In order to further substantiate the above, the affidavits of the following pipefitters on this job were obtained to establish that they worked on this project, never paid any assessment or voluntary contribution into local 706 and that their jobs on this project were not affected one way or the other by their nonpayment. Affidavit number and name: 37. Kenneth Herbert Andrews. 48. Richard Ison ((paid partial). 7. Earl W. Alexander. 38. Robert H. Tinsley. 39. E. B. Wheelis. 40. Walter E. Yarbrough. 6. William Roland McAdoo (paid some weeks and other weeks he did not). At the meeting of the Arkansas Pipe Trades Association held in El Dorado, Ark., on November 15, 1952, this assessment matter was fully and thoroughly discussed. This Pipe Trades Association is an organization of all the local unions in the United Association located in Arkansas. Mr. Dave Dove, the then business agent of local union 155 of Little Rock, and Mr. Ray Chambless, the then business agent of local union 665 of Pine Bluff, were present at this meeting when this assessment matter was thoroughly discussed, and they knew that any of their members who were paying into local 706 were doing so on a voluntary basis. The following is an excerpt from the minutes of the abovementioned meeting of the Arkansas State Pipe Trades Association on this matter: "Brother Earl Griffin: Tells of gross proceeds of job being $50,000. Some men have left job without paying freight. No one was forced to deviate from U.A. constitution. Strictly voluntary that each man pay same as man working beside him. Explains setup in 706 for collecting assessments. States if any man was forced to pay over $1 per month to submit proof and the one who pressured him will be penalized." Attached hereto are the affidavits of the following to establish this: Affidavit number and name: 7. Earl W. Alexander. 15. O. B. Coonradt. On January 12, 1952, the Arkansas Pipe Trades Association and locals 454 of Hot Springs, 665 of Pine Bluff, 29 of Fort Smith, 31 of Jonesboro, and 155 of Little Rock, sent a joint letter to Mr. Martin P. Durkin, the then general president of the United Association, in Washington, D.C., a part of which is as follows: "We further testify that local 706 and its officers have proven their union connections by freely and without reservation assisted every local union of this State in protecting the jurisdiction and the employment of their members, and in financing favorable legislation, and at no time have any of the undersigned unions, or their members, been purposely abused, ignored, or deprived of work." [Italic supplied.] Two of the signers of this letter are Mr. Dave Dove of local 155 in Little Rock and Mr. Ray S. Chambless of the Pine Bluff local No. 665. This statement of Mr. Dove and Mr. Chambless seems to be contra to the affidavits given to this committee. Attention is also invited to the affidavits of Mr. Brummett, Mr. Coonradt, and Mr. Wright, being Nos. 8, 15, and 50, respectively. These men were the business agents of the Jackson, Miss., local, Hot Springs, Ark., local, and the Fort Smith, Ark., local during construction work. All of these business agents fully understood that there was no obligation on the part of their members to pay anything into local 706. Also attached hereto is an affidavit of John W. Garlington (affidavit No. 28), which is the same John W. Garlington who has previously given an affidavit to this committee. It will be noted that the inference in Mr. Garlington's first short affidavit given to this committee is completely explained if not contradicted. With regard to the persons who were on strike at Lion Chemical Co. in El Dorado and were employed on this project by Blaw-Knox, none of these people stated to this committee that they were required to pay anything into local 706 in order to work on this project. These people merely state that they paid into local 706 while working on this project. In order to clarify this matter, affidavits were secured from some of the men in this category who plainly state that what money they paid into local 706 while working on this job was purely voluntary on their part and that they were not forced to do so in order to retain their employment on this project. The men who gave affidavits to clear this point up are: From the above affidavits it will be seen that any money paid to local 706 by persons on the Pine Bluff job who were nonmembers of local 706 were voluntary contributions on the part of such men. It is also apparent that the men on the job who were nonmembers of local 706 and who did not make a voluntary contribution were not fired or discriminated against in any manner. In spite of the affidavit of Nix, we submit that there is no evidence in this record to substantiate an allegation that anyone was fired from this job because they failed to pay any money into local 706. B. The agreement between locals 706, 155, and 665 This agreement provided that the revenues from the job should be divided equally between the above three locals after the expenses of policing the job were paid. This agreement, of course, contemplated that working assessments contained in the bylaws of the three locals would be the same and that the members of locals 706, 155, and 665 would all pay $3.50 per week into this joint venture pursuant to the terms and provisions of the bylaws of each of the local unions. This agreement was never placed into effect inasmuch as it was canceled by the international office. I was told that inasmuch as local 706 had jurisdiction over the project, that it was the responsibility of local 706 to police the job and that