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COMMUNISM IN MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY 355
C'lxn Federation of Labor, from going to work and fulfilling their contracts with the studios.
Mr. Strii'Ling. Well, then, Mr. Brewer, wouldn't the National Labor Relations Board have jurisdiction in a matter of this kind ?
Mr. Bhea\t:r. Well, that I think, perhaps, is a legal question.
Mv. Stiupling. In otlier words, did any phase of the jurisdictional strikes come Avithin the purview of the National Labor Relations Board?
Mr. Brewer. Yes. As a matter of fact, the 1945 strike was called at a time when the National Labor Relations Board was conducting a hearing into the very question about which the strike was presumably called. That was the question of representation of the set decorators in the studios. Tlie hearing had started, on a Monday previously, and the hearing had gone for 1 week. The Conference of Studio Unions had placed their side of the story into the record. The hearing had recessed and was to take up the following Monday, when the lATSE was to liave had its opportunity to present its case.
On the Monday morning of March 12, the strike was called.
Mr. Stripling. Who presided in that hearing of the National Labor Relations Board?
Mr. Brewer. At that particular hearing I can't say, Mr, Stripling. I didn't attend them because I was busy with the activities in connection with the strike.
Mr. Stripling. Well, did the National Labor Relations Board succeed in any way in alleviating the situation directly ?
Mr. Brewer. Actually, the National Labor Relations Board did eventually hand down a decision and held an election. The election was held and the Conference of Studio Unions won the election by a rather small margin. But that did not end the strike.
Mr. Stripling. Why didn't it end the strike ?
Mr. Brewer. Well, by that time all of these other unions were out in support of them. They were making demands. The situation had become so comj^licated that new issues had entered into it, and the strike continued on for several months after the results of the election were made known.
Now. there is a great deal more that I would like to say about this violence.
The strike in 1945 was settled. But in 1946, on September 26, themass picket lines were taken up right where they left off at Warner Brothers in 1945. The violence that took place in the 1946 strike was equal in intensity to that which existed in 1945.
We were a little more used to that sort of thing by 1946. I have here — which I will leave with the committee — a complete report of the personal injuries of our members and members of other A. F. of L. unions in the 1946 strike.
The Chairman. Mr. Brewer
Mr. Brewt:r. Some 300 in number.
The Chairman. ]\Iay I ask a question right here? Would you say definitely that this violence was due to the Communist influence in those unions and the Communist influence on the picket lines?
Mr. Brewer. I will say definitely, Mr. Chairman, that had it not been for the Communist activities in the motion-picture studio unions, there would have been no strikes. And the violence — as I said, there