The international photographer (Feb-Dec 1929)

Thirtv-four T h INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER July, 1929 General Meeting Local 65 9 At the last general meeting of Local 659, held at the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce on the night of June 6, 1929, the attendance was large and the interest intense. President Alvin Wyckoff was in the chair. After the discharge of routine business, the honor guest of the evening, Joseph N. Weber, president of the American Federation of Musicians and vice president of the American Federation of Labor, was introduced and delivered a delightful talk in his own inimitable style. Brother Weber said in part: \ "As an infant local, one of the latest to join the great American Federation of Labor, you cameramen have startled labor circles with the rapidity and completeness of your remarkable growth," said Brother Weber. "Through your affiliations with the American Federation of Labor and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, you have established conditions essential to your welfare that could have been accomplished in no other way. "Few Local Unions in the American Federation of Labor can point a parallel to your complete and carefully guided organization." Briefly, Brother Weber outlined the growth of the American Federation of Musicians. He told of their struggles, and the dark hours that preceded their astonishing success. He touched on the vast benefits for the Musicians through Unionization, and predicted similar benefits for the camera craft. Brother Weber was accompanied by Brother Jessie W. Gillette, the popular and energetic president of Local 47 A. F. M., who also spoke briefly. Business Representative Howard Hurd addressed the meeting at some length, for the most part confining his remarks to affairs appertaining to the wage scale recently put in force. Especially did he stress the point that the Executive Board of Local 659 has the greatest faith in the spirit of sincerity, integrity and fair dealing on the part of the producers in the carrying out of their part of the agreement, and the Local executives are proceeding with their part of the work of its administration with all the confidence in the world that the producers will do all in their power to co-operate one hundred per cent. A piece of propaganda that is being circulated in our ranks is that our contract with the producers is full of holes. If the contract were sieved and the holes sufficiently small to catch $10,000.00 dropped therein for each week that these men worked it seems to me that it is a pretty good sort of a contract. It is alleged that the word "emergency" in the following paagraph is one of the holes. I want to tell you something, fellows, about Class 3. I want to point out to you first that in the establishment of this class we have a condition which will ultimately react to the benefit of every man employed in the Motion Picture Industry. The idea is decidedly a radical departure from customary hourly regulations of the union. It was conceived, I am informed, in the mind of Mr. Guy L. Currier, a Boston and New York corporation lawyer, a man whom many of your executive board members have had the pleasure of meeting, a man with whom members of your committee were in constant contact with for a period of a week, a man who is eminently fair to organized labor, and a man whom we may all look upon as a benefactor to the employees. It was the contention of the Motion Picture Photogra's pher Local that the cameramen employed in the Motion Picture Industry do not want to work the inhuman hours they have been obliged to labor in the past, that they want an absolute restriction placed on the hours of labor so that they might have the opportunity of obtaining rest. Mr. Currier, the representative of the combined studios signatory to the agreement with the International Alliance advanced his theory and the feasibility of his plan was concurred in by his associates, the owners of these studios. They acknowledged that there should be some regulation tending to restrict the hours of employment. No overtime was provided for under this class because it was felt by all that in so providing we would be actually encouraging the studios to work beyond the limited number of hours, and would thus defeat the very purpose of the establishment of this condition and therefore destroy the only excuse for its existence. It was only reasonable to expect that upon some occasions circumstances would compel the continuance of production for a short time beyond the allotted hours and a word was inserted to take care of pressing necessities. It was agreed that the word "emergency" or "emegencies" was suitable to take care of such cases. It would have been highly impractical to attempt the absolute definition of those circumstances which would necessitate working beyond the prescribed period, since a controversy would necessarily consume more time than two committees could devote to the definition and would result in the postponement of conditions to an indefinite time. We have be:n informed that some of the minor executives claim that this word is the joker in the contract. I am sure that it was not intended by the producers with whom we dealt that any joker should be in this contract. We, your committee, are perfectly willing to stand on the strict definition of the word "emergency" if such a point is urged. The language seems simple and the English lexicons make the word "emergency" easy to define: "Except in cases of emergencies the employment for more than sixtv (60) hours a week, or the employment on Sundays or more than sixteen (16) consecutive hours shall be prima-facia evidence that unreasonable hours prevail." Frinkly, if we revert to a strict definition of the word, and it is called a joker the joke is certainly not on the cameramen. FOR SALE 4 Mitchel Magazines and Case — $110.00 1 F 1.8 Astro Lens in Mount $95.00 1 Graf lex, 4x5 Apply this Office or to JOHN SILVER — HO. 8607 EL CORTEZ HOTEL 5640 Santa Monica Boulevard Hollywood, California 24-Hour Phone Service HO. 7101 Centrally Located to All Studios HARRY ZECH* Now Available with his Complete Super-Speed Mitchell Camera Equipment r^ GRanite 8296 HEmpstead 1128