The Cine Technician (1953-1956)

86 THE CINE-TECHNICIAN July, 1953 LAB TOPICS by Alf Cooper The new style Journal, the result of many hours of committee discussion, will, we hope, meet the wishes of all our members, giving as it does our Trade Union viewpoint, the latest technical information and reports of our shop and unit activities. The price, which in a period of rising costs has been lowered, will. we think, be justified by larger sales throughout the whole industry. Please give the new committee your wholehearted support in this venture by contributing as much information about your unit as possible and supplying articles on all new technical advancements as they come along. In this way the Journal will always be useful to all our members. Make sure that you get your copy every month. Don't wait for the seller to meet you: chase round and find him. Following the unpleasant news about Martins and Cinit Laboratories, it is good to learn that some of the redundant members have found employment with Pathe and Olympic Laboratories. With eighteen unemployed lab members on the Employment Bureau Register, it is amazing to find that forty-four new applications had to be recommended for acceptance into A.C.T. at the last Laboratory Committee Meeting. This state of affairs is due to two factors, and not to union policy. With laboratories situated so many miles apart it very often becomes uneconomical, both in travelling time and money, for our unemployed members to accept work in those laboratories where work may be attainable. A really fair and just answer to this problem has not yet been found, but I am hopeful that the answer will be found before much more time has passed. The Lab Committee have now appointed a Sub-Committee to draft a new agreement, the mem BLAhWOOD STUDIOS bers coming from the following laboratories — Denham, Humphries, Kay's, Olympic, Pathe and Technicolor. The Committee further submitted the names of Paul de Burgh (to replace Sid Bailey, who has withdrawn), Peter Chaubert and Kae Sharpe, to the General Council for inclusion on the Lab Negotiating Committee. I can now report that the G.C. has accepted these members on to the Negotiating Committee. Frank Fuller, who for many years has been Chairman of the Lab Committee, really needs no words of praise from me about the way he has carried out his job on that Committee. At all times he has placed the interests of the members before anything, even himself, and I know that all the boys in every Lab know this as well as I do. Having said that, I am now going to say: Thanks, Frank, for all the help I know you will give me whenever I need it in the coming year, as the new Chairman of the Lab Committee. The result of the elections for Officers of our Committee for the coming year is: Alf Cooper, Chairman; Frank Fuller, Vice-Chairman; and Jack Gepp, of Pathe's, Secretary. The Committee received a letter from Ivor Montagu in connection with the numerical representation of Laboratory members on the General Council. If you remember, at the Annual General Meeting when we asked for a larger representation on the General Council, it was voted out, and immediately afterwards our Studio Brothers voted themselves even larger representation on to that Council. (There's a moral about attendance at the A.G.M. knocking about somewhere, I think.) Ivor Montagu's letter was very well received and the Committee was very pleased to find that some members of the A.C.T. not in our Section really are alive to what we think is a real problem. It was agreed by all to send a letter of thanks to Bro. Montagu for his interest and help shown. In the meantime all Laboratory Shop Stewards are urged to attend every General Council Meeting. Following complaints about delivery to Shops of the Journal, the Committee agreed to ask the Journal Committee if they will see that all Laboratories are supplied with their bulk delivery at the same time, and at least not after the delivery to private subscribers. A report was given of the Negotiating Committee's last meeting with the F.L.A., when they discussed the working arrangements for the Coronation period. As you have now been on the receiving end of those arrangements, it seems no useful purpose for me to write them all down here. I can only say that we of the Committee hope that all our members received their just dues, and are reasonably satisfied, both with the Committee and Management's efforts. Talking of the Coronation arrangements, we at Technicolor did. during that week, what I think is the biggest job the Laboratory has turned out. All our members worked with a good heart during what seemed a very long week, and in spite of many difficulties, finished up very well ahead of schedule. Not only were our members pleased with themselves, but both management and customers issued letters and notices thanking the members for their very excellent performance, and stating how very pleased they also were with our efforts. I might also add that the thank-you message from the Company was very well received by the members. Roughly eight hundred copies, I believe, were delivered throughout Britain and right round the world on time for the scheduled showing of " A Queen is Crowned." Before closing, may I remind all Laboratories that the Journal will appear every month now. Please send me, as early as pos Rejection