Ramsey v. United Mine Workers of America

• Decision Date: 04 March 1967
• Docket Number: 4189.,Civ. A. No. 3667
• Citation: 265 F. Supp. 388
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Tennessee
• Parties: George RAMSEY et al., Plaintiffs, v. The UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA, Defendant. TENNESSEE PRODUCTS & CHEMICAL CORPORATION, Plaintiff, v. The UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA and West Kentucky Coal Company, Defendants.

265 F. Supp. 388

George RAMSEY et al., Plaintiffs, v. The UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA, Defendant.

TENNESSEE PRODUCTS & CHEMICAL CORPORATION, Plaintiff, v. The UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA and West Kentucky Coal Company, Defendants.

Civ. A. Nos. 3667, 4189.

United States District Court E. D. Tennessee, S. D.

March 4, 1967.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

John A. Rowntree, Knoxville, Tenn., William M. Ables, Jr., A. A. Kelly, South Pittsburg, Tenn., Clarence Walker, Sizer Chambliss, Chattanooga, Tenn., for plaintiffs Ramsey and others.

John A. Rowntree, Knoxville, Tenn., Waller, Lansden & Dortch, Nashville, Tenn., for plaintiff Tennessee Products.

Harrison Combs, Willard P. Owens, Washington, D. C., E. H. Rayson, Knoxville, Tenn., M. E. Boiarsky, Charleston, W. Va., for defendant United Mine Workers.

OPINION

FRANK W. WILSON, District Judge.

These two lawsuits involve antitrust actions instituted against the United Mine Workers of America by a number of coal operators from the Southeastern Tennessee coal fields. The lawsuits, like the economic struggle of which they are a part, have been long and hard fought. The issues here involved are basic issues. They involve a basic commodity in the American economy — coal. They involve basic principles of American labor-management relations — the manner in which labor and management may lawfully seek their respective aims and goals. They involve basic principles of American law — the extent to which Federal Antitrust Laws shall regulate the activities of labor unions.

The original action, in Docket No. 3667, purported to have been brought as a class action, some 27 individuals, partnerships and corporations joining as plaintiffs. As originally filed, the lawsuit named a number of parties as defendant, including United Mine Workers of America, the Trustees of the United Mine Workers of America Welfare and Retirement Fund, the West Kentucky Coal Company, Inc., Cyrus W. Eaton, the Tennessee Valley Authority, G. O. Wessenouer, manager of power for the T.V.A., and The Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company. Along the way plaintiffs were added and plaintiffs dropped out or were dismissed from the suit so that, at the time of the trial, some 16 individuals, partnerships and corporations remained as parties plaintiff. Also along the way the suit was dismissed as to all defendants other than the United Mine Workers of America. In the course of the trial an additional plaintiff, Walden Ridge Coal Company, was dismissed for lack of any evidence in its behalf. Various motions were made at the trial by the defendant with respect to the right of other individual plaintiffs to maintain this suit, but action upon these individual motions was reserved for this opinion. The case was tried by the Court sitting without a jury. The trial extended over a period of weeks with a record in excess of five thousand six hundred pages having been made and four hundred fifty exhibits having been filed, many of the exhibits themselves being quite voluminous. This lawsuit has been well tried and the parties have submitted excellent briefs.

At the time the lawsuit in Docket No. 3667 was tried, there was pending upon the dockets of this court the case of Tennessee Products & Chemical Corporation v. United Mine Workers of America and West Kentucky Coal Company, Inc., Docket No. 4189. This lawsuit contained almost identical allegations of liability as were involved in Docket No. 3667. Following the trial and submission of briefs in the original action, Docket No. 3667, the parties undertook negotiations in Docket No. 4189, which negotiations eventually led to a dismissal of that action as to the defendant, West Kentucky Coal Company, Inc., and to a stipulation by the parties that the issue of liability in that case would be submitted to the Court for decision upon the record made in the trial of Docket No. 3667. This opinion would accordingly decide all issues in Docket No. 3667 but only the issue of liability in Docket No. 4189.

SUMMARY OF CONTENTIONS

A summary of the contentions of the parties would lay an appropriate foundation for the analysis of the evidence and the factual and legal conclusions which the Court must make in deciding these cases. The Court will accordingly attempt a concise statement of the theories advanced by the respective parties.

