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)

MOTION-PICTURE JURISDICTIONAL DISPUTES 535 The next we met was Avith the prop makers' local, and after two or three sessions with the prop makers it was decided between Mr. Brewer and Mr. Cambiano that there did not seem to be any basis for settlement, and that they thonght it wonld be better to leave those unresolved issues between the carpenters and the prop makers in the hands of the connnittee to settle ; and when we appeared before the committee after they arrived here we explained to them that Ave had made an agreement with the grips' local 80, a copy of Avhich Avas attached to the brief that Ave gave them, and that the only unresolved issues Avere differences betAveen the property men and the carpenters. The property men, howeA^er, took in miniatures, and there Avas no real serious question betAveen the carpentei's and the property men Avhen it Avas confined to miniatures, but AA'hen they took a position that a miniature was an^'thing that Avas of a reduced size, then Ave objected to it, because in recent years some of the miniatures Avere as big as 200 feet long and 40 feet high and took in thousands of feet of lumber, and especially for backgrounds, the miniatures. We claimed that that was beyond the reasonable definition of Avhat Ave Avould term "a miniature." As far as I knoAV, Ave explained to the committee exactly Avhat had happened; and Avhen the committee handed doAvn their decision in December, the 26th, we objected seriously to the decision, not because we didn't Avant to abide by the decision made by the general president that they Avould abide by the decision of the committee, but because we had felt that the committee had erred in giA'ing to the lATSE the erection of sets on stages Avhen aa^c had already, under the 30-day period allotted to us, settled that issue Avith the only local in the motionpicture industry that it had ever been in question by and the local union that Avas doing the Avork in 1926 Avhen that agreement Avas made locally here betAveen the carpenters and the lATSE. So the result of the directiA^e Avas that Ave did not only lose the erection of sets on stages, but Ave also lost the Avork that Ave had agreed to give the carpenters in retui-n for the complete erection of sets on stages. However, after some Avork stoppages — and there Avere some — I instructed our members to continue to Avork under the directive until we could haA'e it clarified by the committee or the executiA^e board of the A. F. of L. There Avere scA'eral Avork stop])ages. There Avere threats both by the carpenters and by the lATSE, but there were no real serious work stoppages until the directiA^e Avas handed doAvn by the executive council and the three men on August 16, 1946. We went before the producers — hoAvever, before that. President Hutcheson sent a letter to me and advised me that this directive had been issued, that the clarification had been issued, and I was not to insist on the terms of the clarification until I Avas sure that the producers and the other parties involA^ed had received a copy of it, which would be sent from President Green's office. When we found out that they had received the copy of the clarification on September 11, at the American Legion Stadium in HollyAvood, local union 946 held a specially called meeting and they agreed to abide by the clarification and instructed Mr. Cambiano and myself to arrange a meeting with the producers and to notify the producers that we expected the same courtesy from them in putting into effect the clarification as they extended to the lATSE in putting in the original directive. I think I am the one that told the producers that by action of the local union our members avouIcI not work on any sets the following