Mr. WIER. Do you know what their wages are? Mr. BROOKS. Well, our going rate is considerably higher than some of the unorganized plants around in that area. We at present are working in that section, attempting to organize. Mr. WIER. Are you familiar with the textile industry increases that have been granted in the textile mills of the South for a period of a few years back? Do you know how much the increase has been; are you familiar with that? Mr. BROOKS. Yes; I know that there have been increases-I do not recall the dates. Mr. WIER. Well, do not mind the dates. Would you say that the increase in the textile mills has been 30 cents in the last 6 years! Mr. BROOKS. I would certainly think so; yes, sir. Mr. WIER. That is the information I gave yesterday. I just wanted to know from you. Mr. BROOKS. That is about the rate that I remember. When I went to work in the mills in 1927, I went to work for 121 cents an hour for 12 hours a day. Since that time, of course, the mills have been organized, many of them, and the minimum wage in the organized mills today is 97 cents, so that there is quite a difference. Mr. WIER. I would assume, Mr. Chairman, if this committee or this Congress were to pass increased-wage legislation, that all of these four strikes which the witness has told us about would be settled on the basis of 75 cents an hour. Then there would be no excuse for them to strike. Mr. KENNEDY. Are there any more questions? Mr. SMITH. I want to be sure to get the name of that employer who wrote that letter from Georgia. Mr. EDELMAN. We have it. Give it to him. Mr. BROOKS. Yes, I will be glad to give it to you, sir. [Document handed to Mr. Smith.] Mr. EDELMAN. Mr. Chairman, I will rush along here. I want to present now Mrs. Mary Darr, who is right close to Washington, being from Hagerstown, Md. Mr. KENNEDY. We will be glad to hear from you. Will you proceed! TESTIMONY OF MRS. MARY DARR, LAUNDRY WORKER, HAGERSTOWN, MD. Mrs. DARR. My name is Mary Darr. I have been working in the Troy Laundry at Hagerstown, Md., for 7 years. I am a member of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. I work as a folder on a mangle with five others, and I get between 53 and 59 cents an hour. That is about $21 or $23 a week. I live with my mother and my 15-year-old daughter. My mother has been in bad health for some time and can only work now and then-when she is able. My only income is what I get at the laundry, and the highest I ever get is $25. That is before anything is taken out for taxes and insurance. I have earned as low as $19 for a week. After deducting insurance and taxes, I still have to pay $20 a month for rent, pay for coal and electricity and buy food and clothing for three people, and pay for doctors and medicine for my mother. I had to borrow $100 from a finance company so that I could buy some clothes for my daughter to wear to school. And I have 15 months in which to pay that back-at $8.38 a month. Our State of Maryland does not have any minimum wage law that ill cover us laundry workers, and I hope that this bill (H. R. 2033) ill be passed so that our wages can be raised to 75 cents an hour. f I could earn 75 cents an hour I might be able to pay some of the ills that I owe for doctors and other things. And maybe then I would ot have to borrow money to buy clothes, and have to pay back $25 ore than I borrowed on $100. I might be able to get out of debt ometime, instead of always borrowing to pay off my bills. Mr. KENNEDY. Thank you, Mrs. Darr. Mr. EDELMAN. Mrs. Darr, why don't the Amalgamated Clothing Workers get 75 cents an hour for the Mrs. DARR. You mean the laundry workers? Mr. EDELMAN. Excuse me; the laundry workers. Mrs. DARR. Well, that is just poor management. If we could oranize out there and if we could go out on strike, you see, we could; ut now we would starve to death. Mr. EDELMAN. I think that is the answer. Mr. KENNEDY. Any questions? Mr. BAILEY. No questions. Mr. SIMS. No questions. Mr. WIER. What type of work do you do in the laundry? Mrs. DARR. I am the head folder on a mangle. Mr. KENNEDY. How long have you worked there? Mrs. DARR. Seven years. Mr. KENNEDY. What did you start at? Mrs. DARR. I started at 18 cents an hour. Mr. KENNEDY. And how many hours a week do you work? Mr. KENNEDY. I see. Thank you. Mr. EDELMAN. Thank you. TESTIMONY OF DAVID GILBERT, LYNCHBURG, VA., REPRESENTING THE TEXTILE WORKERS LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE, CIO Mr. GILBERT. Mr. Chairman, my name is David Gilbert, and I am from Lynchburg, Va., and I am a representative from the textile industry. I represent the Textile Workers' legislative committee in the field. Last week I got a call from Mr. Edelman telling me that these hearings before this committee were going on and also telling me that he wanted information and statements from the field; you know, things that he could present before your committee. So, I went down to southeastern North Carolina, which is part of my territory, I contacted workers down in