Hon. JAMES ROOSEVELT, SHIPPERS' CAR LINE, East St. Louis, Ill., December 22, 1961. Chairman, Special Subcommittee on Labor, DEAR CONGRESSMAN ROOSEVELT: Your letter of November 14, 1961, has been received along with the statement by Dr. Lucien Holman in which he alleges that "to the best of our knowledge" this plant, among numerous others, has engaged in discriminatory employment practices against Negro men and women. I appreciate the opportunity you have afforded to answer Dr. Holman's contention. First, let me say that I feel Dr. Holman's allegations are unfounded in regard to this plant. However, there are a few facts pertinent perhaps only to this plant, which may be of interest. Necessarily, the last 7 years will serve as my frame of reference, since it is during this period that I have been plant manager for Shippers' Car Line at East St. Louis. We are a private commercial concern engaged almost exclusively in the maintenance and repairing of a variety of railroad cars owned by or leased to industrial and commercial users. It must be recognized that this is a small plant with an average total of employment of approximately 50 people. We are much too small in operation to have a plant personnel department. Our employment and turnover has been extremely light; for example, we have not hired any new people for more than a year. Because of the nature of our business, the plant location is probably remote from areas where persons would ordinarily seek employment in person. In the past those whom we have hired have come to us primarily through referrals made by our employees. In addition, we have used, from time to time, both State and private employment services, and have afforded all applicants the same treatment. As plant manager, I feel that this plant has not engaged in discriminatory employment practices against Negroes; nor is it our intention to do so. Sincerely yours, G. H. ROBINSON, Plant Manager. ATLANTIC COAST LINE RAILROAD Co., Re complaint filed by NAACP with the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. Hon. JAMES ROOSEVELT, House of Representatives, DEAR CONGRESSMAN ROOSEVELT: This will acknowledge your letter January 30 concerning recent Washington hearings before the Special Subcommittee on Labor relating to equal employment opportunity. We greatly appreciate your offer to file with the subcommittee a written reply to the allegations made by Mr. Herbert Hill concerning alleged discriminatory employment practices. Your letter was the first information we had received concerning these allegations and arrangements have been made for an immediate investigation. As soon as this investigation has been completed, Coast Line would like to take advantage of your kind offer and present a written statement to the subcommittee in reply to the allegations made by Mr. Hill. Yours very sincerely, W. THOMAS RICE, President. LIGGETT & MYERS TOBACCO CO., INC., Hon. JAMES ROOSEVELT, Chairman, Special Subcommittee on Labor, DEAR SIR: Your letter of January 30 sent to Durham, N.C., was forwarded to this office with its enclosure of statements made with respect to our employment policies before your subcommittee. This matter is receiving attention but we may say preliminarily that the enclosed statement contains many inaccuracies. As is indicated by your enclosure the real involvement is with AFL-CIO, the International Association of Machinists, the Teamsters Union and several other unions. We have presently under study all factors involved. Our policies, worked out with the unions, have so far been, we think, useful. We value greatly our good relations with all our employees and wish to safeguard them in every way. Yours sincerely, R. M. CHENOWETH, Secretary. ST. LOUIS-SAN FRANCISCO RAILWAY Co., Hon. JAMES ROOSEVELT, Chairman, Special Subcommittee on Labor, Washington, D.C. DEAR MR. ROOSEVELT: Your letter of January 30, 1962, with respect to the testimony before your subcommittee by Mr. Herbert Hill in which he alleged that this company engaged in discriminatory employment practices has been referred to me. I have requested appropriate officers to investigate this matter and will communicate to you the results of our investigation as soon as practicable. We appreciate the opportunity which you have afforded us to look into this matter. Sincerely, ERNEST D. GRINNELL, Jr., Vice President and General Counsel. UNITED PAPERMAKERS & PAPERWORKERS, Hon. JAMES ROOSEVELT, DEAR CONGRESSMAN ROOSEVELT: I appreciate your letter of January 30 and the excerpt from the statement of Mr. Herbert Hill to the Special Subcommittee on Labor, wherein Mr. Hill said that the undersigned refused to meet with officials of the NAACP "to even discuss efforts to eliminate these vicious practices" of discrimination by this organization. In view of this statement, I am sending you a copy of a letter dated April 19, 1960, addressed to me by Mr. Roy Wilkins, a copy of a letter dated June 1, 1960, addressed to me by Mr. Herbert Hill, and a copy of a letter I sent to Mr. Wilkins on June 6, 1960. As will be seen from this correspondence, the suggestions of a meeting were made long after Mr. Hill had given the daily press critical statements about this organization. In view of his derogatory public statements, which were made before asking for a meeting and before any contact whatsoever with me or other officers of this international union, I saw no need then (and none now) to agree to such a meeting. Thank you for the opportunity to clear up the record in connection with this matter. Sincerely, PAUL L. PHILLIPS, President. NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE, Mr. PAUL