I Representation of Employees
1. Annual meetings for election of employee’s representatives.
Employees at each of the mining camps shall annually elect from among their number representatives to act on their behalf with respect to matters pertaining to their employment, working and living conditions, the adjustment of differences, and such other matters of mutual concern and interest as relations within the industry may determine.
2. Time, place and method of calling annual meetings, and persons entitled to be present and participate in the election of representatives.
The annual meetings of employees for the election of their representatives shall be held simultaneously at the several mining camps on the second Saturday in January. The meetings shall be called by direction of the president of the company. Notices of the meetings, indicating their time and place, as well as the number of representatives to be elected, shall be publicly posted at each camp a week in advance, and shall state that employees being wage-earners in the employ of the company at the time of the meeting and for at least three months immediately preceding, but not salaried employees, shall be entitled to be present and vote. Special meetings shall be similarly called when removal, resignations, or other circumstance occasions a vacancy in representation.
3. Method of conducting meetings, and reporting election of representatives.
Each meeting for the election of employees’ representatives shall choose its own chairman and secretary. At the appointed hour, the meeting shall be called to order by one of the employees’ representatives, or, in the absence of a representative, any employee present, and shall proceed to the election of a chairman and secretary. The chairman shall conduct, and the secretary record, the proceedings. They shall certify in writing to the president of the company the names of the persons elected as the employees’ representatives for the ensuing year.
4. Basis and term of representation.
Representatives of employees in each camp shall be on the basis of one representative to every one hundred and fifty wage-earners, but each camp, whatever its number of employees, shall be entitled to at least two representatives. Where the number of employees in any one camp exceeds one hundred and fifty, or any multiple thereof, by seventy-five or more, an additional representative shall be elected. The persons elected shall act as the employees’ representatives from the time of their election until the next annual meeting, unless in the interval other representatives may, as above provided, have been elected to take their places.
5. Nomination and election of representatives.
To facilitate the nomination and election of employees’ representatives, and to insure freedom of choice, both nomination and election shall be by secret ballot, under conditions calculated to insure an impartial count. The company shall provide ballot boxes and blank ballots, differing in form, for purposes of nomination and election. Upon entering the meeting, each employee entitled to be present shall be given a nomination ballot on which he shall write the names of the persons whom he desires to nominate as representatives, and deposit the nomination ballot in the ballot box. Each employee may nominate representatives to the number to which the camp is entitled, and of which public notice has been given. Employees unable to write may ask any of their fellow employees to write for them on their ballots the names of the persons whom they desire to nominate; but in the event of any nomination paper containing more names than the number of representatives to which the camp is entitled, the paper shall not be counted. The persons—to the number of twice as many representatives as the camp is entitled to—receiving the highest number of nomination votes shall be regarded as the duly nominated candidates for employees’ representatives, and shall be voted upon as hereinafter provided. (For example: If a camp is entitled to two representatives, the four persons receiving the largest number of nominating votes shall be regarded as the duly nominated candidates. If the camp is entitled to three representatives, then the six persons receiving the largest number, etc.)
6. Counting of nomination and election ballots.
The chairman shall appoint three tellers, who shall take charge of the ballot box containing the nomination votes, and, with the aid of the secretary, they shall make out the list of the duly nominated candidates, which shall be announced by the chairman. The meeting shall then proceed to elect representatives by secret ballot, from among the number of candidates announced, the same tellers having charge of the balloting. If dissatisfied with the count, either as respects the nomination or election, any twenty-five employees present may demand a recount, and for the purposes of the recount the chairman shall select as tellers three from the number of those demanding a recount, and himself assist in the counting, and these four shall act, in making the recount, in place of the secretary and the tellers previously chosen. There shall be no appeal from this recount, except to the president of the company, and such appeal may be taken as hereinafter provided, at the request of any twenty-five employees present and entitled to vote.
7. Appeal in regard to nomination or election.
The chairman of the meeting shall preserve for a period of one week both the nomination and election ballots. Should an appeal be made to the president within seven days in regard to the validity of the nomination or election, upon request in writing signed by twenty-five employees present at the meeting, the chairman shall deliver the ballots to the president of the company for recount. Should no such request be received within that time, the chairman shall destroy the ballots. If after considering the appeal the president is of the opinion that the nomination or election has not been fairly conducted, he shall order a new election at a time and place to be designated by him.
8. General proceedings at meetings.
At annual meetings for the election of representatives, employees may consider and make recommendations concerning any matters pertaining to their employment, working or living conditions, or arising out of existing industrial relations, including such as they may desire to have their representatives discuss with the president and officers of the company at the Annual Joint Conference of the company’s officers and employees, also any matters referred to them by the president, other officers of the company, the Advisory Board or Social Joint Committee appointed at the preceding annual joint conferences of officials and employees of the company. A record of the proceedings shall be made by the secretary of the meeting and certified to by the chairman, and copies delivered to each of the representatives, to be retained by them for purposes of future reference.