Film and TV Technician (1957)

February 1957 FILM & TV TECHNICIAN 27 Lab Topics RADIANT • TECHNICOLOR • OLYMPIC OUR Shop Steward at Radiant Color Laboratories, Slough, tells us that work is still going on and that they have a hope of this laboratory remaining open. All our members who became redundant a short while ago have not been fixed up with jobs yet, as there seems a reluctance among some of them to move from the Slough area. However, one has obtained employment at Pinewood Studios. The Technicolor Shop has now started the experiment of subscriptions being stopped at source each week, as agreed by the General Council some little while back, and it is felt by many of us that one of the biggest headaches in a large shop such as this is about to end. Many of the members are really keen on this idea, but it is only fair to report that some are not too happy. The shop committee hope that as I he idea gets into full swing everybody will realise that it is a good system, with more good points than bad ones. To the really good Trade Unionist, who cannot afford a year's subscription in advance, it certainly is a comfort to know that at all times he is in good standing with his brothers, and that the union is able to plan ahead and meet all its financial obligations because its revenue, part of which he supplies, is getting to Head Office regularly each week. Shift work of members and collectors has caused people in the past to be weeks in arrears many times per year. This will now not be possible. Weeks of Rumour After many weeks of rumour it is now a fact our lads at Olympic are under the Rank banner. Sid Bremson, who has worked with both sets of Lab boys, and at the moment, as you all probably know, is working at the Rank Laboratories, Denham, reports the following: " The taking over of Olympic Kinematograph Laboratories by the Rank Organisation on 4th February brings the flood of rumours which have been circulating for the last month or two to an end. Olympic Labs have been more or less ' on the market ' for the last five years, and some four years ago Republic Pictures Corporation ■By A If Cooper nearly bought them up, but the deal never went through. Leaving the controversial side of the Rank deal out of these notes altogether, may I, as an ' ExOlympian ', welcome the boys and girls of Olympic to the same pay roll, if not to the same building, and pass on to them the first-hand information given to both George Irons and myself by Mr. Bill Harcourt, Managing Director of Rank Laboratories, in the hope of alleviating any fears for the future that may be in their minds. Olympic is to be used exclusively for Black and White processing, all colour will be centred at Denham, leaving North Acton free to concentrate on their normal Black and White plus the additional footage that will be sent there from Denham. This includes 16mm. as well as 35mm. It is expected that output processing at North Acton will be so increased as to make it possible that we shall have to increase the staff; redundancy at Olympic is certainly not contemplated. The jobs there are safe. Mr. Harcourt further told us that it was intended to have key personnel from Olympic spend some time at Denham and vice-versa. In that way each will get to know and find out how the other operates. I understand that a letter terminating their employment by Paramount has been received by all personnel working at Olympic and Paramount take the opportunity of thanking members for their long and loyal service, but make no reference to an ex gratia payment for that loyal service. It might well be that this great American company with all its frozen assets in this country could not itself unfreeze sufficiently to include in that letter some pittance for loss of office, good will or whathave-you. Let us hope that they will be more generous to our Paramount Newsreel members when, by putting out the final issue on 14th February, they will, after twentysix years' loyal service, be putting themselves out of a job." The A.G.M. Laboratory members total something like one-third of the membership of our Union. Here it comes lads, don't forget that 9th and 10th March is A.C.T.T.'s 24th Annual General Meeting, and a large — very large — number of us should make a date to be there. The laboratories are a really important section of this industry, some of us thing the most important. That may not be quite true, but to those of us in the section it is important that the incoming General Council shall know well in advance our requirements in the coming year. Only by attending the A.G.M. can you make them aware of your own point of view, and that we are a section made up of keen and resolute members. Remember, the laboratories over this last year or two have had a tendency to decrease rather than increase — getting together after the event is too late — we have got to find an answer to maintaining continued employment for us all now, and only by getting together as often as possible can the best methods and ideas be obtained. A virile and well-supported organisation is by far the best weapon when meeting opposition to any schemes or ideas that an organisation such as ours is trying to put into effect. Suspended Alibi A.C.T. Films latest completed production. Suspended Alibi, commences a full Odeon Circuit release on 25th February.