The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1950-03-16
BY CUSHMAN REYNOLDS
For Labor Press Association

Even in the days of Taft-Hart-
ley, there are some tricks you
don't expect the boss to try. You
certainly don't expect a newspaper
like the Denver Post, which for the
past four years has been building
a reputation for mild but forth
right liberalism, to stoop to dealing
with labor spies.
Yet that's just what the Post
did, trial examiner for the Ma
tional Labor Relations Board found
the other day when he ruled on
charges of unfair labor practices
brought by the Denver Newspaper
Guild. The examiner told the Post
to stop discouraging membership
in the Guild and interfering in the
right of editorial employees to bar
gain through an agency of their
own choosing, and to reinstate a
denoted employe to his former
position and give him back pay.
Post publisher Palmer Hoyt, who
says Labor unions are ok except
in my editorial rooms," has appeal
ed and requested oral argument be-
fore the NLRB in Washington. His
attorneys are expected to come up
with phony points about freedom
of the press" which Guildsmen be-
lieve is not involved. But you'd
think Hoyt would prefer to accept
the examiners recommendations
rather than have the smelly story
that came to light in hearings here
last November aired again.
The union filed its original com
plant in October 1948, and under
the law no unfair practice commit
| ted more than six months before
that date could be ruled upon.
However to get the continuity Of
the story complete, trial examiner
Horace Ruckel, in his decision,
traced the whole history of Hoyt's
relations with the Guild. That his
tory Is not pretty one.
Ruckel, discovered that beginning
in l947 the Post used employment
applications and record forms on
which the job seeker or employe
was asked to state his union affil-
iation. The paper replied that these
forms were primarily for the mec-
hanical crafts with which it had
enjoyed contract relations for many
years. However, Ruckel found that
editorial workers who didn't get
their first contract until l94S, were
also asked to sign the forms, and
ruled that the Post was "interfer-
ing with, restraining and coercing"
editorial employees by asking the
question. However, it was the labor
spying and the demotion of vet
eran newsman, not the forms,
which were the real shockers in
the case.
The spying, or Surveillance" as
the NLRB likes to term it, began
in February l94S. Just how Post
writer James Ashe came TO be a
spy is in dispute, but there's no
question but what he stool-pigeon-
ed for boss Hoyt. Ashe says he
was approached by management.
Management doesn't deny the "sur-
veillance", but says Ashe made the
first proposition. 1t doesn't make
much difference.
Early i'm February 1913, after
the American Newspaper Guild
disapproved "A temporary agree
ment the Denver local reached with
the Post, the local union demanded
further negotiations. The paper
refused, and the Post Guild unit
decided to take a strike vote Feb.
%. This was heavy blow to Ashe,
who had wangled himself a special
assignment to report on Commun-
ism in the West Indies and South
America. If there were a strike the
plush assignment would be cancel
led. Regardless of who made the
first move, Ashc, TO protect his
trip, found himself Palmer HoytS
agent inside the Guild. As an agent
he was great success.
He reported on strike sentiment
to the Posts city editor and gave
the names of GuildSmeu favoring
strike action including that of