UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Congress of the United States

To

ERMON GRIFFIN

Financial Secretary

Local 706, El Dorado, Arkansas.., Greeting:

Pursuant to lawful authority, YOU ARE HEREBY COMMANDED to appear before the SENATE PERMANENT SUBCOMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS of the Senate of the United States, on AUGUST 15

at.. ten

“o'clock.....a.. m., at their committee room 101,

Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C.

195.69

then and there

to testify what you may know relative to the subject matters under consideration by said committee., and produce duces tecum the records as indicated on the attached Schedules A and B.

Hereof fail not, as you will answer your default under the pains and penalties in such cases made and provided.

To...................

to serve and return.

Given under my hand, by order of the committee, this

5TH day of ...AUGUST, in the year of our

Lord one thousand nine hundred and

SIXTY

Chairman Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations.

The CHAIRMAN. Here is the telegram I sent your attorney:

All canceled checks drawn on the joint venture accounts of locals 706, 155, 665, maintained at the National Bank of Commerce, El Dorado, Ark., for the years 1951 to 1953, inclusive; the cash receipts and disbursements records, canceled checks for the general fund, organizing fund, and building fund, as well as the audit reports for January 1, 1951, to June 15, 1955.

This is when we were trying to shorten it down.

The duplicate receipts furnished by local 706 to workers who were members of local 665, local 155, and locals other than local 706 on the Pine Bluff Arsenal job between 1951 and 1954, and all moneys collected in assessments, dobies, permit fees, dues, initiation fees, and so forth; the shop steward's report, which show the moneys collected by local 706 on the Pine Bluff Arsenal job as assessments, dobies, permit fees, dues and initiation fees for the years 1951 through 1955; all correspondence,

and so forth.

Do you say that wouldn't call for these receipts?

Mr. EARL GRIFFIN. Senator, I am not speaking of the period in which this telegram came. It was my impression, when I went down. and opened up our backroom, that he understood he was to have access to all the local union's records.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you say that he wasn't denied access to them later?

Mr. EARL GRIFFIN. There was a-I don't know. I wasn't there. But at the time I had reference to a moment ago, when Mr. Duffy and I and Mr. Mundie went downstairs, and I make a mistake, I called attention to the canceled envelopes, the used envelopes that were retained.

Mr. DUFFY. Were these records made available since that time, these records that you have right here?

Mr. EARL GRIFFIN. They were in there.

Mr. DUFFY. We asked you at that time, Mr. Griffin, all records relating to the assessments and all other records. You did not show us these records.

Mr. EARL GRIFFIN. Mr. Duffy, we told you the situation that prevailed, that I hadn't been in the local union office for an indefinite period of time.

Mr. DUFFY. We spent the whole morning looking for these records and couldn't find them, could we?

Mr. EARL GRIFFIN. We went through everything there. But I told you I hired girls to clean the thing up. I wasn't there. I was off.

Mr. DUFFY. Did you notify us then that these records were available for us to look at?

Mr. EARL GRIFFIN. Mr. Duffy, we found these records the last hour before I left and I told this committee to begin with, sir, that I didn't have the W-from the letter S, I believe, on, and that I called the young lady and she said, "Mr. Griffin, I have found some additional ones," meaning that we had not ever stopped searching, Mr. Duffy, in that conglomeration of mess that has accumulated since 1950. I hope that is a reasonable explanation.

The CHAIRMAN. Now back to this other.

Here is an affidavit that was made exhibit 10 to the proceedings from Mr. Dave Dove. His statement, referring to this agreement,

says:

Shortly after the agreement was signed, I was in telephone contact with Jerry Ryan, general organizer of the international union in Washington. He advised me that Mr. Durkin, president of the international union, would not approve weekly assessments to be paid by the workers out of the Little Rock and Pine Bluff locals on the Pine Bluff job. I asked him to confirm this information to me in a wire, which he did.

my local were forced to pay They were refused receipts This made it very clear to

Subsequently I learned, however, that members of this $3.50 a week assessment money or not work. for the assessment money they paid to local 706. me that Earl Griffin, who was in charge of local 706, was charging men from my local weekly assessment money in direct violation of the orders of the international association that the workers from my local would not be required to pay assessment money to local 706.

I will point out to you, and you will read the record to find quite a lot of testimony along this line:

I did not make any complaint about this illegal assessment to Earl Griffin because I knew if I did the men from my local that were on the Pine Bluff job would be let go.