that area, in the eastern part of the State, in my territory. I contacted workers in Lumberton and in Elizabethtown and New Bern; also I contacted workers in St. Pauls and Wilmington. As a result, I have a considerable number of these statements [exhibiting documents]. I would like, Mr. Chairman, permission to just pick out one or two of them, to give you some idea of conditions there, down in that State. I also have here some photographs and some pay stubs, and a coupon book-that book will be explained in one of these affidavits. The first one I have and the first one I wish to read Mr. Chairman, is dated February 10, 1949, and it is from Elizabethtown, N. C. I will quote from that statement: FEBRUARY 10, 1949 My name is Annie Hall. I live in Elizabethtown, N. C. I work for the Greene Lumber Co. in Elizabethtown. I am a ripsaw operator in the mill. I have worked in the mill for 10 years and have also run planing machines, molding machines, and trim saws in the mill. I am paid 60 cents an hour for running a ripsaw. I usually work 40 hours a week and my take-home pay is around $22.75 a week. My groceries run me about $15 a week and all the rest of my pay goes for light, heat, insurance, water, and other bills I have. The bills I have to pay don't leave me anything left at all so I start work on Monday to just pay the bills coming up next week. When it rains I don't get to work at all. Sometimes I don't get but 3 days work a week, then I have to get my groceries on credit or go to the company office and get a coupon book from the company that lets me get my grocer.es at the company store. If I don't have any worktime in for the week, they won't give me a book so I can get groceries. I don't like to trade at the company store because the groceries are higher there than where I trade for cash. Fatback costs 6 cents a pound more at the company store than at other stores, but if I don't have money I have to trade there. All the working people down here need more money for working so they can live decent. If we had more money for working we could have a better place to live in with a bathroom and more furniture and better food like pork chops instead of fatback, and vegetables instead of beans all the time. This statement is signed by Annie Hall. She comes from Elizabethtown, N. C.-oh, I said that. Mr. SMITH. Mr. Chairman? Mr. SMITH. The gentleman prefaced his statement by saying that it was an affidavit. Mr. GILBERT. Well, a statement-I am sorry. Mr. SMITH. There is a great difference between a statement and an affidavit. Mr. EDELMAN. We will be very happy to get all these statements sworn to, Mr. Smith. Will you proceed, Mr. Gilbert? Mr. GILBERT. In line with the conditions that I saw in Elizabethtown and the statements that I took down there, I also took some photographs. These are the photographs [exhibiting]. The other statements that I have here are more or less the same. they run along the same general pattern. If I might, I would like to show you, Mr. Chairman, some of the phtographs that I took or that were taken. I made a notation on the back of each photograph to show what it is. Mr. KENNEDY. All right, sir. [Photographs were distributed to the members of the committee.] Mr. GILBERT. The next statement I have that I would like to read is dated February 12, 1949. This is a statement from Tom C. Eubanks. who lives in New Bern, N. C., and who works for the New Bern Provision Co. He is a butcher. I would like to read that statement: My name is Tom C. Eubanks, and I live in New Bern, Craven County, NC. I work for the New Bern Provision Co. as a butcher. I butcher hogs and cons and once in a while I deliver meats when they don't have anybody to do it. I started with the company on the 18th of October 1948. I am paid 55 cents an hour. Last week I got $23.72 for 41 hours. After everything was took out it left me $19.72. Out of my pay I support my mother and myself. Just about all I make goes for groceries. I owe the grocer, Cary Page, $13.04 for grocery bills I have ra up because I don't make enough to buy enough some weeks. I think I should make more money because I am doing more work than I am paid for. If I was making more I would try to save a little and buy some clothes and a home I on't have now. The other men there are making 55 cents an hour, too, for about the same work I do. It costs me about the same to live here it did in Wilmington, N. C., where I was making around $50 a week. I think there should be a 75-cent minimum wage so the poor can get along etter. That statement was from Mr. Eubanks. Mr. Chairman, I have here a photograph of Mr. Eubanks [exhibiting]. Another thing I have here, if I might introduce it, Mr. Chairman, are some pay stubs, the envelopes that the cash is put into. These are the envelopes that the lumber workers get in that section of North Carolina when they get their pay on Fridays. Also, I have some photographs of the mill, the Lumber River Manufacturing Co., Inc., of Lumberton, N. C. I have photographs