L. PHILLIPS, President, United Papermakers & Paperworkers, AFL-CIO, DEAR MR. PHILLIPS: For many years the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has been aware that local unions affiliated with the United Papermakers and Paperworkers have negotiated separate racial lines of seniority in their collective bargaining agreements. Investigations of complaints received from our members in several States also indicate a pattern of segregated affiliated local unions throughout the South. As you know both of these practices are contrary to the constitution and civil rights declarations of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations. Where your union holds collective bargaining agreements with companies operating with Federal Government contracts the rigid exclusion of Negro workers from certain job classifications on the basis of race also represents a clear violation of the antidiscrimination provisions contained in all Federal Government contracts. It is my understanding that the United Papermakers and Paperworkers will be entering negotiations with many corporations during the spring of next year. The association is not unaware of some of the difficulties faced by trade unions in eliminating long established but unjust traditions and practices which do great harm to Negro workers and to the entire Negro community. We believe that a beginning in the pulp and paper industry should be made now so that by the time the respective unions in this industry enter negotiations in 1961 they will be in a position to bring about compliance with Federal Executive orders and with AFL-CIO civil rights policies. The NAACP is prepared to offer its fullest cooperation with the United Papermakers and Paperworkers in these matters. Therefore, I would like to arrange a meeting with you and members of your staff so that we may assist in eliminating the discriminatory practices suffered by the Negro members of your union. Either Fort Edward, Albany, or New York City would be a convenient meeting place for me and my staff. I am aware that all of us are extremely busy, therefore, may I request an early reply so that there will be no long delay in arranging this meeting. Very sincerely yours, ROY WILKINS, Executive Secretary. NATONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE, Mr. PAUL L. PHILLIPS, DEAR MR. PHILLIPS: Please find attached copy of letter dated April 10 from Roy Wilkins, executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, in which a request was made to confer with you on a matter of segregated locals affiliated to the Papermakers Union and on the issue of separate racial lines of seniority in collective bargaining agreements. Although more than a month has passed we have not even received the courtesy of an acknowledgment to Mr. Wilkins' letter. In our previous letter the association offered its fullest cooperation to the United Papermakers & Paperworkers in eliminating discriminatory racial practices. We should like to repeat our offer of assistance in initiating activity that will correspond to the best interests of the international union as well as to its colored members. Your continued lack of a response to these important matters can only be understood as an indication that the United Papermakers & Paperworkers and its international president has no intention of complying with the Constitution and civil rights declarations of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industral Organizations and that it will continue to be a party to discriminatory collective bargaining agreements in violation of the antibias provisions contained in Federal Government contracts. The refusal to meet with representatives of the NAACP is particularly dismaying as the other union in the paper industry, the International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite & Paper Mill Workers, has invited us to appear before the next meeting of its international executive board. May we request an early reply. Sincerely, HERBERT HILL, Labor Secretary. JUNE 6, 1960. Mr. ROY WILKINS, Executive Secretary, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, New York, N.Y. DEAR MR. WILKIN: I regret that a very busy schedule has prevented my earlier acknowledgment of your letter of April 19. It was, I must confess, a surprise to hear from you on this subject. A year or two ago, and occasionally since then, there have appeared in the daily press charges that this organization was following a pattern of segregation by race in its southern local unions. Yet, until your letter, no one in all this time bothered to contact us or to inquire into the accuracy of the charges. A few days ago, I received a letter from Mr. Herbert Hill. Among other things, he complained that I had not shown you the "courtesy” of a reply. Here, again, I was surprised-this time at Mr. Hill's familiarity with the word, since it was he who was quoted in the press as referred to above. To make charges without investigation appears to be the accepted procedure, and the most recent instance coming to my attention is in connection with certain union practices on Government construction in Washington, D.C. If there is a pattern of some kind, it seems to me, it is to make headline charges through the newspapers and then to sit back and await denials. I see no reason why I should go along with this way of doing things. Further, I do not need Mr. Hill to advise me on AFL-CIO policies. I am fairly well familiar with these policies. If there is to be a charge that we are not in compliance, we are answerable only to the AFL-CIO. I do not question the right of Mr. Hill