The Cine Technician (1953-1956)

180 CINE TECHNICIAN December 1955 The General Secretary Writes: Our Job is Far From Done AT this seasonal time, some eighteen years ago, The Cine Technician featured an article "A Christmas Call from the Workhouse ". It told of the sorry plight of the majority of our members who were unemployed, and it drew attention to the rough Christmas they and their families would be having. This Christmas, for the first time for many years, such an article would be inappropriate. There will be few calls on our Benevolent Fund to ensure that all our members and their families have a Christmas dinner. Strangely enough, however, it is not making films for cinemas which has led to this improvement but the advent of commercial television. Whilst we welcome this new avenue of employment it is to be regretted that otherwise the situation would be worse than ever. As stated in last month's Cine Technician there are, when Ealing has gone, only four major studios concentrating primarily on film production. Therefore one point we should remember in the coming year is that welcome as work is, A.C.T.'s job is far from done when every member is fully employed. We want television and films developing alongside each other, and whilst the opening of new stations will lead to developments in television we equally must press for an expansion in normal film production. We shall have our chance during the coming year in preparing our views and recommendations to put before the Government and the public on the legislation to replace the present expiring Cinematograph Films Act. While the past year has been a good one in at least one major respect, employment, we should never forget that our present membership is still less than our peak figure and there are many technicians who left the industry who have not yet returned. There were at one time about thirty studios in the industry. At least we must press for an expansion of the present inadequate number of studios till we have sufficient facilities to enable the bulk of films shown in British cinemas to be British. In doing this we will be making it possible for the industry to get back in size and indeed travel beyond what it was in some of its peak years. For example, we made 225 British feature films in 1937. By and large they cannot be dismissed as Note These Dates 23rd ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Saturday and Sunday, 10th and 11th March, 1956 at the Beaver Hall, Garliek Hill, E.C.2 RULES REVISION CONFERENCE Sunday, 4th March, 1956 at Denison House, S.W.I All resolutions, amendments to rules and nominations for Officers must reach Head Office NOT LATER THAN FRIDAY, 30th DECEMBER, 1955 quota quickies. Indeed, they were of a remarkably high quality level of production, as those of our members at Denham, for example, will remember in making South Riding, The Drum, Yank at Oxford and Victoria the Great; or those outstanding films from Islington, Bank Holiday, Oh Mr. Porter and Owd Bob; or the Hitchcock and Rene Clair films from Pinewood, together with many other notable films from Elstree, Ealing and elsewhere. If we could do it then we must press forward until we can do it again. In addition to full employment the dying year has in other ways been a good one for A.C.T. We have succeeded with commercial television in a few months where we have failed for many years with the B.B.C. It is a sorry reflection on a public corporation that the B.B.C. remains one of the largest employers still refusing to recognise many T.U.C. affiliated trade unions. But it should be remembered that we were not given recognition by commercial television for the asking. We were aided particularly by the original foolishness of one of the companies who referred us to, amongst others, a general workers' union for details under which our members were to be employed. The spark that this let off soon convinced the authorities, through the completely solid strike of our members, that A.C.T. should be recognised. We are now in the process of negotiating agreements both for commercial television in general and for the newsreels. Meanwhile the Programme Contractors have agreed that technicians shall be employed under terms not less favourable than those provided in the B.F.P.A. Agreement and the Newsreel Agreement, as the case may be. incidentally, it has been a joy to attend meetings of our television members in recent months, which have recaptured some of the original enthusiasm we found when A.C.T. was making its own fight for recognition in film production. Also during the past year we were able to conclude our negotiations for a new Agreement with the A.S.F.P. All members in Shorts and Documentary readily admit that the benefits from that agreement both in financial reward and working conditions have been very substantial. With the B.F.P.A. we have renewed our approaches to obtain improvements in the minimum rates for those of our members in grades which have had no increase since the Agreement first came into operation some nine years ago. At the same time, in a separate claim, we have made application for a general increase in all the minimum rates of the agreement. (Continued on page 1901