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 1047 12. 1945, and, as the committee knows, had been called over the dis- pute between the painters' union and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, involving 47 set decorators in the industry. It appeared to me a strike to compel the studio to side with the painters' union against the lATSE. The Conference of Studio Unions and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters supported the strike. In October 1945, as the newly elected president of the Association of Motion Picture Producers, 1 requested and was granted authority by the 10 member companies of the association to enter the strike picture and to attempt to effect a settlement. My first efforts at settlement were in Hollywood. I prevailed upon Richard Walsh, head of the lATSE. to come to Hollywood, and he cooperated by flying in from New York. Endless conferences were held with Mv. Walsh, with Mr. Herbert Sorrell, president of the Conference of Studio Unions, which was fighting with the lATSE over jurisdiction, and with other labor leaders. We struggled with the problem around the clock and got exactly nowhere. There had been a long-standing dispute between the car- penters' union and the lATSE involving jurisdiction over prop- making. This dispute was an issue in the discussions. The car- penters' union was assisting the painters' union in its effort to capture jurisdiction over set decorators but in so doing its purpose was also to take over work which had for many years been done by the lATSE. I quickly found out this strike couldn't be settled in Hollywood, principally because of the absence of William Hutcheson, president of the carpenters' union. It was evident that it could be settled only at the higher levels of the American Federation of Labor. I thereupon asked William Green, president of the A. F. of L., for an opportunity to present our case to the October meeting of the A. F. of L. executive council, then in session in Cincinnati. Mr. Hutcheson, who is a member of the council, was present, and so w^as Mr. Walsh. The Cincinnati meeting was an unusual one. I don't believe the A. F. of L. council had been often addressed by an employer repre- sentative, and especially on a subject as controversial as jurisdiction. I urged the council to take action on the Hollywood situation and thus show the world that labor could settle its family differences— that it had a conscience to guide its use of the great power it had won. In an unprecedented action, the council, with the unanimous agree- ment of the heads of the international unions involved, including Mr. Hutcheson and Mr. Walsh, issued a directive ordering the strik- ers back to work and appointing a three-man arbitration committee. The dii-ective provided that this committee was to investigate and decide the jurisdictional issues within 00 days. The heads of the international unions agreed to accept the committee's determination as final and binding. I made the same agreement on behalf of those motion picture companies which I represented. On December 2G. 1945, the arbitration committee rendered its deci- sion. Among other things, the erection of sets on stages, exclusive of mill and trim work, was awarded to the lATSE. The directive was put into effect.