Plaintiffs' Contentions

The plaintiffs contend that the defendant, United Mine Workers of America (sometimes hereinafter referred to as "U.M.W.") has over a number of years now engaged in an unlawful conspiracy with certain coal operators to eliminate and suppress competition in the coal industry, to control the Southern Appalachian coal fields and to suppress or eliminate the production of coal in the Southeastern Tennessee coal fields. This conspiracy is alleged to violate Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act (15 U.S.C. Sections 1 and 2). It is alleged that the major coal producers in Pennsylvania, Ohio and adjacent states, including among others Consolidation Coal Company and Island Creek Coal Company, had prior to 1950 largely dominated the production and marketing of coal in the Appalachian area. This domination was threatened by the rise of small independent producers during and following World War II. By 1949-1950 the coal industry in America was confronted with a problem of over production. Thereupon, commencing with the National Bituminous Coal Wage Agreement of 1950, the U.M.W. combined and conspired with major coal companies to force uniform wages which only the larger companies could meet on all coal producers in the nation, including those in marginal seams, such as the plaintiffs, to restrain competition from those many small producers who were operating under conditions where they could not possibly perform the terms of the national contract and thus to eliminate the competition of producers from the market, thereby permitting the markets to be taken over by the major coal combines. Successive amendments to the National Bituminous Coal Wage Agreement of 1950 were negotiated between the U.M.W. and the major coal producers in 1951, 1952, 1955, 1956 and 1958 raising wages to an exceedingly high level and increasing the welfare fund royalty from 10¢ a ton to 40¢ a ton. It is alleged that these amendments were a part of the same conspiracy and in furtherance of the same monopolistic practices. The successive increases in the wage scale and welfare fund payments were designed and tailored to meet the abilities of the major coal companies to mechanize and not have their profits affected by the increasing labor costs, the U.M.W. all the while having full knowledge that the smaller companies could not pay the wage scale and royalties and would therefore fall by the wayside. It is alleged that the U.M.W. favored the coal industry being taken over by the large combines of coal producers and in furtherance of this engaged in a campaign to impose the wage contracts upon the small independent and non-union mines, this effort by the Union being particularly intense after 1950. Mob violence and terrorism were used by the Union in furtherance of these purposes. To accelerate the demise of small companies, provisions were placed in the national contract whereby the operators agreed not to lease coal lands or purchase coal from nonsignatories to the contract. In 1958 an amendment to the contract was negotiated whereby the U.M.W. expressly agreed not to enter into any agreement with other coal operators upon any basis other than the national contract.

In the meantime, the rapid expansion of the Tennessee Valley Authority steam plant system during the 1950's, resulting in the T.V.A. becoming the largest coal purchaser in the nation, called the attention of the conspirators to the Southern Appalachian region. The U.M.W. thereupon invested over $25,000,000 in coal companies, principally the West Kentucky Coal Company, and its subsidiary, Nashville Coal Company, and these companies, along with other conspirators, adopted the practice of predatory pricing to drive the T.V.A. coal market price down to a level where small producers could not compete upon the market. Large tonnages of coal were dumped on the T.V.A. market at constantly lower prices. During the same time it is alleged that the U.M.W. sought to suppress production of coal by the plaintiffs by creating labor turmoil, violence and intimidation throughout the Southeastern Tennessee coal fields. In this manner, by reducing production in the Southeastern Tennessee coal field by labor turmoil, while at the same time forcing the T.V.A. coal market price downward, the plaintiffs were caused to lose their principal market, the T.V.A. steam plant market. The conspiracy thus manifested itself in the Southeastern Tennessee coal fields by a squeeze applied to the local operators both from the market side and from the labor side. While large producers in other fields, including companies owned by the U.M.W., applied downward pressure on the price of coal in the plaintiffs' principal market, U.M.W. sought to raise labor costs by forcing the national contract upon the plaintiffs, by interfering with production, by engaging in widespread acts of violence and intimidation, and by closing down the Southeastern Tennessee coal fields for long periods of time by means of labor turmoil. It is alleged that the result of all of these actions has been that a large number of small coal companies, including many of the plaintiffs, have been driven out of the coal industry and large numbers of coal miners have been put out of work. Those plaintiffs who have managed to survive contend that they have been severely damaged by the defendant's monopolistic practices.

Defendant's Contentions

The defendant denies participation in any conspiracy and denies that the plaintiffs have been the victims of any antitrust violations on the part of the defendant. On the contrary, the...