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Mr. TOLAND. I offer in evidence the copy just identified by the witness, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. MURDOCK. What was the number?
Mr. TOLAND. W-1, Mr. Murdock.

(Copy of letter dated Dec. 24, 1938, referred to by the witness as "Exhibit W-1," addressed to Ed Mooney, superintendent, Island Creek Coal Co., West Virginia, was received in evidence, marked "Exhibit No. 78," and is printed in the appendix of this volume.)

Mr. OZANIC. And the committee will note that that notice was directed to a large number of other operators, which are also a part of that exhibit, where we had organized majorities at those various mines throughout the West Virginia coal fields.

Mr. TOLAND. Will you read the list of all the companies to whom the notice was sent ?

Mr. OZANIC. The same notice that appears as Exhibit W-1, dated December 24, 1938, and which was addressed to Mr. Ed Mooney, superintendent, Island Creek Coal Co., Holden, W. Va., and which incidentally was sent out by registered mail in each case, with a return receipt demanded, and we have the signed return receipt on file. showing that these companies did receive this notice, was also similarly directed to

Mr. TOLAND (interposing). Well, may I withdraw that question and ask if you can give us the approximate number of companies? Mr. OZANIC. About 124 coal companies, owning and operating 195 coal mines in West Virginia, employing approximately 54,000 mine

workers.

Mr. TOLAND. What happened, if anything, after that?

Mr. OZANIC. I would like to include the other exhibit, Mr. Toland. Mr. TOLAND. Yes.

Mr. OZANIC. Also Exnibit W-2, dated April 4, a similar notice to these operators.

Mr. TOLAND. I show you a copy of a telegram addressed to David W. Martin, superintendent, signed by you as president of the Progressive Mine Workers.

Mr. OZANIC. That is right.

Mr. TOLAND. I will ask you if it is a true and correct copy?
Mr. OZANIC. Yes, sir: and then, the next one to it.

Mr. TOLAND. And attached thereto is a list entitled "Send same telegram to." I show you another copy of a telegram, and ask you if that is a correct copy of a telegram sent to you by Mr. Martin? Mr. OZANIC. It is.

Mr. TOLAND. And all part of the same exhibit?

Mr. OZANIC. Yes, sir.

Mr. TOLAND. I offer the exhibits in evidence as one exhibit Mr. Chairman, being four pages.

(The four pages referred to by the witness as "Exhibit W-2," being copy of a telegram dated April 4, 1939, addressed to David W. Martin, superintendent, together with a list of others to whom the same telegram was to be sent, and copy of another telegram dated April 14, 1939, addressed to David W. Martin, superintendent, were received in evidence, and are printed in the appendix of this volume, marked "Exhibit 79.")

Mr. OZANIC. These notices were not sent out to any of these coal companies until the majority of the employees working at their mines

voluntarily came over to the Progressive Mine Workers of America as their choice of unions. Every operator that was served with this notice ignored it, without exception, throughout all West Virginia. Seeing that they had no intention of respecting the wishes of their majority, then, and finding that they entered into negotiations with the United Mine Workers knowing full well that it did not represent the majority of their employees, and after they made a contract-and after they refused to give attention to our notices, we then were compelled to file a petition against the Island Creek Coal Co., with the National Labor Relations Board, which is Exhibit W-7, and which I would like made a part of the record-W-7 was Kelley Creek. I want to correct that. I want to find those that apply to the Island Creek. I am sure it should be in here. Perhaps I do not even have that, Mr. Toland.

Mr. TOLAND. May I state for the purposes of the record that the informal file of the National Labor Relations Board, Island Creek Coal Co., IX-R-290, discloses that a petition was filed February 7, 1939.

Mr. HALLECK. Mr. Toland, what is an "informal file" of the National Labor Relations Board?

Mr. TOLAND. An "informal file," Mr. Congressman, is a file of the National Labor Relations Board that does not contain all formal pleadings, orders, and decisions of the Board, but contains reports from regional directors, correspondence from the parties, memoranda, and matters that are outside of what we might say constitute the record in a lawsuit or in a hearing before the Board.

Mr. HALLECK. But they are files of the Board or of employees or members of the Board, having to do with the particular matter under consideration?

Mr. TOLAND. They are official files of the Board, and we will show at the proper time their connection with matters before the Board. Mr. HALLECK. All right.

