National Labor Relations Board v. Cowles Pub. Co.

jn ^his case the primary finding of the trial examiner and of the National Labor Relations Board was that respondent violated § 8(a) (1) of the Labor Management Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 158 (a) (1), by discharging 16 of its employees for engagjng in a concerted work-stoppage or strike. Respondent was ordered to reinstate the discharged employees with back Pay from the date of their application for reinstatement, to post the customary notices, and to cease and desist from engaging in conduct violative of the Act.

Respondent publishes the Spokane Spokesman Review, a newspaper with a large Sunday edition. It employed part-time “inserters,” as they are called, to assemble the different sections of the Sunday paper. The inserters were not organized or members of any union. Most of them were local college students who worked an irregular number of hours which they were permitted to schedule largely at their own convenience. On each Saturday evening, however, they were required to work from six o’clock until all the Sunday papers were assembled, a task usually taking nine or ten hours. They were paid on the basis of a piece rate varying in proportion to the weight of the sections assembled.…

(dissenting),

j wou]d deny enforcement of the Board’s order as it was modified by the majority

_ unusual facts shown by the record *n this case clearly indicate that an abrupt demand for a wage increase was ®rst made by the inserters on certain minor employees of respondent then engaged in and about respondent’s plant. The demand was carefully timed to come at an hour on late Saturday evening when these minor employees faced the necessity of then getting out the Sunday edition of the paper to meet certain time schedules. The demand was in the form of an ultimatum — “grant us the demanded raise at onf or get the PaPers out any way you can‘

As the prevailing opinion points out, f e“PIoyef, (fdmonds) who ordinarily handled collective bargaining matters was then called from his home, arriving after the inserters had stopped work at 7:00 p. m. Some colloquy then ensued, but nothing in the record suggests that Edmonds possessed authority to summarily grant the demanded raise without any consultation with the owners of the newspaper. The fact that even the opportunity for such a consultation was completely foreclosed by the terms of the wage demand, is a circumstance which *712 seems…

214 F.2d 708 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD v. COWLES PUB. CO. No. 14139. United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit. June 28, 1954. Rehearing Denied Aug. 3, 1954. George J. Bott, General Counsel, David P. Findling, Associate General Counsel, A. Norman Somers, Asst. General Counsel, Frederick U. Reel, Dean E. Denlinger, Attys., N.L.R.B., Washington, D.C., Patrick Walker, Atty., N.L.R.B., Seattle, Wash., for petitioner. Witherspoon, Witherspoon & Lelley, Spokane, Wash., William V. Kelley, Spokane, Wash., for respondent. Before HEALY, BONE, and ORR, Circuit Judges. HEALY, Circuit Judge. 1 In this case the primary finding of the trial examiner and of the National Labor Relations Board was that respondent violated Sec. 8(a)(1) of the Labor Management Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 158 (a)(1), by discharging 16 of its employees for engaging in a concerted work-stoppage or strike. Respondent was ordered to reinstate the discharged employees with back pay from the date of their application for reinstatement, to post the customary notices, and to cease and desist from engaging in conduct violative of the Act. 2 Respondent publishes the Spokane Spokesman Review, a newspaper with a large…