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MOTION-PICTURE JURISDICTIONAL DISPUTES 47
Mr. Kearns. Would you answer this question : Does it take more of them to do the work than was formerly done by the carpenters who were employed?
Mr. Mannix. For a long period it did.
Mr. Kearns. How long a period?
Mr. Mannix. I should say the first 3 or 4 months of the strike.
Mr. Kearns. Have you overcome that slack now ?
Mr. Mannix. It is hard to estimate whether we have overcome the slack or not, because the productivity of a man has gone so far — inefficiency of work today, whatever it is — it would be very possible we would need just as many men of the craft out striking as we have now. That seems to be a general complaint from everybody I speak to in industry, that the efficiency of labor has dropped considerably.
Mr. Kearns. You mean you are not getting a fair day's work for a fair day's wage ?
Mr. Mannix. I honestly don't believe we are.
Mr. Kearns. The report has come to us that so many jjeople out here during the tenure of this strike have suffered greatly, homes have been affected — in many instances they have lost their homes, where they were trying to pay for them. They have lost equipment for their homes they were buying on the installment plan, and so forth, because of this strike.
Do you think that is a just evaluation of this picture?
Mr. Mannix. Well, I couldn't testify that they lost their homes, but I know that the salary paid in the motion picture studios is greatly in excess of the salary paid on the outside, for the same time on the outside that the workmen put in in the studio.
Now, whether these are the correct figures or not, I don't know. We are paying carpenters about $2.50 an hour, and I think they are having difficulty — the union rate in town is $1.65 or $1.95. It wouldn't strike me, the carpenter rate in town being $1.65 — that is, the union rate — whether the men are working for that, I don't know.
I know the rate we are paying the men is $2.50 an hour. Say they got $1.90 ; there is quite a spread in an 8-hour day's work.
Mr. Kearns. You think there is no question in your mind, then, but that the qualified carpenters who formerly worked in the studios would rather still be working there in the studios ?
Mr. jNIannix. Well, I believe that they would rather be working in the studios.
Mr. Kearns. I mean besides the advantages in wages — don't j'ou think they liked their work ?
Mr. Mannix. Yes ; I think it was easier, lighter work.
Mr. Kearns. Weren't they trained for it. too?
Mr. JMannix. Yes; I should say the average age of our carpenter at the studio — that means he has been there a number of years — is close to 50 — and maybe higher than that. I am going back just prior to the war. I was 50 years of age just prior to the war.
Let's just take the years gone by, and it would be 57 years of age.
Now, the painters have a lot, or did have until the last 3 or 4 years — their men were pretty well up in years. I think they have been a rather progressive outfit and brought a lot of younger men into the painters.