Tungsten Mining Corp. v. DISTRICT 50, UNITED MINE WKRS., Civ. No. 742.

• Decision Date: 28 June 1956
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 742.
• Citation: 142 F. Supp. 800
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of North Carolina
• Parties: TUNGSTEN MINING CORPORATION, Plaintiff, v. DISTRICT 50, UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA, Defendant.

142 F. Supp. 800

TUNGSTEN MINING CORPORATION, Plaintiff, v. DISTRICT 50, UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA, Defendant.

Civ. No. 742.

United States District Court E. D. North Carolina, Raleigh Division.

June 28, 1956.

Reade, Fuller, Newsom & Graham, Durham, N. C., Gholson & Gholson, Henderson, N. C., for plaintiff.

Armistead Maupin, Arendell & Green, Raleigh, N. C., for defendant.

GILLIAM, District Judge.

I heard the evidence in this civil action without a jury. The plaintiff's prayer for judgment grew out of a strike of the employees of the plaintiff at its tungsten mine and processing mill located in Vance County, North Carolina. What follows is a chronological summary of the pertinent events, as I find them from the evidence.

Tungsten Mining Corporation, referred to as "Tungsten", and United Stone & Allied Products Workers of America, C.I.O., referred to as "Stone Workers", after an election, entered into a collective bargaining agreement on April 3, 1946. Stone Workers was certified by the National Labor Relations Board as the collective bargaining representative of the employees of Tungsten. Contracts between Tungsten and Stone Workers were always in force from May 15, 1946, until January 15, 1953. Tungsten and Stone Workers changed the anniversary date to January during the interim to have it approximately coincide with the calendar year for their mutual convenience.

William Holleman and many of his fellow workers had become dissatisfied with the representation afforded them by Stone Workers. In October, 1952, Holleman contacted Frank Lumpkin, a relative, of Hopewell, Virginia, employed at the Hercules Powder Company; and the two discussed the process of changing unions. The union at Hercules Powder Company was District 50, United Mine Workers of America, the defendant before me, referred to as "District 50". Stortly after Holleman made this inquiry, W. A. Shuey, an officer of the Hercules Local, visited Tungsten, talked with Holleman, and supplied application cards for membership in District 50.

An organizing campaign launched by Holleman proved to be a success. In short order, 386 of Tungsten's approximately 400 employees signed up with District 50. Of these 386, 269 who had been members of Stone Workers also signed forms to sever relations with that union and cancel their dues checkoff authorization held by the Company.

About the middle of October, 1952, Robert Fohl, Regional Director for the United Mine Workers; Lucian Wood, Field Representative for District 50; and Shuey came to Tungsten and conferred with James R. Sweet, Vice President and General Manager of Tungsten. The District 50 representatives informed Sweet of their union's majority status at Tungsten. They explained to him that union's avoidance of the National Labor Relations Board's facilities and offered to have District 50's status verified through the medium of some other disinterested third party. Local ministers and the North Carolina Department of Labor were suggested. There was, of course, no offer or request for the membership lists to be handed over directly to Tungsten.

A few days later, J. D. Foreman, a national representative of Stone Workers, arrived on the scene. He came in the capacity of Administrator of the Tungsten Local, having been appointed by Sam Scott, President of Stone Workers International, under a clause in the Stone Workers' constitution that provides for such an appointment in the event that a crisis is found to exist in a local. Foreman quickly lost any doubts he may have held as to the existence of a crisis. At a meeting of the majority of Tungsten's employees he was shouted down without a chance to make himself heard. Inquiry among the workers convinced him that virtually all had joined District 50, and he so informed the Company.

On November 13, 1952, George Pendley, Secretary of Stone Workers Local, sent to Tungsten a letter advising that the contract with Stone Workers, due to expire January 15, 1953, should not be renewed. Copies were sent to Stone Workers and the National Labor Relations Board.

W. L. Long, Vice President and General Counsel of Tungsten, and Sweet were uncertain what course Tungsten should follow in the situation that confronted them. In particular, they were puzzled by Foreman's claimed power to act for the Stone Workers. Long and Sweet attended a company meeting in New York in December. It was arranged for them to confer while there with an attorney for the Stone Workers from Boston. Foreman and Scott were also present at this conference.

Long and Sweet were readily convinced of Foreman's capacity to act for the Stone Workers Local in negotiating with Tungsten. Whether or not substantial agreement was reached there about a new contract is not at all clear from the evidence. Each of those present who testified before me had his own version of what was said and done in that New York hotel room more than three years before the trial. Regardless of where the negotiations were had, Tungsten and Stone Workers did enter into a new contract a few days later.

Through December and the early days of January, 1953, District 50 meetings and organization continued. Tungsten made no effort whatsoever to accurately evaluate the obvious situation of which it had full and ample notice. Before and during the strike Tungsten steadfastly refused to even consider that the Stone Workers Local was a defunct organization. Instead, by the testimony of its officers, Tungsten placed its reliance on three principal factors: (1) Advice from the N.L.R.B., which was completely out of touch with the situation; (2) Between 250 and 270 dues checkoff authorizations that it still held; (3) Stone Workers' N.L.R.B. Certification, which was more than six and one-half years old. Long, as General Counsel of Tungsten, was (and still is) of the opinion that Tungsten should refuse to bargain with any union not certified by the N.L.R.B.

On January 9, 1953, the storm broke. Holleman, who was then President of the unrecognized District 50 Local, was working in the mine with James Knight, Secretary of the new organization. The two were doing carpentry work in an overhand stope. About 11:30 A.M., it became necessary for them to descend to the tunnel beneath to cut a piece of lumber for their work in the stope. This done, they proceeded to eat their lunch before the regulation noon lunch hour. The assistant mine foreman and the shaft boss arrived. Holleman and Knight were fired on the spot.

They left the premises and began to meet employees on the next shift, and word of their discharge spread. By early evening a full-fledged strike was in progress. The days that followed were characterized by large scale confusion about the gates to the mine and the surrounding countryside. The confusion was attended by violence and rowdyism. On January 14, an order from the North Carolina Superior Court limited the number of pickets about the gate to six and forbade others from approaching within a hundred feet. A defendant named in that court order was District 50.

Fohl and Wood were about the scene of the strike frequently before the restraining order was issued which named their organization as a defendant. When these District 50 representatives learned that Holleman and Knight had been fired, they advised the two to present their grievance to Tungsten under the Stone Workers' contractual procedure. Holleman and Knight declined to do so, insisting that such a move would be futile. Wood was present on the night of the fourteenth when the restraining order was served. He assisted a Highway Patrolman in stepping off the one hundred feet specified in the order.

On January 15, 1953, Tungsten's old contract with Stone Workers expired, and District 50 formally adopted the six day old strike for the purpose of getting recognition. Strike headquarters was established at a rented building some distance from the mine. The union furnished picket signs demanding recognition. At all times, before and after the fifteenth, District 50 representatives cautioned strikers against violence. A federal injunction was issued by this Court on February 3, 1953, at which time the strike ended and representatives of District 50 sent copies of the injunction to all on strike, posted notices of it, and left the scene for good.

Tungsten's action against District 50 is founded on Title 29 U.S.C.A. § 187. The pertinent sections of that statute read as follows: "(a) It shall be unlawful, for the purposes of this section only, in an industry or...