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I have made a statement concerning this matter before which has been sent to Washington before the committee, but I was not asked in that statement whether or not I made this $3.50 payment to local 706 in order to hold my job at the Pine Bluff Arsenal.

I wish to state at this time that the $3.50 per week which I paid to the El Dorado local of the plumbers and steamfitters was purely voluntary on my part and that I was under no obligation to pay it. However, I, like many of the other men, felt we should pay as much as the regular members of local 706 in order to bear our just share of the expenses.

No one ever told me that I had to pay this $3.50 per week in order to hold my job and I was advised that it was not necessary for me to pay this $3.50 per week or any other sum as long as I worked at the Pine Bluff Arsenal job unless I wanted to.

I wanted to pay this $3.50 per week, I thought it was right that I should pay it then, and I think it was right that I should pay it now on a voluntary basis.

I have read the foregoing statement and it is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 6th day of October 1960. [SEAL]

DALE C. WEBB.

JAMES D. Cook,

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My name is James M. Lamb. I live at 807 Fourth Street, Lake Providence, La. I am a journeyman steamfitter and a welder. I have been a member of the United Association since 1952 for many years. I joined the United Association through local 618, Greenville, Miss.

I worked on the Pine Bluff Arsenal for Blaw-Knox Construction Co. in 1952 and 1953 for approximately 8 months. My foreman was Fred Daniels of Camden, Ark., and my general foreman was George Stewart. The work I performed and the crew I was assigned to worked in building 51 for the above foreman. Aside from my foreman, Mr. Daniels, and general foreman, Mr. Stewart, I remember Mr. H. Nix working with me in the same crew.

I remember local 706 men paying their assessments into local 706 according to their constitution. I also remember none of us who were outside of local 706 being allowed to pay any assessment. The only way our foreman would accept our money was as a voluntary contribution. No one in my crew was forced to pay any money in order to hold his job on the Blaw-Knox project. I was not discriminated against or terminated because of the assessment issue. I left the same time Mr. H. Nix was leaving and I left voluntarily to go to a job with better pay. Mr. Nix and I both went to Woodriver, Ill., where the wage rate was considerably more than local 706. I know of no one leaving Blaw-Knox because they refused to pay a working assessment. It was just opposite. The local union officers and Blaw-Knox was trying to keep all the pipefitters on the Pine Bluff Arsenal. It was difficult for us to get a termination and leave for something better.

I have read the foregoing statement and it is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.

JAMES M. LAMB.

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 12th day of October 1960. [SEAL]

EDNA BISHOP BROCK, Clerk of Court and Ex Officio Notary Public.

My commission expires June 1, 1964.

STATE OF ARKANSAS,
County of Union, 88:

EXHIBIT No. 81

AFFIDAVIT OF ERNEST SAMUEL PEPPERS

My name is Ernest Samuel Peppers, and I live at Route 4, Box 78A, EI Dorado, Ark.

I am the present president of Local Union 706 of the United Association and in such capacity I conduct all of the local union meetings. I have been president of local union 706 since 1957. I was elected to take this position upon the death of Mr. J. C. Swailes, who was the president and acting business agent at the time of his death.

Prior to the time that I was elected president of local union 706 I was on the finance committee of local union 706. As a member of the finance committee we went over the books and records of the local union and made a monthly report to the membership. These monthly reports were read to the membership and approved when they were presented. I remember distinctly that if there were any questions concerning these financial reports that they were discussed fully on the floor and every person was permitted to have his say and examine the financial reports in the most minute detail if they so desired. I do not remember but one person asking me any questions concerning the financial report and that was a fellow by the name of Torrence and that has been several years ago. I told him the information which he wanted was in the audit report which was one file in the office and it was available to him there.

If anyone had asked me to give them any details concerning the financial report, I would have been glad to have done so, but no one while I was a member of the finance committee has ever asked me for any information other than that which was presented to the floor.

While I was on the finance committee and while I have been in local 706 I remember distinctly that the local union has discussed various Christmas gifts to be given to general organizers and other people who have assisted the membership of local 706 in securing employment. This has been a general practice of local union 706 for a number of years.

Since I have been president of local 706 and have been in charge of the meetings of this local union, I have given everyone an opportunity to get up on the floor and express himself in any manner which he chose to do. Every person in this local union has the right to get up on the floor and bring up anything that he has on his mind or express any opinion that he has on his mind without fear of discrimination or recrimination and I know of no one in this local union who has ever been discriminated against because they have gotten up on the floor of the local union and have spoken their minds, whether or not they agree with me, Earl Griffin, Ermon Griffin, or any of the other officers of this local union.

