CONTENTS WITNESSES Testimony of Miller, James P., Cleveland, Ohio; former regional director of the Page 671-731 Robb, Roger, Washington, D. C.; associate counsel of the Special Committee to Investigate the National Labor Relations Board. 585-601 Smith, Edwin S., Washington, D. C.; member of the National Labor Relations Board....... 601-671 Perry-Fay Co___ Readrite Co... Republic Steel Co. Sands Manufacturing Co.. Sieberling Rubber Co Slusser-McClain Co.. Stratbury Manufacturing Co. Thompson Products Co.. Toledo Tool Co... ... .... Triplett Electrical Instrument Co. Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co.... 722 686 671, 675, 710 718 709 709, 711 675-676 718 710, 721-722 686-689 671-675, 714 733 586-587 588-589 590 590-591 593-594 595-596 599-600 600 734 734 734-735 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS ACT FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1939 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SPECIAL COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE THE The committee met at 10 a. m. pursuant to adjournment on Thursday, December 14, 1939, in room 362 of the Old House Office Building, Representative Howard W. Smith, chairman, presiding. Present: Representatives Howard W. Smith of Virginia, Arthur D. Healey of Massachusetts, Abe Murdock of Utah, Charles A. Halleck of Indiana, and Harry N. Routzohn of Ohio. Edmund M. Toland, general counsel to the committee. Charles Fahy, general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board. TESTIMONY OF ROGER ROBB, ASSOCIATE COUNSEL OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, WASHINGTON, D. C.-Resumed Mr. TOLAND. Mr. Robb, will you please remove the first memorandum designated in the informal report under date of September 28? Mr. ROBB. I think you read that whole memorandum yesterday, Mr. Toland, but I will take it out to make sure. Mr. TOLAND. I want all of the documents that we referred to yesterday to be removed from the file. I will offer the originals as exhibits, and then ask leave to substitute photostatic copies for the originals. Where we do not have photostatic copies, I will ask the reporter to make certain that the originals are returned immediately after being copied. The first is dated October 5? Mr. May, will you take this list and follow through on the dates? Mr. ROBB. I have a carbon copy of that, Mr. Toland. Mr. TOLAND. I want to check to make sure that they have all been produced. Mr. ROBB. Which is the first one you wanted, Mr. Toland? Mr. ROBB. I have that, Mr. Toland. That is titled "National Labor Relations Board, Fourth Region, week ending October 3, 1936. Informal report." The first entry is September 28. Mr. TOLAND. Mr. Chairman, I offer in evidence the report just identified by the witness and heretofore testified about by him on yesterday. Mr. Reporter, we have no photostatic copies of this. It is an official record of the Board, and I ask that it be returned in a special folder, together with other Board documents that are exhibits, as promptly as possible, so that it can be placed back in the files. Mr. ROBB. Mr. Toland, I believe that the letter from Mr. Nathan Witt to Samuel Zack slipped under that report, if I am not mistaken. Mr. TOLAND. It is right on top, and the report and the letter are one exhibit. (Informal report, October 3, 1936, together with memorandum Witt to Zack, received in evidence and marked "Exhibit No. 104," and is printed in the appendix of this volume.) Mr. ROBB. Mr. Toland, I am handing you a document taken from the informal file, entitled "National Labor Relations Board"-it is spelled "L-a-n-o-r," but I assume that means "L-a-b-o-r"-"week ending October 10, 1936. Fourth region. Informal report." Clipped to it is the report from the regional director of the fourth region to Mr. Edwin S. Smith, member, N. L. R. B., dated October 12, 1936, which you have not yet read. Mr. TOLAND. I offer in evidence the copy of the letter and the original of a report just identified by the witness, and ask that they be admitted and marked as one exhibit, with the same instruction to the reporter concerning these exhibits. (Informal report, fourth region, week ending October 10, 1936, together with memorandum, October 12, 1936, Root to Smith, were received in evidence and marked "Exhibit No. 105.") Mr. TOLAND. These are to be returned as promptly as possible in a separate envelope. While I am reading this, Mr. Robb, will you locate the rest of the exhibits? Mr. ROBB. Yes; I am doing that now, Mr. Toland. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD, WASHINGTON, Memorandum to: Mr. EDWIN S. SMITH, Member, NLRB. Subject: Berkshire Knitting Mill. Mr. MURDOCK. Who is the regional director of the fourth district? Mr. TOLAND. Major Root, Mr. Murdock. Mr. MURDOCK. And he was located where? Mr. TOLAND. Philadelphia. He is not there now. He was at the time of the writing of these papers. (Reading:) At the end of last week Governor Earle called a conference in Harrisburg, to which he invited both officials of the company and officials of the union, and representatives of the United States Department of Labor and the director and mediators of the State Department of Labor and Industry. At that meeting the company refused to meet the union representatives or to enter into any negotiations. As I told you over the telephone, very few of the employees of the Berkshire Mill are themselves on strike, and the Hosiery Workers' Union does not claim to have a majority of the workers signed up. The picket line is composed of other employees in the hosiery industry in the Reading area and from Philadelphia and of other union sympathizers. The Gotham Hosiery Mill in Philadelphia has a contract with the Interstate. Under its terms, if 20 percent of the wages in Pennsylvania are 5 or more percent below the National Hosiery Manufacturers' standard of wages, the Interstate has the right to cancel that contract. It is understood that the Interstate has notified the Gotham that with the wage scale paid in the Berkshire mill, 20 percent of those engaged in hosiery production in Pennsylvania are receiving less than the scale and that it, therefore, intends to cancel its contract. It is reported that the Gotham management told this to its 2,000 employees and that they then went to Reading and augmented the pickets there. In addition, the members of the Hosiery Manufacturers' Association have been pressing for a wage reduction before renewing their contract, which expired September 1, and which is still in the process of negotiation, and allege that because of the Berkshire competition they cannot continue to pay the union scale. Therefore, the strike would appear to be not so much of employees of the Berkshire company, as of the rest of the industry against the practices prevailing in the Berkshire mill. Hugo Heimerich is manager of the mill, and Luther D. Adams, president of Branch No. 10 of the American Federation of Hosiery Workers, is the local union official in charge. Herbert Payne has been designated by the national officers to take charge and Emil Rieve is personally in Reading at the present time. From talking to Mr. Rieve, officials of the union and other persons familiar with the situation, I do not believe that the company would, even at your solicitation, agree to deal with the union or to meet with its representatives. Having rejected the efforts of conciliation of the Governor of the Commonwealth, it is extremely doubtful whether they would deal with the union at the request of any Federal agency. Sincerely yours, The strike in this plant has continued unabated during the past week, but the picket lines have not been successful in closing the plant and sufficient workers have reported each day to continue operations. In the meantime, the State Mediation Service has its director and Mr. Charles Kutz, of the Philadelphia area, as well as the local mediator on the ground in an effort to secure some adjustment. October 5: Conference director, with Emil Rieve, president, American Federation of Hosiery Workers, who stated at this time the union did not have sufficient representation among the employees of the plant to justify them in demanding collective bargaining with their organization. Mr. TOLAND. Now, Mr. Robb, do you have the next document? Mr. HEALEY. So that we may know the identity of Mr. Root, would the witness state who he is? Mr. TOLAND. I will state for the record that Stanley W. Root, at the time of the happenings referred to herein, was the regional director of the National Labor Relations Board, with offices at Philadelphia. Mr. ROBB. This report, Mr. Toland, I believe, is the informal report of the office in Philadelphia for the week ending October 17, 1936. Mr. TOLAND. Mr. Chairman, I offer in evidence the report just identified by the witness. |