of that mill, which is a standard type of mill down there, and I have a photograph of the workers coming out of the mill. Mr. EDELMAN. Just read to the committee some of those figures on those envelopes, the wages and the hours. Mr. GILBERT. Yes. The first one is for Theodore McLeod. According to this envelope he worked 50 hours and he received $30 and for overtime he got $3, a total of $33. His old-age pension amounted to 33 cents. The withholding tax was 1.20. His account at the store, the company store that was mentioned in that statement I read you a little while ago-his account in that store was $1.30. These were deductions. The total amount of the deductions was $2.83, leaving a balance of $30.18, for 50 hours of work in that week. Then we have the envelope or pay stub of Elijah Taylor. He worked 4212 hours, for which he got $25.50, and there was overtime of 75 cents, making a total of $26.25. Taking the deductions, we have for the old-age benefits 26 cents. For the store account the deduction was $7.36, making the total deductions from that week's pay $7.62, leaving a balance of $18.63 for his work for that week, his earnings. That is, the amount of money that he took home that week, of $25.50 and 75 cents, totaling, $26.25, was $18.63 take-home pay. The pay stub of Herman Madden shows that he worked 18 hours and received $13.50. There was a deduction for old-age pension of 14 cents, the balance being $13.36, take-home pay for that week. The envelope for John S. Clark shows that he worked 361⁄2 hours and received $23.73. After deductions of $11.96, of which the store account amounted to $11.72, he took home $11.77 for that week. For Frank Lewis we find that he worked 421⁄2 hours and received $26.25, with deductions of $5.55, a balance of take-home pay of $20.70. The pay stub for George Campbell shows 52 hours of work, $33.80, and overtime $3.90, a total of $37.70. The deduction for old-age pension was 38 cents and, Mr. Chairman, his store account amounted to $30.51, leaving him a balance of take-home pay for that week of $6.81. The last envelope is for Steve Sutton. He worked 5011⁄2 hours for $44.60, including overtime. The old-age pension benefits deduction was 45 cents; the withholding tax was $2.80. His store account was $7.95, totaling $11.20 for the deductions. He received a balance of $33.40. (The pay envelopes referred to above were filed with the committee as a reference exhibit.) Mr. GILBERT. Mr. Chairman, these are just typical samples of the pay stubs. These are pay envelopes for the workers of the Lumber River Manufacturing Co., in Lumberton, N. C. The amount that these workers are paid averages 60 cents an hour and that is in line with the pay received by workers throughout this area. However, workers in jobs not covered by the Wage and Hour Act are receiving even less. Workers have been contacted who are receiving 40 cents an hour with no overtime pay for hours worked in excess of 40 in any week. Workers in the Block Shirt Factory in Wilmington, N. C., which factory is covered by the Wage and Hour Act, are paid 50 cents an hour. Mr. EDELMAN. Mr. Chairman, I have here Warren G. Holleman, of St. Pauls, N. C. I would like to have him make a brief statement. Mr. KENNEDY. You may proceed, Mr. Holleman. STATEMENT OF WARREN G. HOLLEMAN, RAILROAD MAINTENANCE WORKER, ST. PAULS, N. C. Mr. HOLLEMAN. My name is Warren G. Holleman and my home is in St. Pauls, N. C. I am employed as a general maintenance worker by the Virginia & Carolina Southern Railroad Co., a subsidiary of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. I have been employed for approx imately 1 year for this company. I wish to present to the committee a signed authorization from 31 fellow employees which comprises all but 2 employees of the Virginia & Carolina Southern Railroad Co. During the past we have made unsuccessful efforts to obtain representation through the railroad brotherhoods. This has not been possible because of the small number of employees involved. (The authorization referred to is as follows:) STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, County of Robeson. Greetings To Whom It May Concern: We, the undersigned, being in the position of needing an agent to represent the rank and file of the employees of the Virginia & Carolina Southern Railroad, in the matter of labor relations: Now, therefore, we, the undersigned, do hereby appoint Warren G. Holleman to represent us before the labor hearing in the Congress of the United States of America, and in any other matters pertaining to obtaining better working condi tions and a living-wage scale for all employees. J. C. DAVIS Sworn to before me this 14th day of February in the year of our Lord 1949. [SEAL] (Signed) JOHN S. BUTLER, Notary Public. (My commission expires April 26, 1949.) Mr. HOLLEMAN. The lowest wage rate presently paid is 57 cents per hour for a motor-rail bus operator who works 1134 hours a day on 6 days a week without overtime pay. A coal-chute operator is paid 62 |