On some occasions members have gotten up at the wrong order of business and attempted to bring up some subject, but he was told that he was out of order at the present time but would be given an opportunity to take up his particular subject under the good and welfare of the local union. No person

was ever prohibited from expressing himself or his opinion in the local union and has not been since I have been president, and I know of no one that was ever prohibited from doing so before I became president.

I did not work on the Pine Bluff job for at that time I was working for the Loomis Co. at Lion Refinery here at El Dorado, Ark.

I have read the foregoing and it is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.

ERNEST SAMUEL PEPPERS.

WANDA WASHINGTON,

Notary Public.

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 11th day of October 1960. [SEAL]

My commission expires October 1, 1961.

EXHIBIT No. 82

AFFIDAVIT OF HERB E. BAYER

STATE OF KANSAS,

County of Shawnee, 88:

I am Herb E. Bayer and I am the field project manager for Blaw-Knox Co., presently employed by said company on a construction project near Topeka, Kans.

I was also the field project manager for Blaw-Knox Co. at the time we were constructing the so-called Pine Bluff Arsenal near Pine Bluff, Ark., for the U.S. Government. This project was under construction during the years

1951 to 1954.

During the period of time this project was under construction we were almost constantly in need of qualified pipefitters and competent welders. While this project was under construction there were several strikes by the various craft unions over one thing or another, and there were many weeks during the course of this job that the men did not work due to inclement weather.

Also, during the course of this project, men would quit for one reason or another after they received their paycheck and never say anything to us about not coming back to work. Upon many occasions men would come to the project, apply for employment, pass their security check, and then go seek a place for themselves and families to live. As Pine Bluff is a relatively small community, many of these men could not find accommodation and would move on to another town to seek work on another project so that they would be able to work where they could find suitable accommodations for themselves and their families. They would move on without notifying us that they were not going to return to the project to work.

The above various classifications of people would be on our list of employees for various periods of time until we terminated them. We had a periodic check of our personnel and if a man had not been on the job for 2 weeks or so when these periodic checks were made, then such man would be terminated and dropped from our list of employees.

From the above it will be seen that a list of employees of the Blaw-Knox Co. would not be an accurate list of the employees who were actually working on the project each week. As an example, at the peak of the project, we had issued in the neighborhood of some 22,000 badges for employees to work on the job, while at the peak of the job we had in the neighborhood of only 6,700 employees. These figures are not more than approximately 10 percent off either way, and I have no way to give the exact figures as the records for a job performed that far back are not available.

We would carry such "absentee" employees on our employee records for a reasonable length of time in hopes that they would return to the job on the project, and it was only when it became evident that they were not going to return that we dropped them as employees of Blaw-Knox.

I have read the foregoing statement and it is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.

HERB E. BAYER.

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 12th day of October 1960. [SEAL]

My commission expires March 8, 1962.

J. W. EMMONS, Notary Public.

STATE OF ARKANSAS,

EXHIBIT No. 83

AFFIDAVIT OF RICHARD ISON

County of Sebastian, ss:

I am a member of Local Union 155 of the United Association in Little Rock, Ark. At the present time I am working in Fort Smith, Ark., on the Ohio rubber plant. My job here is superintendent for Mechanical Contractors, Inc. I have been working on this job approximately since June of 1960.

In 1951 I was a member of local 155 of Little Rock, Ark., and I went dow the Pine Bluff Arsenal job and began to work for Blaw-Knox Constructi which was building the Pine Bluff Arsenal for the U.S. Government.

went down on this job I began work as a general foreman. As a general foreman I had several foremen under me and each foreman had some 10 or 12 men under him. When I was sent down on this job from local 155 I was not told that I had to pay any assessment into local 706 or anything else into local 706 in order to hold my job there. No one out of local 706 ever told me that I had to pay an assessment into local 706 in order to hold my job there, although I did make some payments into local 706 while I was there. For a while I paid $3.50 per week into local 706 and then after a while I paid $2.50 per week into local 706. I made these payments into local 706 purely as a voluntary contribution as I understood that I was not required to pay anything into local 706 in order to hold my job there. I remember very distinctly two meetings which were held by the officers of local 706 in a park near the job site there. Mr. J. C. Swailes, of local 706, conducted these meetings as he was the president of local 706, and Mr. Earl Griffin, who was the business agent of local 706, made a talk upon this assessment. Mr. Griffin made the statement there that there had been some talk that people were required to pay money into local 706 in order to hold their job there and he told the entire crowd which consisted of several hundred people that no one was required to pay any money into local 706 in order to maintain their job there at the Pine Bluff Arsenal and that if anyone had paid any money into local 706 with the misunderstanding that they had to in order to hold their job there, that if they would step forward or give him their name and the amount that they had paid he would refund this money if they so desired.

