International projectionist (Nov-Dec 1933)

December 1933 INTERNATIONAL PROJECTIONIST 19 MINIMUM WAGE AND YOUR MAXIMUM NUMBER OF HOURS FOR THE PARTICULAR CLASS OF THEATRES IN THAT LOCATION ON AUGUST 23, 1933. 2. Where you were working in a community or had a member or members working in a community and you had no set scale or scales, or where you had different prices for different theatres of the same classification, or where you were only partially organized, then the question of what was your minimum scale and maximum hours on August 23rd, 1933, is to be arbitrated. However, existing contracts must be lived up to by the Exhibitors, and you do not have to arbitrate such contracts. 3. If the dispute is only between your organization and the employer, then the LA. office designates a representative to sit on the arbitration board. The employer designates a representative ; and if the two persons so designated cannot agree on a third person, the National Recovery Administrator will designate a third person. If the difficulty as to what was your prevailing wage scale and maximum number of hours on August 23rd, 1933 is between yourselves, the employer and strikebreakers or unaffiliated organizations, then the question of what was YOUR prevailing wage scale is arbitrated by a board of four : one selected by the LA. office, one by the employer, and one by the nonunion men or organization. If these men cannot agree on a fourth person, the National Recovery Administrator will appoint a fourth person. 4. If you are employed in a theatre now and you claim that you are not getting your minimum wage under the Code, or if the employer says unless you accept a reduction he will throw you out, the Code specifically prohibits either a strike or a lockout until after the question of what your minimum wage was for that particular class of theatres in that community is arbitrated. ■ However, prior to the time that the question of your minimum wage and maximum hours then in force are determined (provided, however, the hours provided for can in no event exceed forty), the Exhibitor cannot lower the amount of pay paid the men, nor increase the number of hours of work. Once the arbitrators have decided what was the minimum wage on August 23rd, 1933 and the maximum number of hours of employment, then the prohibition against strikes or lockouts is removed. You can strike for higher wages from that time on or for fewer working hours, but the employer in replacing you, if he does so, must pay the strike-breakers what the arbitration board determined was the minimum wage of August 23rd, 1933, and cannot work the men more hours than the arbitration board determined were your working hours on that date. However, before any strike or lockout is started, an effort to mediate must be made. We suggest, therefore, that if you are threatened with a lockout, or if you determine to strike, you immediately communicate with our general office and ask that an LA. officer be sent in for mediation purposes, and that you notify the employer using the following form of registered letter : "Gentlemen : In view of the provisions of Section 10, Act C, Part 1 of the Code of Fair Competition for the Motion Picture Industries, Exhibitors Division, we do hereby notify you that prior to our taking any steps to (a) prevent or protest against a lockout, or (b) strike in an effort to obtain fair wages and working conditions, that you or your representative and the undersigned should confer in an attempt to mediate such dispute. We hold ourselves in readiness at all times to fulfill all the terms of the Code and will attempt to mediate such disputes. I shall expect you also to attempt to do so immediately. This letter is sent you by registered mail in order to assure its safe and prompt delivery. Very truly yours," 5. Should you desire arbitration we suggest the following registered letter be sent to the Exhibitor. Be sure to notify our general office immediately, sending copy of letters. "Dear Sir : In accordance with the provisions of Section CL Part 1, of the Code of Fair Competition for the Motion Picture Industry, Exhibitors Division, and because we claim you are paying wages lower than the minimum as of August 23rd, 1933, and before we go further with the matter, we desire that a hearing be held on this question. We have nominated Mr to act as our representative and request you to notify us immediately who you designate as your representative. Failing to hear .from you by return mail, we shall be forced to take up this matter with the National Recovery Administrator. This letter is being sent you by registered mail in order to assure its safe and prompt delivery. Very truly yours," General Provisions 1. If at the present time you have a signed contract with a theatre to furnish operators or stagehands for more than forty hours per week for a set price, you will have to work out your contract and supply the additional men at no cost to the employer. 2. Section 7 provides that unless the employees agree, the work of the employees cannot be increased so as to decrease the number of employees employed. Fraternally yours, W. C. Elliott INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT The immediate reaction out in the field to the LA. statement, as reflected in the results of a canvass by this publication,, was that it was a curiously involved and incomplete exposition of the code, and that in many particulars it was definitely contradictory. One such instance commonly referred to was the statement that "... existing contracts must be lived up to by the Exhibitors, and you do not have to arbitrate such contracts". Immediately preceding this statement is the injunction that "... in no event, however, are operators or stagehands allowed to work more than forty hours a week ..." The Elliott statement that "you can strike . ..." is qualified in the paragraph immediately following by citing the "arbitration" provisions and in outlining the procedure to be followed. Outside of these obvious contradictions, however, the most glaring omission in this official "interpretation" is that referring to whether prevailing scale means scale per man or scale per theatre — which drags the burning question of manpower right out into the open. Overage in Hours Under the heading "General Provisions" is the clause which deals a death blow, as far as the official LA. attitude is concerned, to any hopes for an adjustment on overages that might have been cherished by those men who are now working on jobs which run to more than 40 hours a week. Contract or no contract, this cost will have to be borne by the men, proclaims the Elliott statement, as follows: "If at the present time you have a signed contract with a theatre to furnish operators or stagehands for more than forty hours per week for a set price, you will have to work out your contract and supply the additional men at no cost to the employer." (Italics are ours.) This interpretation of President Elliott is, of course, diametrically opposed to the stand taken by this publication on the question of who is to bear the burden of the overage in hours beyond the 40-hour maximum established by the code. In the section immediately following, as well as in the editorial page for this issue, appears pertinent information and comment anent this vitally important question. 61 Codes Oppose Picture Code on Overage Burden DELUGED with inquiries and complaints from the field relative to the silence of the motion picture code with respect to the question as to who shall pay for the overage in hours beyond the 40-hour maximum set by the code, lis tern ational Projectionist has concluded an exhaustive investigation into established NRA policy with respect to this question. The results of this work (Continued on page 21, col. 3)