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)

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MOTION-PICTURE JURISDICTIONAL DISPUTES 1075 I again say with regret that one of the stumblingblocks is that my friend Mr. Hutcheson, who has, so far as I know, refused to agree to such a provision. Mr. Sorrell lias; Mr. Walsh has tentatively. I think Mr. Lindelof—I have not talked to him directly about this, but I be- lieve I have heard he would be willing to do so. In other words, if that could be worked out, I think we could get over our difficulties, but we have not been able to work that out yet. Mr. Owens. Mr, Hutcheson has always believed in the economic power of the union, rather than the law. Mr. Johnston. You know as much about that as I do, Mr. Owens. Mr. Owens. AVell, he appeared before us and testified. He was the one man honest enough to say that he would just as soon not have any law on the books because he believed in the economic power of the union rather than the law. That appears to be your difficulty out there right now. doesn't it ? Mr. Johnston. With the great power of labor unions I think the law of the jungle, the tooth and the claw, has to be removed. I think there are other things to be substituted today. I am all for unions, but I think they have to recognize their respon- sibility to the public and to the workers. ]Mr. Owens. It is pretty difficult for me sitting here even up to this time to find out just where the blame lies. I generally can't do that in the course of a couple of hours. Mr. Johnston. Mr. Owens, I have-been in this business 2 years, a little OA-er 2 years—2i/^ years, almost—and I can assure you it is an extremely complicated matter which runs back many, many years. You can hear almost as many stories on it as different people you want to listen to. All I can assure you is this: That as far as I personally am con- cerned in this procedure, I have made every effort I could make to settle it. I have gone to the A. F. of L. council itself in two instances to settle it, and have been unsuccessful in doing so. Union politics have interfered. The desire for power has interfered. I do not know of anyone who can settle this problem, unless there is some law requiring us to settle, requiring the unions themselves to settle. In other words, in a business which is as well paid as the workers are in Hollywood—because in most instances they receive higher wage scales in the same craft than they do in the city of Los Angeles—but in an industry which is as highly paid as this and where the work is not too arduous—I think all will agree to that in most instances—there is always the desire to get the other fellow's job, particularly when new processes and new methods and new techniques and new materials are constantly being introduced, as they must be in the form of enter- taimnent. What we do today is done differently tomorrow. That bi-ings in another whole group of people as to whether they shall or shall not do that. Then you have trouble and disputes. They have not been settled. They have run for years. Mr. Owens. In other words, you had those difficulties even before the Wagner Act was passed? Mr. Johnston. Oh, of course, they went way back into the twenties.