other loads and unloads
trucks and handles delivery and pickup tickets. Although it appears
that the work performed by these 2 employees is similar to some ex-
tent to that exercised by 1 or 2 of the warehouse employees, it also ap-
pears that these combination employees, like the porters whom we have
excluded, do no work in the warehouses, are in daily contact with the
other store employees with whom they share common Aupervision, and
are geographically separated from, and do not interchange with, the
warehouse employees. Accordingly, we shall exclude the combination
employees from the unit."
The Petitioner would exclude the 3 garage employees, the 3 appli-
ance repair shop employees who work in a separate enclosure in the
garage, and the furniture and appliance servicemen who work in cus-
tomers' homes. As these employees are geographically separated from
the warehouse, have no contact with the warehouse employees, and are
separately and independently supervised, we shall not include them
in the unit.
We find that all employees at the Employer's main warehouse, ware-
house cabinet shop, and auxiliary warehouse, and all truckdrivers and
helpers,12 but excluding office clerical employees, all store employees
of both stores, store porters and combination employees, garage em-
ployees, appliance repair shop employees, furniture and appliance
servicemen, watchmen, guards, and supervisors i2 as defined in the Act,
constitute a unit appropriate for purposes of collective bargaining
within the meaning of the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
11 Sears, Roebuck & Co , 82 NLRB 985
12 Inasmuch as the sole full-time truckdriver and his helper who operate from the Victor
store have interests in common with the warehouse truckdrivers and helpers whom they
occasionally assist in their delivery work, we shall include them in the unit.
13 As it appears that the warehouse receiving supervisor and shipping supervisor have
the power effectively to recommend the discharge of employees, we find them to be super-
visors within the meaning of the Act, and , as such , shall exclude them from the unit.
ELIZABETH R. LYNETT AND EDWARD J. LYNETT D/B/A THE SCRANTON
TIMES and NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OP BROADCAST EMPLOYEES AND
TECHNICIANS, CIO,' PETITIONER. Case No. 4-RC-2559. February
24,1955
Decision and Direction of Election
Upon a petition duly filed, a hearing was held before Thomas J.
Walsh, hearing officer. The hearing officer's rulings made at the hear-
ing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby affirmed.
1 The formal papers herein were amended at the hearing to show the correct name of
the Petitioner as indicated above.
111 NLRB No. 128.
THE SCRANTON TIMES 781
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
The Employer publishes and distributes a daily afternoon news-
paper in Scranton, Pennsylvania. It also owns two radio stations,
WQAN and WEJL, the operations involved herein.
The newspaper does business in excess of $1,000,000 annually. The
combined gross income of the radio stations was approximately
$141,000 for the year 1954.
The stations are located on the fifth floor of The Scranton Times
Building. The stations' payrolls are handled by The Scranton Times
accounting office. Similarly, all supplies are issued to the stations by
the newspaper. The general manager of the radio stations is directly
responsible to the general manager of the newspaper who sets all labor
relations policies. Since the Employer's operations are closely inte-
grated and conducted as a single enterprise,' we assert jurisdiction,
although the combined revenue of the radio stations, alone, does not
meet the annual income requirement set forth in Hanford Broadcast-
ing Company (KNGS), 110 NLRB 1257.
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
Section 9 (c) (1) and Section 2 (6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Petitioner seeks a single unit of all announcers and engineers
employed at stations WQAN and WEJL.3 The Employer contends
that each of the groups constitutes a separate unit.
The unit petitioned for consists of 8 engineers and 5 announcers
and includes virtually all employees concerned with the integrated
production and transmission of the Employer's radio programs. All
these employees, who in effect constitute the engineering and program
departments,' work in the same area and share the same working con-
ditions, sick benefits, vacations, health and accident insurance and
pension plans. However, the announcers and engineers have separate
immediate supervision, somewhat different wage scales, require dif-
ferent skills, and are not interchanged. Under similar circumstances,
the Board has held that either an overall unit or separate units of
program and engineering employees could be appropriate.' Inas-
much as no labor organization is seeking to represent the announcers
2 Bulletin Company, 85 NLRB 568.
3 At the heal ing, the parties stipulated to exclude the following employees from any unit
found appropriate Piomotion director, tiaffic manager, news editor, salesmen, writers,
clerical employees, janitors, supervisors, and guaicls
4 In the absence of the above -mentioned stipulation the news editor , if nonsupervisory,
and the writers would normally be included in the program department.
5 Enipai c Coil Co, Inc, 106 NLRB 1069; KTTV, Inc., 97 NLRB 1477; KMTR Radio
Corporation (KLAC-TV), 85 NLRB 99.
782 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
and engineers separately, we find that a single unit of these employees
is appropriate.
Accordingly, the following employees of the Employer constitute
a unit appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining within the
meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act :
All announcers and engineers employed by the Employer at sta-
tions WQAN and WEJL, Scranton, Pennsylvania, including Griffith
Rees,6 but excluding Program Announcer Connor,' Chief Engineer
Railer," and the promotion director, traffic manager, news editor, sales-
men, writers, clerical employees, janitors, supervisors, and guards as
defined in the Act.
[Text of Direction of Election omitted from publication.]
"Griffith Rees has, since September 1953, been employed as a part-time engineer He
works 12 hours each weekend and, like the other engineers, has an FCC operator's license.
We include him in the unit as a regular part-time employee
7 We hereby exclude Program Announcer Connor as a supervisor within the meaning of
the Act.
8 We find Chief Engineer Rauer to be a supervisor within the meaning of the Act.
COMPLIANCE STATUS OF NATIONAL UNION OF MARINE COOKS AND
STEWARDS, INDEPENDENT. February 25, 1955
Administrative Determination of Compliance Status and Order
As part of the administrative investigation of the compliance status
of National Union of Marine Cooks and Stewards, Independent,
herein referred to as the Union, the Board on October 19, 1954, issued
to the Union a notice to show cause, in writing, filed with the Board
in Washington, D. C., on or before November 1, 1954, why the Board
should not administratively determine that the aforesaid Union was
not in compliance with Section 9 (f) (B) (2) and (g) of the Act.'
In that notice, the Board recited that, following investigation, it had
"concluded that there is reasonable doubt that the said Union has
furnished to all of its members copies of" its financial report, as
required by the said provisions of the Act. Upon the Union's request,
the Board extended the Union's time to answer the above notice until
November 15, 1954. Thereafter, on November 12, 1954, the Union
filed a motion to quash the notice to show cause and requested addi-
tional time to file a response to said notice if its motion were denied.
1 Section 9 (f) (B) (2) denies the facilities of the Act to a labor organization unless it
"can show that . . . it has . . . furnished to all of the members of such labor organiza-
tion copies of the financial report required . . . to be filed with the Secretary of Labor."
Section 9 (g) makes the filing of up-to-date reports an annual obligation and similarly
disqualifies a labor organization "unless it can show that it . . . has complied with" the
obligation to "furnish to its members annually financial reports" as prescribed in Section
9 (f) (B).
111 NLRB No. M.