to speak for the NAACP members, but I do question his authority to be the spokesman for UPP members. The United Papermakers & Paperworkers has no second-class members. Our records here at international headquarters show we make no distinction or separation on the basis of race, sex, religion, national origin, or any other of what are commonly referred to as "minority groups.” For this reason, I do not know how many of our 140,000 members are Negroes. I think it is safe to assume there are some in all mills, particularly in the mills of the South. Yet, out of 720 local unions throughout the United States and Canada, we have some 9 or 10 local unions where the membership is composed entirely of Negroes. These local unions have been approached on this matter, and I have personally discussed it with the officers of some. Not only have I failed to get a request to combine with other local unions, but I have failed to get even an agreement that it be done. We have more local unions organized on a basis of jobs or departments in a given plant, than we have organized on a basis of race. In most plants we have single local unions covering all employees, while in other plants we have as many as five separate local unions. In the latter case, to attempt to combine all employees into a single local union would simply mean the liquidation of a number of local unions. I believe in principles, of course, but I do not see where any good would be accomplished by taking such extreme measures that we destroy the power of our members at the bargaining table. It seems clear we have made considerable progress in this field, and with no complaint from the members of UPP. It is obvious we are not moving as rapidly as desired by some outside of this organization, but I am confident we shall continue to make progress by working with and through our own people. Sincerely, PAUL L. PHILLIPS, President, United Papermakers & Paperworkers. Hon. JAMES ROOSEVELT, CITIES SERVICE REFINING CORP., Chairman, Special Subcommittee on Labor, DEAR SIR: We thank you for your letter of January 31, 1962, enclosing a copy of the allegations made by Mr. Clarence A. Laws with regard to Cities Service Refining Corp., in the recent Washington hearings and affording us this opportunity to reply to the same. For your information, Cities Service Refining Corp. was among the first companies in the Deep South and the first in this immediate area to take affirmative action to assure equal employment opportunities to all employees regardless of race, color, or creed. The examination policy referred to in the affidavit submitted by Mr. Laws was adopted by the company for the specific and publicized purpose of furthering the program of the Government Contracts Committee by establishing purely objective minimum standards for employment and upgrading, and the separate restrooms, drinking fountains, etc., referred to therein are simply maintained in compliance with State laws. Moreover, since 1955 the company has undergone no less than three complete investigations under the auspices of the National Labor Relations Board, the former Government Contracts Committee, and the Military Petroleum Supply Agency, which have not only disproved the general allegations made by Mr. Laws, but have culminated in the company being commended for its cooperation in the Government's program. In this connection the company will always welcome a review of its efforts in this field and constructive criticism and suggestions from any responsible source. but we feel that blanket indictments predicated on hasty conclusions such as those reached by Mr. Laws in this instance serve only to deter the real progress being made in this field. Again thanking you for your consideration in advising us of the events that have recently transpired, we are, Yours very truly, Hon. JAMES ROOSEVELT, Chairman, Special Subcommittee on Labor, GEORGE L. MATEER, President. UNION ELECTRIC CO., St. Louis, Mo., January 16, 1962. MY DEAR MR. ROOSEVELT: Thank you for your letter of November 14, 1961, enclosing a copy of the testimony given to the House Special Subcommittee on Labor by Dr. Lucien H. Holman of the NAACP. Union Electric Co. has for many years followed a policy of employing Negroes; and, in some cases, these employees have risen to positions of importance in our organization. For example, for many years, the position of chief chemist was occupied by a Negro, now retired. We have employed and are continuing to employ Negroes into engineering and other responsible positions. Our labor agreements provide for promotion solely on the basis of seniority, ability, and qualifications; and, under this provision, no racial discrimination is, or can be, exercised with respect to such promotions. Dr. Holman in his testimony stated, "The Union Electric Co. in Madison County (Illinois) denies qualified Negro applicants equal job opportunity." What Dr. Holman did not mention is that our properties in Madison County are operated as part of an integrated system, the headquarters of which are in St. Louis. When a job vacancy occurs in any of our local offices (including our Alton office in Madison County), our labor agreement provides that this vacancy be posted for bidding throughout our system, and the vacancy is then filled by the senior qualified bidder. Only rarely does an opportunity occur for such a job to be filled by direct employment from the outside. Recently an opportunity of this kind did arise in our East St. Louis office, and the job was filled by employing a qualified Negro woman. No similar job opening has occurred in our Alton office for some time. |