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OHIO.

AN ACT to provide for a State Board of Arbitration for the settlement of differences between employers and their employes. Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, that within thirty days after the passage of this act, the Governor of the State, with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint three competent persons to serve as a State Board of Arbitration and Conciliation, in the manner hereinafter provided. One of them shall be an employer, or selected from some association representing employers of labor; one of them shall be selected from some labor organization and not an employer of labor, and the third shall be appointed upon recommendation of the other two; provided, however, that if the two appointed do not agree on the third man, at the expiration of thirty days, he shall be appointed by the Governor; and provided, also, that appointments made when the Senate is not in session, may be confirmed at the next ensuing session.

§ 2. One shall be appointed for one year, one for two years, and one for three years, and all appointments thereafter shall be for three years or until their respective successors are appointed, in the manner above provided. If, for any reason, a vacancy occurs at any time, the Governor shall, in the same manner, appoint some person to serve out the unexpired term, and he may remove any member of said Board.

§ 3. Each member of said Board shall, before entering upon the duties of his office, be sworn to a faithful discharge thereof. They shall organize at once by the choice of one of their number as chairman, and one of their number as secretary. The Board shall, as soon as possible after its organization, establish such rules of procedure as shall be approved by the Governor.

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§ 4. Whenever any controversy or difference not involving questions which may be the subject of a suit or action in any court of the State exists between an employer, whether an individual, copartnership or corporation, and his employes, if at the time he employs not less than twenty-five persons in the same general line of business in this State, the Board shall, upon application as hereinafter provided, and as soon as practical thereafter, visit the locality of the dispute and make careful inquiry into the cause thereof, hear all persons interested therein who may come or be subpoenaed before them, advise the respective parties what, if anything, ought to be done or submitted to by either or both to adjust said dispute. The term employer in this act includes several employers co-operating with respect to any such controversy or difference, and the term employes includes aggregations of employes of several employers so co-operating. And when any strike or lockout extends to several counties, the expenses incurred under this act not payable out of the State treasury shall be apportioned among and paid by such counties as said Board may deem equitable and may direct.

§ 5. Such mediation having failed to bring about an adjustment of the said differences, the board shall immediately make out a written decision thereon. This decision shall at once be made public, shall be recorded upon proper books of record to be kept by the secretary of said Board, and a short statement thereof published in the annual report hereinafter provided for, and the said Board shall cause a copy thereof to be filed with the clerk of the city or county where said business is carried on.

§ 6. Said application for arbitration and conciliation to said Board can be made by either or both parties to the controversy; and shall be signed in the respective instances by said employer

or by a majority of his employes in the department of the business in which the controversy or difference exists, or the duly authorized agent of either or both parties. When an application is signed by an agent claiming to represent a majority of such employes, the Board shall satisfy itself that such agent is duly authorized in writing to represent such employes, but the names of the employes giving such authority shall be kept secret by said Board.

§ 7. Said application shall contain a concise statement of the grievances complained of, and a promise to continue on in business or at work in the same manner as at the time of the application, without any lockout or strike, until the decision of said Board, if it shall be made within ten days of the date of filing said application; provided a joint application may contain a stipulation that the decision of the Board under such joint application shall be binding upon the parties to the extent so stipulated, and such decision to such extent may be made and enforced as a rule of court in the court of common pleas of the county from which such joint application comes, as upon a statutory award.

§ 8. As soon as may be after the receipt of said application, the secretary of said board shall cause public notice to be given of the time and place for the hearing therein, but public notice need not be given when both parties to the controversy join in the application and present therewith a written request that no public notice be given. When such request is made, notice shall be given to the parties interested in such manner as the board may order, and the board may, at any stage of the proceedings, cause public notice to be given, notwithstanding such request. Should the petitioner or petitioners fail to perform the promise made in said application, the Board shall proceed no further therein without the written consent of the adverse party.

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§ 9. The Board shall have power to summon as witnesses any operative in the departments of business affected, or other persons shown by affidavit, on belief or otherwise, to have knowledge of the matters in controversy or dispute, and any person who keeps the records of wages earned in such departments, and examine them under oath, and to require the production of books or papers containing the record of wages earned or paid. Subpoenas

may be signed and oaths administered by any member of the Board. A subpoena or any notice may be delivered or sent to any sheriff, constable or police officer, who shall forthwith serve or post the same, as the case may be, and make due return thereof according to directions, and for such service he shall receive the fees allowed by law in similar cases, payable from the treasurer of the county wherein the controversy to be arbitrated exists, upon the warrant of the county auditor, issued on the certificate of the Board that such fees are correct and due. And the Board shall have the same power and authority to maintain and enforce order at its hearings and obedience to its writs of subpoena as by law conferred on the court of common pleas for like purposes.

§ 10. The parties to any controversy or difference as described in section four of this act, may submit the matters in dispute, in writing, to a local board of arbitration and conciliation; such board may either be mutually agreed upon, or the employer may designate one of the arbitrators, the employes or their duly authorized agent another, and the two arbitrators so designated may choose a third, who shall be chairman of the board.

§ 11. Such local board of arbitration shall, in respect to the matters referred to it, have and exercise all the powers which the State Board might have and exercise, and its decision shall have whatever binding effect may be agreed by the parties to the con

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troversy in the written submission. The jurisdiction of such local board shall be exclusive in respect to the matters submitted to fit, but it may ask and receive the advice and assistance of the State Board. The decision of said board shall be rendered within ten days of the close of any hearing held by it; such decision shall at once be filed with the clerk of the city or county in which the controversy or difference arose, and a copy thereof shall be forwarded to the State Board.

§ 12. Each of such arbitrators of such a local board shall be entitled to receive from the treasury of the city or county in which the controversy or difference that is the subject of the arbitration exists, if such payment is approved in writing by the city council or the administrative board of such city or board of county commissioners of such county the sum of three dollars for each day of actual service, not exceeding ten days for any one arbitration.

§ 13. Whenever it is made to appear to the mayor or probate judge in this State that a strike or lockout is seriously threatened, or has actually occurred in his vicinity, he shall at once notify the State Board of the fact, giving the name and location of the employer, the nature of the trouble, and the number of employes involved, so far as his information will enable him to do so. Whenever it shall come to the knowledge of the State Board, either by such notice or otherwise, that a strike or lockout is seriously threatened, or has actually occurred in this State, involv ing an employer and his present or past employes, if at the time he is employing, or up to the occurrence of the strike or lockout. was employing not less than twenty-five persons in the same general line of business in any city or county in the State, it shall be the duty of the State Board to put itself in communication as soon as may be with such employer and employes.

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