That is from the two men who signed this agreement with you. In addition to that, as you already know, we have the sworn testimony of a number of others that they were afraid to oppose you or not to pay, or to oppose you even in their local, because of their apprehension of reprisals.

That is the testimony here, and it is on the basis of these complaints that this investigation regarding these matters before us was issued. Have you any comment to make about Mr. Dove?

Mr. EARL GRIFFIN. No, sir. I think Dave Dove is as honorable a man as I am.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you think he would make a statement that he was apprehensive you would let his men go?

Mr. EARL GRIFFIN. If you hadn't read it to me, I would never feel that Dave Dove would make such a statement; that he knows anything before he talks to anybody.

The CHAIRMAN. He either made it and signed it. It is under oath. Mr. EARL GRIFFIN. I don't deny that, Senator. I say if you hadn't read it to me I wouldn't believe that a man such as he, who worked with me, who knows without a shadow of doubt the intent, would sign such a statement.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you know that you have that reputation down there, not only among your own people but among the whole labor organization and among the public generally? Do you know that you enjoy that reputation now?

Mr. EARL GRIFFIN. Senator, I know this: that you can tell anything long enough until you begin to believe it. When I went into office, if you will look at the record, I demanded audits be made, I demanded finance committee members be elected who would work at home, I demanded finance reports be made every 30 days.

The group who has started this propaganda, Senator, who has developed it into this stage, are the ones who are on record as opposing me for an annual audit, who opposed me for 30-day audits, who have harassed and who have scattered unadulterated misstatements of truth and fact from that time until this.

I am not surprised. The only thing I can tell you is men have been represented, employers generally have gotten their job done better in that area than others. We have evidence of it. I have never coerced one. I have never threatened any, to my knowledge, and I generally stand up for the people.

The CHAIRMAN. And for what is right?

Mr. EARL GRIFFIN. As near as I can. Because, Senator, all these people will face somebody some day in another life.

The CHAIRMAN. That is right.

Let me ask you this: You say you always wanted to know. Was any audit ever made of this joint venture account?

Mr. EARL GRIFFIN. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. By whom?

Mr. EARL GRIFFIN. Well, I say "Yes, sir." I am positive that Dr. Herbert has all of the worksheets on it. He should have.

The CHAIRMAN. Did you find any audit, Mr. Mundie?

Mr. MUNDIE. I have the audit reports that were given to me by Mr. Duffy and Mr. Griffin while I was in El Dorado and there is no mention of a joint venture account in any audits made by Dr. Herbert. Mr. EARL GRIFFIN. Maybe you didn't get it. Didn't you have audits from 1950 to 1960?

Mr. MUNDIE. No; I had 1952 to 1958.

Mr. EARL GRIFFIN. You had 1952, 1953?

(A document was handed to the chairman.)

The CHAIRMAN. Examine that, Mr. Mundie, and see if that was presented to us among the records, or a copy of it.

Mr. EARL GRIFFIN. I pulled that out of the basement before I left down there, when looking for these cards.

The CHAIRMAN. You obviously didn't have it then.

Mr. DUFFY. You found these records in the basement?

Mr. EARL GRIFFIN. Back over under the apprenticeship, under the big stack of stuff.

The CHAIRMAN. Did you report to Mr. Mundie and Mr. Duffy that your records prior to 1955 were all destroyed?

Mr. EARL GRIFFIN. I hope they will bear this out, Senator; that I said we had moved since I left office, and instead of using drays we had used our members and they had dumped them all in a floor where it was originally a furniture store, then we had picked them up in crates and boxes by our members, hired help and all, and moved them into the backroom.

Then we moved them from that room to one that had been partitioned off. Then the roof was blown off. All the records were well preserved until such time as that. I think we can secure all the testimony you want that I was exceptionally determined to keep for this day every record that was ever made in that local union, because only through the records can I be exonerated of accusations.

The CHAIRMAN. That might be absolutely true, from all of this testimony. I am perfectly willing to receive any and all records that you have that will throw any light whatsoever on this matter.

Mr. EARL GRIFFIN. These canceled envelopes is about the only thing that I know of that can, unless they run across something else.

Mr. MUNDIE. This is the only thing I have ever seen, Senator, in regard to the joint venture fund, where the money was split. There was no audit of the joint venture as of itself.

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