the workers on the project, other than members of local 706, would not be required to pay a working assessment into local 706. The other signers of this agreement were also notified by the international office that this agreement could not be carried into effect, and Mr. Dave Dove and Mr. Ray Chambless, the then business agents of locals 155 and 665, respectively, acknowledged this fact in their affidavits which are a part of the record which has been made before this committee. I opened this joint account in the bank as has been established before this committee and, although the agreement had been rendered null and void by the international office, the money collected from the Pine Bluff job was placed in this account until I divided the balance therein into the three accounts of local union 706, i.e., building fund, organizing fund, and general fund. Locals 155 and 665 have never made any claim upon the money in this account and they are, of course, not entitled to any. As will be seen by some of the affidavits attached and the other record in this matter, all of the people who paid money into local 706 while working on the Pine Bluff Arsenal job did not pay it through the envelope method and some paid it directly into the office of local 706 and it was placed in the other accounts of local 706 during this period of time, that is, the organizing fund, building fund, and general fund. As can be seen from the withdrawals from this joint account, very little of this money was used in policing the job at the Pine Bluff Arsenal, and most of the costs of policing the job at the Pine Bluff Arsenal was paid from the general fund and organizing fund of the regular accounts of the local union. C. The amount of money collected from the Pine Bluff Arsenal job and the disposition thereof All of the members of local 706 who were working on the Pine Bluff Arsenal job were required under the bylaws of local 706 to pay a $3.50 working assessment into the treasury of local 706. Local 706 had no recourse to enforce the payment of this $3.50 per week from its members as required by the bylaws other than the refusal to accept the monthly dues until the working assessments had been paid. No one was ever terminated from working on this job because of the failure to pay his working assessments, whether such person be a member or nonmember of local union 706. As the affidavit of E. B. Wheelis (affidavit No. 39) will show, even some of the members of local 706 failed to pay this working assessment and their right to work on this project was never interfered with in any way. Insofar as the nonmembers of local 706 were concerned, they were not required to pay $3.50 a week working assessment into local 706, but were told that they could make a voluntary contribution into the treasury of local 706 to help defray the expenses of policing the job. This has been discussed previously in my statement and is substantiated by numerous affidavits. In Mr. Mundie's testimony he stated that there were $103,531.79 deposited into the joint venture account in El Dorado, Ark., and that there were a total of 64,111 men employed between August 4, 1951, and June 20, 1953, and that if each one of these men paid $3.50 per week into local union 706 that there should have been $224,388.50 collected. It is upon this basis that he arrives at the conclusion that there should have been $120.531.78 more in this joint account. The assumption which Mr. Mundie makes is incorrect for the following reasons: 1. The figure of 64,111 men employed on the job cannot be used because this is not a true figure of whether a man worked a full week, 1 day, 2 days 21⁄2 days, or none. It is necessary to know this because under the rules of local union 706 if a member of local 706 did not work in any workweek in excess of 8 hours, then he was required to pay nothing, even though he was a member of local 706. If a man worked in excess of 8 hours, but not more than 16 hours, in any one workweek, he was only required to pay $1.50 working assessment. It is only if a man worked in excess of 16 hours in any workweek that he was obligated to pay the woring assessment in the sum of $3.50 per week. The above, of course, only applies to members of local union 706. There were many occasions on this job when the men did not work due to inclement weather or strikes, and during such periods of time the members of local 706 would not be obligated to pay this $3.50 per week assessment. Your attention is invited in this respect to the affidavit of Mr. Herb E. Bayer, the field project manager for Blaw-Knox Co., marked "No. 47" among the listed affidavits attached hereto. 2. In addition to the above, many men would leave the project, not giving anybody any notice or otherwise, and go to work on other projects which were working longer hours and at better rates of pay. These people would still be carried on the records of the company for some time in the hope that they would return, and it must be assumed that such persons are included in the figure of 64,111 until the termination was shown for them which may be several weeks after they had actually ceased to work on this project. 3. Another reason is that, if a man would apply for work at the project, pass his security check, and then go seek a place to live and, being unable to find such a place, he would still be carried on the rolls of Blaw-Knox and would be paid for the time that he spent in checking in and passing his various tests, even though he didn't return to work the following day and never returned to the job any more. 4. Another reason why this figure of 64,111 cannot be used is that all of the men who actually worked full weeks on this project did not contribute to local 706. Therefore, for the reasons above stated, it cannot be said that this account is short in any respect. 