The Cine Technician (1935-1937)

Felj.-Marcli, i<)37 The Journal of the Association of CineTechnicians 153 The Case for a Laboratory Standard Agreement The Laboratory Standard Agreement, the result of many months' hard work, has now been drawn up and has been submitted to most of the important laboratories in this country. The Laboratory Committee does not claim that it is a perfect piece of work, but it is brought forward as a definite basis for discussion between employers and employees. Much labour has been .spent on gathering information concerning all the important laboratories in the industry and working out a scheme for wages and conditions of employment which shall be fair to all concerned. It cannot be too strongly emphasised that it is not the employees alone who will benefit by a standardisation of conditions in the laboratories but there are obvious advantages to be gained by employers as well. Let us consider which way we are heading. Competition between laboratories is, at present, of the cut-throat variety. Prices for printing are so low that it is mainly by wage-cutting that many laboratories are able to show any profit at all. No American firm would dream of making such low charges for their work. No American renting concern would expect them. This may, at first sight, seem to be solely the concern of the owners of the English laboratories, but it ceases to be so directly the workers' wages are attacked. These wages are already too low. In some cases married men with many years' service in the industry, are earning a basic wage of £3 per week for skilled work ; boys and girls are being taken on to do men's work at less money. It is obvious that a badly paid worker, or an inexperienced juvenile, cannot in the long run turn out work of the consistent quahty of a well-paid contented employee. That principle has been recognised in every industry but ours. What inducements can we offer for ambitious youths anxious to make a start in their working life, when the chances of eventually earning as much as the local dustman are so remote ? So A.C.T. says to the employer : "Keep your low prices if you must ; but the possibihty of doing so without loss is miade much more .sure by increasing the efficiency of your machinery and your staff than by wage-cutting." The poorest quality work is turned out by those lafjoratories paying the lowest wages. This, in itself, is significant. There is an ever-growing tendency for studio camera and sound recording departments to wish to know something about the laboratories who are going to handle their work. In many cases they are in for some nasty shocks. Surely the ace cameraman earning his ;^50 a week would not feel too comfortable if he knew that the precious negative on which he had lavished so much time and thought was now wholly at the mercy of a negative developer earning £3 a week, working with delicately balanced developing solutions made up with lo\-ing care by a fed-up-to-the-teeth 30/ a week youth. This may be an extreme case, but there are laboratories ^j^ BADGES, price 9d. each. ifll W\ From A.C^.T. Representatives or V^IkI/ 30 Piccadilly Mansions, ^<5?^ I.ondon, W.l where conditions are very little better — where overtime conditions are unsatisfactory, where illness is not paid for, where breaks between calls are totally inadequate, and where a tired, under-nourished, inefficient staff carries on turning out work just good enough to pass muster but bad enough to look and sound shabby in our cinemas. In more than one laboratory the proportion of juvenile labour to adult labour is absolutely indefensible and it would be, we believe, impossible to find a parallel in any other industry in this country. No wonder the Cinematograph Exhibitors' Association complains so often and so bitterly of the third quality prints its members are forced of necessity to show to the public. So A.C.T. says to the employer : "Let us discuss this matter. It is to our mutual advantage. We want to make laboratory work a sound, well-controlled industry, where senseless exploitation of the worker is recognised as a stupid, inefficient way of trying to make a profit. When we present our standard agreement to you it is not just an impudent way of asking for a rise ; it is an honest-to-goodness attempt to stop this drift towards letting a scientific industry sink lower and lower in the mud. It is doing, and will go on doing, British films especially, a lot of harm. A.C.T. wants to meet you and talk the matter over. We can both gain a lot by getting to know each other's points of view." U.S. CAMERA Edited bij Mdloneij A splendid volume enshrining the best of the year's photographic masterpieces. The pages of "U.S. Camera" measure Q{ by I'l ins. and are spirax bound, making tor convenient opening, and giving each reproduction the best possible display, and at the same time forming a fitting harmony to the modernity of the photography itself. A dynamic and inspiring volume, and a handsome gift to yourself or your friend. 15/ net. Or 1519 post free from the publishers, George Newnes. Lid., Tower House, Southampton Street, Strand. W.C.2. NEWNES : LONDON