Jurisdictional disputes in the motion-picture Industry : hearings before a special subcommittee of the Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, Eightieth Congress, first-session, pursuant to H. Res. 111 (1948)

464 MOTION-PICTURE JURISDICTIONAL DISPUTES At the heai'ing before the AFL committee Studio Carpenters Local 946 limited Its presentation of evidence to the unsolved issues between local 946 and local 44 of the lATSE. Representatives of local 946 explained to committee members that an agreement had been reached with local 80 of the lATSE and a copy of the agreement was submitted. The committee was also presented with the copy of the jurisdictional award made by the AFL on July 9, 1921. The committee was advised of an agreement entered into between Studio Carpenters Local 1692 and the lATSE on February 5, 1925. A printed copy of these agreements are enclosed and marked "Exhibit B." It should be noted that the agreement entered into in February 1925 was not endorsed by General President William Hutcheson and consequently never went into full force and effect. In the decision of the AFL committee appointed by the executive council, the committee states that it had decided that the most practicable method of solution of the problems presented to it would be on the basis of "a division of work designations within the industry patterned after previous agreements negotiated mutually by the various crafts." The committee obviously failed so to do by failing to recognize the agreement entered into between local SO and local 946. Because representatives of local 946 were specifically following the word and letter of paragraph 4 of the Cincinnati agreement they did not present any evidence covering jurisdiction agreed to between local SO of the lATSE and Carpenters Local 946. The union assumed that the committee was, as directed by the Cincinnati agreement, limited to a consideration and determination only of the problems left unsolved after the 30-day interim period and satisfied itself with a mere presentation of the agreement arrived at between local 80 and local 946. On December 20. 194.5, the decision of the AFL committee was issued. The award, Insofar as it applied to the carpenters, awarded to local 946: "Section 1. All trim and mlllwork on sets and stages." This work has been done in the motion-picture industry almost exclusively by members of the carpenters' international for the past 20 years. "Seo. 2. All mlllwork and carpenter work in connection with the studios." Much of this work at the present time Is done by the lATSE. For the past few years most of the major studios have put In prop shops and in many places furniture shops which are equipped with Identical machinery to that used in the mill. The millwork is now being confined mostly to set construction and the milling of moldings, casings, and other trim. The language of this section is obviously much too broad and no fair interpretation of it can be enforced. This will become apparent when we consider sections 6, 7, and 8. These sections give the making of miniature sets, property building, and the erection of sets on stages to the lATSE. At least 90 percent of the work done on miniatures, property building, and the erection of sets on stages is done in wood or wood substitute and requires the tools and the skill of a carpenter. "Sec. 3. All work in carpenter shops." This section is practically a duplicate of section 2 as most carpenter shops in the motion-picture studios are the mills and the work performed tlierein has been done exclusively by members of the carpenters' international. "Sec. 4. All permanent construction." This work has never been in question and has always been done exclusively by the carpenters. Most of this work is done by contractors and comes under the building trades agreement. "Sec. 5. All construction work on exterior sets." This work has been done exclusively by the carpenters but of late the lATSE claims some of this work, such as putting up signs, fire escapes, and numerous other items. This work is very spotty and many studios go a full year without building exterior sets or erecting permanent building. Work awarded to the lATSE : "Sec. 6. Miniature sets." When this agreement was written, in 1925, miniatui-e sets were built on a very small scale, and seldom were larger than bench models. But in later years the miniature field has grown to where many miniatures and their backgrounds are built as high as 40 feet and cover an area of several thousand square feet. Miniature building in itself is a specialty branch, and if confined to a scale not greater than one-fourth inch to the foot, it probably would do no serious injury to the carpenter field. But when they are built on a much larger scale the work is pure and simple construction work. For example, at M-G-M Studios the early part of last year, a miniature set was built and the mountain for its background was approximately 40 feet high and over 200 feet long, using several thousand feet of lumber. The lATSE are now claiming any work on a reduced