This same statement was made at the next meeting which was held for the purpose of explaining this assessment money and the voluntariness thereof. Everyone that I know of that worked around me strictly understood that any money which they paid into local 706 was a voluntary contribution. I worked on this job from October of 1951 to June of 1953 and there were very few men left on this job at the time that I left the job. During the period of time that I worked on this job I know of several men of local 155, the Little Rock local, who did not make any voluntary contribution into local 706 and they enjoyed the same working privileges as the people of the crew which were working on this job, even though they did not make this payment into local 706. Several of the men I remember distinctly did not make any of these payments and they worked there as long or longer than I did. I don't remember definitely who paid and who didn't pay, but I know that some did pay and some did not. I never kept a list of who paid and who didn't pay and I never reduced my force from any such list. No one ever told me that all the men on the job were required to pay and it was generally understood just the opposite, particularly after the two meetings which Mr. Griffin conducted.

I have read the foregoing and it is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 7th day of October 1960. [SEAL]

My commission expires August 5, 1963.

RICHARD ISON.

L. WILLENE COX,

Notary Public.

EXHIBIT No. 84

STATE OF ARKANSAS,

AFFIDAVIT OF ROBERT FILLMORE TARPLEY

County of Sebastian, ss:

I am at the present time a member of Local Union 29 of the United Association and I reside in Fort Smith, Ark.

During 1951 and at other times during the Pine Bluff Arsenal job I worked there for Blaw-Knox Construction Co., all told, for about 2 months as a journeyman pipefitter.

During the time that I worked there I paid $3.50 per week into local 706. I made this as a voluntary contribution and no one told me that I was obligated to do so or in any way forced me to make this contribution. This contribution was made by me into local 706 of my own free will and accord.

I paid this money to my foreman, but my foreman never told me that I had to pay this money in order to hold my job or to maintain my employment there on the Pine Bluff Arsenal job.

I have read the foregoing and it is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.

ROBERT FILMORE TARPLEY.

GLADYS JONES,

Notary Public.

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 7th day of October 1960. [SEAL]

My commission expires 25 September 1963.

STATE OF ARKANSAS,

County of Sebastian, ss:

EXHIBIT No. 85

AFFIDAVIT OF CHARLIE WRIGHT

My name is Charlie Wright and I reside at 5210 South 29th Street in Fort Smith, Ark. At the present time I am the business agent of Local 29 of the United Association located in Fort Smith, Ark. I have been the business agent of this local union for approximately 21⁄2 years.

In 1951 through 1954 the Blaw-Knox Construction Co. was constructing an arsenal for the U.S. Government at Pine Bluff, Ark.

They employed several hundred people on this job and they employed a good number of pipefitters on this job. Local 706 of El Dorado, Ark., had jurisdiction over this job, but I worked on this job out of local 29 of Fort Smith, Ark. I have been a member of Local 29 of the United Association in Fort Smith, Ark., for approximately 16 years. I worked on the Pine Bluff Arsenal job for approximately 18 months altogether. Part of the time I was a journeyman pipefitter and part of the time I was a pipefitter foreman. During the time I was a journeyman pipefitter and during the time I was a pipefitter foreman I made a voluntary contribution into local 706 in the sum of $3.50 per week. It was my understanding that this was purely a voluntary contribution and no one had to pay this money into local 706 to maintain their job there or to be able to work on this job.

During the time that I was a foreman on this job I collected some of this money for local 706, but no one ever told me to collect the money from people who were not members of local 706 inasmuch as if they wanted to pay the $3.50 per week they were entitled to do so, but it was not an obligation on them to do so in order to hold their jobs. This was made very plain to me and everyone on the job knew this to be true.

While I was a foreman on this job several of the men who were on strike at the chemical plant were sent out to work in my crew. I believe that I had seven of these people in my crew and I never told any of them that they had to pay any money in order to hold their jobs or to work on this project. To the best of my knowledge, most of them did pay, but they all understood that it was a voluntary contribution on their part.

I can further state that I know of several men on this job who did not make any voluntary contribution into local 706 or any other local union that I know anything about and they were not discriminated against in any way, but worked along the side of the rest of us just as much as any of the other people did. I know of no one being discriminated against in any way because of the fact they did not make this voluntary contribution into local 706.

When I collected this money I turned it over to "Red" Yocum, who was the job steward, who in turn took the money into the local union office. "Red" Yocum or anyone else connected with local union 706 never told me to be sure and collect the money from everyone in my crew. It was just the opposite. I was not told that everyone had to pay.

I have read the foregoing statement and it is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.

CHARLIE WRIGHT.

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 7th day of October 1960.

My commisison expires August 5, 1963.

L. WILLENE Cox, Notary Public.

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