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 865 Mr. McCanx. Did you have a conference with the producers here about that? Mr. Walsh. Yes, I think that I did ; yes. Mr. McCann. What date did you meet with the producers ? Mr. Walsh. Tliat I woukl have to look up. I can't remember the date. Mr. McCann. Did you meet with them on more than one occasion ? Mr. Walsh. Well, at that time we were meeting on the wage scales for the local unions out here, so I imagine that I had many meetings with them. Mr. McCann. Well, now, I am not trying for one moment to confuse the wage-scale program at all with this issue. We have a very definite issue in which there is a definite threat from the carpenters that if the producers did not accept the August 16, 1946, interpretation of the December 26, 1945, directive that they would regard every set as hot, and then we have the definite threat from you, "You better not do it," or words to that effect. Now, then, that was discussed with the producers on numerous occasions, was it not ? Mr. Walsh. I would say yes. Mr. INIcCann. Did you arrive at an agreement with the producers as to what they should do ? Mr. Walsh. I think — I am trying from memory to tell you what happened, if I can. After the both of these letters were served on the producers, naturall}'' the producers were very much concerned about it, and the treatment that we had received after the termination of the 1945 strike we hadn't gotten over yet, and we were not too much pleased about the w^ay our men were herded into these stages and cops put on each door to see that they didn't roam around the studios, and we were not so much pleased with the producers, and we didn't think that we should jump right in and help them out again as we did in the first strike, and by helping them to help ourselves, so we had a meeting with them and talked it over, and then I talked it over, I believe, with our business representatives in Hollywood and told them that it looked verj^ much like if we didn't do it the studios would close down and we would all be out of work, carpenters, teamsters, and everybody else, so for two or three thousand people we would be putting 16 or 17 thousand people out of work, so I left it to them to make a recommendation whether we should r-un the studios or not, and I believe it was agreed at that meeting that we would attempt to keep the studios running and that we thought they were wrong in breaking tlieir word and not living up to the directive, and it was the consensus of opinion of the meeting of that group that we would continue to run the studios. Mr. INIcCann. Who was present at that meeting ? Mr. Walsh. That I will have to check. I would say that most all of the 16 local union representatives here in Hollywood were there. Mr. McCann. IATSE? Mr. Walsh. IATSE locals, every one of them, I think. Mr. McCann. This is the meeting you were talking about with the IATSE locals. I meant to refer to any meeting with the producers in the formation of a policy as to what should be done in this rather delicate situation. Mr. Walsh. I think what happened, we had this first meeting with the producers and they asked would we supply the people to put up 67383 — 48— vol. 1 — —56