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MOTION-PICTURE JURISDICTIONAL DISPUTES 537
Mr. McCaxx. Well, I think we should have direct testimony on matters of that kind, Mr. Skelton, because that is lots better than hearsay.
Mr. Skeltox. I would welcome it.
Mr. Kearxs. Mr. Skelton. who did the loading job?
Mr. Skeltox. I am told by my members at MGM wdien our men refused to leave the lot that they were — the police department loaded them onto a truck and took them to the gate and dumped them when they got outside the gate.
Mr. Kearxs. What police department?
Mr. Skelton. The police department from the MGM studios.
Mr. Kearxs. The producer's employees?
Mr. Skeltox. Oh, yes.
Mr. McCaxx. Mr.* Chairman, at this point, for the record, Mr. Peery Price has just said that he will stipulate all the testimony as given by Mr. Skelton in regard to the bringing of the men in from the 40-acre lot and asking them to do this work on the stage is correct.
Mr. Price. It is.
Mr. McCaxx. That takes care of that.
Mr. Skeltox. Mr. Chairman and counsel, there have been numerous instances along those lines that I have mentioned, and I could continue, but I know that you are anxious to keep it as brief as possible. The thing I wanted to point out was those men who were working on permanent construction and had plenty of work to do, those men were willing to work on said work, but the producers would not allow them to continue to work and they brought them in from the jobs, some working on permanent jobs which was ours under the directive or any other way ; those men wanted to stay there and work on those jobs. Some of those men had not worked in those particular studios on any set-erection work. Some of those men who had held down jobs for 10 and 15 j^ears were not qualified to do the w^ork that they Avere asked to do. In one place, at Fox Western studios, some 15 men were employed, and a set on one of the stages there was complete, and the following morning a piece of base had been pulled otf and those 15 men were told to go over to that stage and put on that piece of base, for the sole purpose of discharging them from the lot. There are himdrecls of incidents just like that, and I think by the 24th or 25th of September all of our men had been locked out by the major studios, with a possible exception of a few who happened to be on location in Arizona and one or two other places.
Mr. McCax^n. Answ^er this for me, please, sir: Was this same thing done among the independent studios of which Mr. Nelson is the president ?
Mr. Skelton. No, not all of the independent studios, but some of Mr. Nelson's people produced on major lots, and they don't have the hiring of carpenters and painters. That personnel is furnished to the producer by the studio management. The studios on the major lots where an independent producer produces furnishes to the company carpenters, painters, laborers, and usually the men w^ e term "back-lot" employees.
Mr. McCaxn. Did the same thing apply with respect to the Chadwick group of independent producers ?