5. Still another reason the figure of 64,111 cannot be used is that all of the men on the job did not pay any amount, paid only at irregular intervals or paid a smaller sum than $3.50 per week. 6. If my memory serves me correctly, for a while on this project other people than pipefitters had the prefix "12." I believe that these people who were drawing the same rate of pay as the pipefitters were actually inspectors. I was reminded of this fact by one of the persons I have been talking to about this matter when he recalled that some of the pipefitters (people with prefix "12" on their badge) were accused of loafing or sitting down on the job and when the full badge number was disclosed, it was discovered it was not pipefitters who were sitting down on the job. If my memory serves me correctly, this number "12" was eliminated from the prefix of these other folks after a period of time. reason this prefix "12" is important is that the Army Audit Agency only has a listing of people under prefix "12" and classes them all as pipefitters. Thus, if a certain number of these people were not actually pipefitters, this number of 64,111 could not be used here. II. EXPENDITURES FROM THE FUNDS OF LOCAL 706 FOR CHRISTMAS GIFTS The It has been a standing practice of this local union at Christmastime to give Christmas presents to the officers of the international union, various officers of other local unions who have assisted in the employment of members of local 706, and other people who have assisted or befriended the membership of this www.ww local union in one way or another. These matters have often been taken up on the floor of the local union as is stated in the affidavits of the following people attached to this statement: Affidavit number and name: 11. W. A. McMahan, A. A. Malloch, 12. H. J. Webb and J. B. Swilley. 13. W. W. Wright and H. C. Bratton 14. M. Muckelrath and L. B. Priddy 17. Bruce Cottrell 18. Jack Goodwin 19. George Morgan 20. George Wolfe 23. J. M. Telford 27. Homer Andress 28. John W. Garlington 30. H. C. Burns 32. M. L. "Red" Evans 46. Ernest Samuel Peppers (See last page of Price affidavit.) Furthermore, the amounts of such gifts have been included in the report of the finance committee to the membership of this local union. I invite the Committee's attention to the report of the finance committee for the month of January 1956, wherein Christmas gifts to general officers in the amount of $867.95 were included in the report; to the financial report of February 1957, where Christmas favors in the sum of $361.07 were reported; to the finance report of the month of January 1958, where Christmas gifts in the sum of $4,236.24 were reported to the membership; to the report of February of 1958 where $440.42 was reported to the membership by the finance committee; to the finance report of December 1954, where Christmas gifts in the sum of $1,006.39 were reported to the membership by the finance committee; to the monthly finance report of January 1954, where the sum of $436.88 was reported to the membership as Christmas gifts, and in the month of December 1953, the sum of $490.80 was reported to the general membership by the finance committee as Christmas gifts. Mr. Mundie lists certain expenditures from 1951 through 1959 which he says were purchases unauthorized by the membership and paid for by checks from the local union funds. All of these purchases were authorized by the membership. For example, the items listed by Mr. Mundie under dates of December 20 and December 19 as Christmas gifts from Cobbs, were authorized by the membership as reflected by the minutes of the membership meeting of December 4, 1951, which read as follows: "B. A. Griffin asks that money be appropriated for Xmas presents to the proper persons. Brother Grady Purdue makes motion that B. A. Griffin use his judgment in buying presents for those whom he sees fit. Seconded by Brother Bob Owens, carried unanimously." Another example is the expenditure of $4,218.84 for expenses of a group of contractors to Washington, D.C., in February of 1958. The membership was fully advised of this, and the minutes of the meeting of February 18, 1958, reflect the following: *** He (B. A. Ermon Griffin) thinks they did some good in Washingtoncarried 18 plumbing contractors with them * * *. He tells of talking with Senator McClellan in Washington." The finance officers' report of February 1958 reflects that $5,599.56 was spent from the organizing fund of which $4,218.84 was for the expenses of this trip. The finance reports for the months of February and March of 1958 were read to the body on May 6, 1958, and the minutes of that meeting reflect that the expenses of this trip as reflected by the February and March finance reports was explained. This trip was made to oppose H.R. 7168 while it was being considered by the Senate of the United States. The persons in our industry believed this proposed legislation harmful to the best interests of everyone concerned. These minutes reflect that the finance reports for February and March 1958 were accepted as read. With regard to the flowers sent to Mrs. Earl Griffin and Mrs. Ermon Griffin, this is not an isolated incidence, but one of a general practice of the local union to send flowers to any member or his wife who is ill. This flower fund is taken up by the members on the job and deposited in the general fund as shown by the following receipts. |