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)

534 MOTIOX-PICTURE JURISDICTIONAL DISPUTES Mr. SKf:LTON. Business repi-esentative, Mr. McCanx. How long have you held that position ? Mr. Skki.ton. Full time since '41. Mr. McCaxx. Can you tell us in your own way now your version of the problems which exist in Hollywood and which have existed there in recent years? Mr. Skkxtox. "Well. Mr. Counsel, there has been considerable difficulty in the motion-picture industry in regards to the allocation of work, mostly with the prop makers and the carpenters. Nothing has developed very seriously with the exception that the carpenters were gradually losing work that they had been doing for some time. I would like to correct one statement that was made here, that in 1945 when the painters went on strike that the carpenters at that time were not members of the Conference of Studio Unions. We knew there was a little trouble developing in the motion-picture industry, and at a specially called meeting of the local union a vote was taken that local 94G would respect all A. F. of L. picket lines for at least 48 hours, and that a specially called meeting of the local union would be called and at that time they would give further consideration to further instructions to the members. Then an amendment to the motion was made that the business agent be empowered to instruct the stewards on the various lots whether or not they wei'e to observe the picket lines. When the painters established the picket line in 1945, the carpenters, I instructed the stewards to observe the picket line. A meeting was called within the 48 hours, and there a vote was taken that the carpenters would respect the picket line.. They continued on until the settlement in October. We returned to work. The connnittee from the A. F. of L. who signed that directive and the executive board, we tried to com])ly with that to the letter of the law. We met with Roy Brewer. Brother Cambiano was present, and we held meetings with the Grips Local SO, and in that meeting after 2 days, in the presence of President Walsh of the lATSE, Roy Brewer as representative here, Carl Cooper, the international represenative for the lATSE, we signed an agreement between local 80 and local 946. and this was within the oO days that the A. F. of L. directive requested that we do. In that agreement there was some shuffling of jobs. There had been a few little incidents between grips and local 94() in regard to the erection of sets, what we term in the studios "hold and fold." Only in those conditions was there any argument. There was some argument in regards to the transportation of sets from the mill to the stages. Some studios the carpenters did it and some studios the grips and some studios the laborers. We gave the grips some of the work that we had been doing in some of the studios, and in turn the grips gave the carpenters all erection, assembling, and reassembling of all sets, parts of sets, and for new construction or for retakes, and in return for that Ave gave to the grips some of the jobs that we had been doing in the other studios, such as repair and equi]:)ment, transporting sets from the mill to the stages, and in some cases the transportation of sets from stage to stage before they had been shot. We signed that agreement, as I said, in the presence of those gentlemen I mentioned, including those who signed it, the business agent from the grips, his committee, and the business agent from the carpenters and our committee. We thought that it would be cleaned up.