Documentary News Letter (1947-1949)

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36 DOCUMENTARY FILM NEWS CORRESPONDENCE Trade Unions from Ralph Bond sir: It is good to know that the views expressed by Ken Cameron in your latest issue 'do not necessarily coincide with those of the Editorial Board". Ken, if he will forgive my saying so, has indulged his imaginary grievances against ACT in a manner that does no credit to his customary scientific thinking. He says that ACT has failed to keep its membership (1) well looked after and (2) united. As to (1), he quickly contradicts himself by announcing that ACT has done 'work of inestimable value' and that 'salary rates and working conditions have reached levels undreamt of before the war', so I'll leave it at that. As regards keeping the members united, few will dispute that ACT has successfully created a Trade Union uniting studio technicians, documentary technicians, laboratory and news reel technicians — to say nothing of technicians in television, cartoon animation and still-strip companies, stock manufacturing companies, like Kodak, and equipment companies, like British Acoustic. All sections have their own particular problems; all have found that they have been well served within the very broad and democratic structure of the Union. Ken Cameron charges ACT with obstructionism, but produces no single instance, unless it is his complaint that an enthusiastic technician cannot work all night long if the spirit moves him. This old tale has been trotted out for years. It's the excuse for every Union-buster in the country and the same argument could equally apply against trade unionism in the mines or in transport, or any other industry. I don't suppose anyone at Crown will object if Ken's spirit moves him to work all night but the local ACT Committee would, quite rightly, have something to say if his spirit required the presence of numerous other technicians who might reasonably prefer to spend a few hours in bed. After all, film making is a collective job and a Union is not to be blamed for establishing the greatest good for the greatest number. I heartily agree with him in asking for members, who disagree with ACT policy, to take a more active attitude. There may be a few autocratic shop stewards; if so, I haven't met them; neither have I met the extremists ' . . . eager to be agin everything and everybody' but, if they exist, it's up to the members to take them in hand. The point — completely ignored by Ken — is that ACT encourages such rank and file activity and has constructed machinery which, in my experience, is more democratic from bottom to top than any other Trade Union I know of. Unsupported accusations, vague generalizations, petty references to 'sheeplike satellites' and petulant innuendoes about 'autocrats' are not going to get anybody anywhere. ACT has done a big job apart from improving the standards and status of its members. The very Apprenticeship Scheme to which Ken refers has been fought and campaigned for by ACT over many years and has at last secured the support of employers. ACT has given a lead on all questions affecting the health of our industry; its policy has been progressive, democratic and imaginative. I suggest that Ken Cameron should, as befits a leading and respected technician, pull his weight in ACT in a constructive manner instead of narking at all and sundry. Yours sincerely, RALPH BOND 40 Parliament Hill, NW3 Ken Cameron Replies sir : Ralph Bond has answered me, with flattering promptitude, lucidly and almost convincingly, in the terms one would expect from such an ardent pillar of trade unionism. He has in fact repeated the admirable aims of a well-ordered and well-organized body of workers. But he makes the fundamental mistake of failing to distinguish between theory and practice. He has misread my comments upon the success of ACT as the technicians' fairy godmother. I said very emphatically that 1 have nothing but praise for so much of the work done in the past. As far as our unity is concerned, certainly ACT has succeeded in binding together technicians of all categories, but they are bound with bonds of inflexible steel, forged by those who prefer to be known as brothers rather than members into something approaching an instrument of social blackmail. Ralph says that my grievances are imaginary. That is where he is so terribly wrong. They are, it is true, largely indefinable. They are caused by an attitude in the minds of those who at present settle our destiny. There are occasions in every walk of life, and the film business is no exception, when rules and regulations must be interpreted with common sense as well as discipline : when even a little sense of humour — so terribly lacking — could be so vitally useful. He implies that I am a union-buster because I 'trot out' the old case of the technician who] might want to work all night. Does Ralph never think of his work after six o'clock? Does he never wake up in the night wondering how on earth he is going to solve some problem that the morrow will bring? If not it's a pretty poor look-out for World Wide Films. I see eye to eye with Ralph on so much that he has said. It is what he has ignored — perhaps even does not know, although that is hard to believe — that gives me cause for worry. Nor only to me. because I know that I am far from alone in my opinions. We can all see if we only look in the right direction the number of man-hours wasted through union officials holding meetings to solve problems which would not even exist if they simply concentrated on the jobs for which they are paid. He suggests that I pull my weight in ACT, and not nark at all and sundry. Is ACT so perfect that it defies criticism? Or does it just resent it? I am not narking at all and sundry. 1 am simply trying to have a crack at the minority who mistake the shadow for the substance. KEN CAMERON CLASSIFIED ADS We are now in a position to accept classified advertisements. Charges for insertion: one guinea for the first three lines, 5 a line above three. SITUATION WANTED DOCUMENTARY DIRECTOR— Scriptwriter, previously employed on first-rate documentary and scientific films for Government and private sponsors, seeks permanency or free-lance connections. 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