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)

1492 MOTION-PICTURE JURISDICTIONAL DISPUTES came out with the directive and gave us an International Electrical Brotherhood agreement, and gave to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers the operation of wind machines. There was no dispute about the operation of wind machines. We had been running the wind machines for years in the studio, that is the electrical-driven wind machines. The gas-driven machines were under the jurisdiction of the Inter- national Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, but this committee gave them to the Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and gave us the gas- driven wind machines. That might sound funny to the committee. "Wliy did they take the gas-driven wind machines away from the Electrical Workers and give them to the lA, and take"^the electrical-driven wind machines and give them to the IBEW ? Why did they do that ? They did not intentionally do it or make any mistake at all. They put into full force and effect the agreement which they thought we should operate under. That agreement had been drawn up years ago by the lATSE locals and by the IBEW. So they said, "Put it back into full force and effect." That is the best way we can find to decide this trouble that you have not decided amongst yourselves. Now, we lost the operation of electrically driven wind machines. That might amount to 50 men a day; it might amount to 5 men a day, or no men a day. It is all according to what picture you are shooting. If you have a big hurricane on out there they may have a hundred wind machines with a man to each wind machine because there is only one man to each macliine—that is very important. But they took that away from the lATSE. Now, in this arbitration so far we are doing pretty good. The United Association of Plumbers and Steamfitters of the United States and Canada, we had an agreement with the plumbers. It was a short agreement. Everybody understood it pretty well. The plumbers came up to the wall with their pipes and from there on out we took them, the lATSE. We handled all the effects on the stages. But in handing down its decision, the committee found this agree- ment which we had been working under out there. They studied it and it looked like a pretty good agreement to them, so they said, "Take this agreement you have been working on and which you have not consummated in these 30 days, and with a few little additions, put that into full force and effect." I assure you under that agreement the lATSE lost some more work. How much ? It might be 1 day, it miglit be 100 days. I am not going to present that to the committee, because I do not have the facts on it, but we have lost work under that agreement. Now comes the Building Service Employees International Union. The Building Service Employees International Union first came into the studios, I think, in 1942, They had practically no jurisdiction in there, but we had some jurisdiction which we were contending the committee should give to us, which was flagmen, signalmen, and whistlemen. Those are the men where, when they are shooting a picture outdoors, they wave the flag and blow the whistle so that everybody keeps quiet.