The Bakersfield Californian

National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions

Jun 16, 1965

152 N.L.R.B. 1683 (N.L.R.B. 1965)

THE BAKERSFIELD CALIFORNIAN, PETITIONER 1683
The Bakersfield Californian , Petitioner and Bakersfield News-
paper Guild Local 202, American Newspaper Guild , AFL-CIO,
Petitioner , and Bakersfield Typographical Union No. 439, Inter-
national Typographical Union , AFL-CIO, Petitioner. Cases
Nos. 21-RM11-1157, 21-RC-9383, and 21-RC-9390. J2ane 16, 1965
DECISION, ORDER, AND DIRECTION OF ELECTIONS
Upon petitions duly filed under Section 9 (c) of the National Labor
Relations Act, as amended, a hearing was held on March 5, 1965, before
Hearing Officer Barton W. Robertson. The Hearing Officer's rulings
made at the hearing are free from prejudicial error and are hereby
affirmed. Both the Employer and the Union filed briefs.
Pursuant to the provisions of Section 3(b) of the National Labor
Relations Act, as amended, the National Labor Relations Board has
delegated its powers in connection with this case to a three-member
panel [Members Fanning, Brown, and Jenkins].
Upon the entire record in this case, the Board finds :
1. The Employer is engaged in commerce within the meaning of
the Act.
2. The labor organizations involved claim 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) (1) and Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act.
4. The Employer, a publisher of a daily and Sunday newspaper in
Bakersfield, California, filed a petition (Case No. 21-RM-1157), cov-
ering a unit of all its unrepresented employees consisting of office
employees, circulation office employees, advertising department
employees, dispatching department employees, service and maintenance
employees, and mailroom employees. The Bakersfield Typographical
Union No. 439, hereinafter called the ITU, petitioned for a unit of all
mailroom employees, excluding all others (Case No. 21-RC-9390),
and the Bakersfield Newspaper Guild Local 202, hereinafter called the
Guild, petitioned for the same unit set forth by the Employer, but
excluding the mailroom employees (Case No. 21-RC-9383). All other
employees are presently represented by various labor organizations.
The mailroom unit requested by ITU is a separately located depart-
ment under the direction and supervision of the mailroom foreman.
There are approximately 12 regular and 15 part-time employees in the
mailroom. Their hours differ from and are shorter than those of other
152 NLRB No. 164.
1684 DECISIONS OF NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
employees, and they do not receive many of the benefits of regular
full-time employees in other departments. All employees in the mail-
room do similar work. They receive the newspapers from the presses
by means of a conveyor and, except for those designated for street sale,
individually roll and insert each paper into an automatic tying
machine. When the weather is inclement, the papers are also wrapped
with a protective wax paper cover. Papers which are distributed by
mail are individually addressed by mailroom employees operating an
addressograph machine. The papers designated for subscriber dis-
tribution by motorized carrier are stacked and bundled, and the btnl-
dles are tied by hand. These bundles are then loaded into automobiles
for delivery by carriers and their helpers. In preparing for delivery,
the carriers and outside helpers, who are supervised by the circulation
manager and are represented in a separate unit by the Guild, also per-
form some functions in the mailroom. On holidays the mailroom
employees also handle the otherwise unattended circulation desk.
Mailroom employees in the newspaper industry are a well-defined
functionally distinct group who have been traditionally represented on
a separate departmental basis by the ITU or the International Mailer's
Union.' The Board has consistently recognized that such mailroom
employees have a special community of interest and may constitute a
separately appropriate unit.2 There is here no history of collective
bargaining which conflicts with the separate unit request. Rather, the
mailroom employees involved herein have been excluded for the exist-
ing unit covering the carriers and helpers with whom they are most
directly associated, and the Guild which represents that unit does not
seek to represent them either as part of the carriers unit or as part of
the unrepresented nonmechanical unit presently requested by it. Fur-
ther, as is evident from the foregoing, the mailroom employees are func-
tionally identifiable and have separate interests. The fact that outside
helpers and carriers also do some work in the mailroom does not destroy
that traditional basis for a separate mailroom unit. Accordingly, we
find appropriate, for purposes of collective bargaining within the
meaning of Section 9 (b) of the Act, separate units of employees at the
Employer's Bakersfield, California, plant, as follows :
(a) Case 21-RC-9383: All unrepresented employees of the cir-
culation office, advertising department, dispatching department,
service and maintenance employees, and office employees, but
excluding mailroom employees, guards, and supervisors as defined
in the Act.
1 See Dow Jones R Compan2J, Inc, 142 NLRB 421, footnote 5 , The Jachsouv,lle Jour-
nal Company , 116 NLIIB 1136
2 See The Evening News Association, d/b/a Detroit -Yews, et al, 119 NLRB 415;
Evening News Publishing Company, 93 NLRB 1355
THE BAKERSFIELD CALIFORNIAN, PETITIONER 1685
(b) Case No. 21-RC-9390: All mailroom employees, including
those working regular part time, but excluding guards and super-
visors as defined in the Act.
As no union is seeking the unit advanced by the Employer and we
have found the separate units petitioned for by the respective unions
appropriate , we shall dismiss the Employer 's petition in Case No.
21-RM-1157.
[The Board dismissed the petition in Case No. 21-RM-1157.]
[Text of Direction of Elections omitted from publication.]
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