Mr. TOLAND. Will you proceed, please?

Mr. OZANIC. I mentioned Exhibit K-7.

Mr. TOLAND. That was an error?

Mr. OZANIC. That was an error. I thought I had an exhibit here which constituted a copy of the petition filed with the Board, but it is the charge that I saw, instead of that, and the petition, as already pointed out, was filed with the Board in February 1939. That petition is still pending before the Board; it has never been heard, nor has it ever been tried, nor has it been decided. Then, while this petition involving the Island Creek Coal Co. and their properties was pending before the Board, and the Board saw fit to remain inactive on that petition in spite of our appeals and demands for action, the company, contrary to the wishes of their majorities, entered into what it termed "union shop contracts" with the United Mine Workers.

Mr. TOLAND. Where you say "contrary to the wishes of their majorities," you mean the majority of the employees?

Mr. OZANIC. Of the company, that is right: and they entered into a union shop contract with the United Mine Workers without consent of the majority of their employees, and made that document effective

as of May 12, 1939. Following the signing of that so-called union shop contract, which of course we hold is invalid under the National Labor Relations Act, the coal company proceeded to use every effort at its command to force all of its employees into the United Mine Workers, and to prove that, I submit here Exhibit W-11, composed of two documents.

Mr. TOLAND. I show you a mimeographed copy of a document described as "Exhibit W-11," put out by the Island Creek Coal Co., on or about June 1, and I ask you if that is a true and correct copy thereof?

Mr. OZANIC. It is.

Mr. TOLAND. And attached thereto is an additional statement, and I ask you if that is a true and correct copy of the statement put out by the company to be signed by the employee?

Mr. OZANIC. It is.

Mr. TOLAND. I offer in evidence the documents just identified by the witness.

The CHAIRMAN. What are they? How are they designated?

Mr. TOLAND. W-11. There are two of them; one follows the other. (Copy of document described as "Exhibit W-11," put out by the Island Creek Coal Co. on or about June 1, 1939, with copy of an employees' statement, was received in evidence and marked "Exhibit No. 80.")

Mr. OZANIC (continuing). The Island Creek Coal Co. placed this statement marked "Exhibit W-11" before every one of their employees on about June 1, 1939.

Mr. TOLAND. Will you read the statement, Mr. Ozanic?
Mr. OZANIC (reading):

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As a condition of my continued employment with Island Creek Coal Company, I approve the Appalachian Wage Contract of May 12, 1939, between Logan Coal Operators Association and others and the International Union, United Mine Workers of America, and District 17 (and other districts) thereof, and the District Wage Agreement of May 19, 1939, between Logan Coal Operators Association and District 17, United Mine Workers of America, and I agree to abide by the terms thereof, and to authorize the deductions from my earnings therein provided.

Signed

Mine No.

And a blank space for the individual's signature to be attached. "Mine Number," where he is employed-in the presence of a witness. These notices were put out pursuant to the negotiating of a contract between that company and the United Mine Workers, which provided that as a condition of employment all employees must belong to the United Mine Workers, and pursuant to an agreement that was made, whereby the operators agreed to act as recruiting agencies for the C. I. O. United Mine Workers, and to compel all mine workers to join that union, as a condition of employment.

These notices were presented to every employee of the Island Creek Coal Company in just exactly the form in which it is presented here, and every employee was asked to attach his name to it and submit it back to the company's office. The employees refused to sign this,

contending that they had a right to belong to the Progressive Mine Workers, such as they had designated many months before that time. After the employees had refused to sign this statement, then the committee submitted the other one, on July 1, 1939, to all of its employees, the same as in the first instance; and I want to read that

one, too.

Mr. TOLAND. I wish you would.

Mr. OZANIC.

(Exhibit 80 continued:)

Statement is being issued for wages to all employees of the Island Creek Coal Company for this pay period.

The undersigned employee hereby represents and agrees to the amount for rent, insurance, hospital, doctor, garage, burial fund, and all other changes or deductions, including initiation fee, dues, and special assessments of the United Mine Workers of America, under agreement of May 12. 1939; shown on the above order on two items shown on said statement shall stand agreed and approved unless any error therein is called to the employer's attention on or before the next regular pay day, subject to correction, in accordance with the next preceding sentence.

The Act, as shown on the above statement is hereby stated and settled and receipt in full of the amount thereon shown as due the employer is hereby acknowledged.

