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)

1080 MOTION-PICTURE JURISDICTIONAL DISPUTES To the national shame and disgrace of the AFL and the labor movement of the United States, the motion-picture industry is again faced with a shut-down by reason of a jurisdictional dispute between two A. F. of L. internationals, car- penters and the lATSE. Over a quarrel as to jurisdiction of approximately 300 jobs, 30,000 men and women are to be thrown out of work. We understand this situation to arise over a quarrel as to the meaning of the August 16, 1946, addendum to the decision of the three arbitrators which purported to settle this very argument last December. This situation has apparently arisen with the full knowledge of the A. F. of L. executive council. We demand that this dispute be settled in some intelligent manner either by arbitration, by the execu- tive council, or by the A. F. of L. convention, without further embarrassment to the local labor movement and continued disruption of our industry, our work, and our community, and that no strife may be permitted/ to exist in the mean- time. Signed: Screen Actors Guild, George Murphy, Robert Mongtomery; Musicians' Union, J. W. Gillette; Hotel and Restaurant Employees, Walter Cole- man, international representative; Local 399 Teamsters, Joseph P. Dewey, inter- national representative; Screen Actors (Juild, Ed X. Russell; John Dales, executive secretary, Screen Actors Guild. Now after considerable correspondence and telephone conversation we sent the following telegram on October 2 to Mr. John Dales, execu- tive secretary of the Screen Actors Guild. The members of Screen Actors Guild should ignore picket lines and live up to their contracts with their employers as this is purely a jurisdictional dispute. Paul Dui>lzeicx, International President, Associated Actors and Artistes of America. I might say in passing that the members of the Screen Actors Guild, all ( f the officials of the Screen Actors Guild, have lived up to that directiA^e and have kept or helped to keep the studios—the little that is left—open and running. Mr. McCaistn. Now will you tell us what you did after that in con- nection with the Chicago convention ? Mr. DuLLZELL. If I may be permitted to read a statement, a sum- mary of testimony that has already been given by representatives of the Screen Actors Guild, who attended this conference at the Morrison Hotel in Chicago, I would like to do so; first, because I believe it will save time and, second, because it coincides with my recollection and my understanding fully and completely. Mr. McCanx. You may proceed, sir. Give the dates, if possible, of your conferences in Chicago. Mr. DuLLZELL. The date is October 1946. I do not know the actual day or date but it was diu'ing the A. F. of L. convention, as stated here. We met with the three arbitrators in the morning in a parlor on the mezzanine floor at the Morrison Hotel in Chicago during the A. F. of L. convention. Those present at the conference, in addition to the three arbitrators, were myself as international president; Ronald Reagan, Edward Arnold, Gene Kelley, George Murphy, and Pat Somerset, all of the Screen Actors Guild. At the outset of the conference the three arbitrators informed us that they were meeting wath us as three indi- viduals: that they had ceased to exist as an official committee or arbi- tration board as soon as they handed clown their arbitration award or directive of December 1945. We told the arbitrators that a strike was imder way in Hollywood with great attendance of violence because of a misunderstanding over the clarification of their Deceml^er 1945 arbi- tration award, said clarification having been dated August 16, 1946, and having been received in Hollywood purportedly signed by them.