And a blank space beneath it, and the name "employee," for his signature to appear.

The employees refused to sign that statement. The company then discharged five of the leading members of the Progressive Mine Workers, employed by Island Creek Coal Co. Two or three of these five were officers of our local unions. They were discharged as examples to the rest, to show that unless they did submit to the company's demands and agreed to the terms of the C. I. O. United Mine Workers, that they were subject to discharge. They discharged five men, and the five men are still out of employment.

Following the discharge of these five men, the unfair labor practice charge was filed with the National Labor Relations Board on September 30, 1939, marked "Exhibit W-10," which I would like to have made a part of the record and particular notice taken of it.

Mr. TOLAND. I show you, Mr. Ozanic, what purports to be a mimeographed copy of a charge filed with the National Labor Relations Board, ninth region, in the Matter of Island Creek Coal Co. and Progressive Mine Workers of America, International Union, and signed by you as president. Is that a true and correct copy?

Mr. OZANIC. It is.

Mr. TOLAND. I offer it in evidence. That is W-10.

(Copy of "charge," in the Matter of Island Creek Coal Co. and Progressive Mine Workers of America, International Union, "Exhibit W-10," was received in evidence, marked "Exhibit No. 81," and is printed in the appendix of this volume.)

Mr. OZANIC (resuming). Now, while this charge was pending before the National Labor Relations Board-and again I repeat, that from the moment it was filed with the ninth region, with the regional director's office in Cincinnati, Ohio, the regional director was approached by myself, by telephone, through our representatives who were stationed in West Virginia, and through our director of organi

zation, Mr. Flaherty, but we failed to receive any consideration from the National Labor Relations Board whatsoever. In the meantime, the Island Creek Coal Co., when it found that the employees were refusing to sign this document that was submitted to them, in itself, as a separate item, as a condition of employment, it then resorted to using the pay statement, that an employee of the company is forced to sign, to receive money that is due him for work already performed, and money which he had already earned, and which on pay day, before he can receive money for wages due him for work performed, he must sign.

So the company then has a double-barrelled effect against their employees, and to be sure that they would sign over to the United Mine Workers, as a condition of employment, it then resorted to using, which is the second document, a part of the individual's pay statement, so that when he signed a pay statement, in order to collect money that was due him for work performed, he also signed this condition of employment, which forced him into the United Mine Workers, and was forced to put up the dues to the United Mine Workers, even though he was not a willing member of that organization. I marked this "Exhibit W-11," Mr. Toland, and I would like you to submit that as a part of the record. At the bottom of the statement you will find a verbatim reproduction of this exhibit.

Mr. TOLAND. Mr. Chairman, I offer in evidence a paper described as follows: "Island Creek Coal Company, Holden, West Virginia, 236-01, 7824 Walter Hunter," identified by the witness as a pay slip, and ask that it be admitted."

(The paper, "Island Creek Coal Company, Holden, West Virginia, 236-01, 7824, Walter Hunter," was received in evidence, marked "Exhibit No. 82," and is printed in the appendix of this volume.)

Mr. OZANIC (continuing). And another one, for August 31, another document of the same type.

Mr. TOLAND. I offer in evidence a similar document produced by the witness, testified to by him, described as follows: "August 31, 1939, Island Creek Coal Company, Holden, West Virginia, 236-01, 7824, Walter Hunter," and ask that it be admitted.

(The paper referred to, dated August 31, 1939, "Island Creek Coal Company, Holden, West Virginia, 236-01, 7824, Walter Hunter," was received in evidence, marked "Exhibit No. 83," and is printed in the appendix of this volume.)

Mr. MURDOCK. May I ask, Mr. Toland, does the exhibit purport to be signed by the employee?

Mr. TOLAND. This does not purport to be signed. This is issued by the company to the individual. Mr. Ozanic, did Mr. Hunter sign the exhibit described as "W-11"?

Mr. OZANIC. Mr. Hunter is here to testify, himself, Mr. Toland. I would rather have him tell you that, himself. I do not know. Mr. TOLAND. Did he turn these exhibits over to you?

Mr. OZANIC. He gave it to me, yes; to be used here.

Mr. TOLAND. What, if anything, happened after that, Mr. Ozanic? Mr. OZANIC. After they did that, and after they discharged five of their employees who refused to sign these statements as a condition of their employment, other employees of the Island Creek Coal

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