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1522 MOTION-PICTURE JURISDICTIONAL DISPUTES
So Mr. Walsh agfreecl that he would abide by the final determination of the National Labor Relations Board. That did not take the situation out of the fact that the cai-penters, the painters, and all the other crafts were banded together in cooperation with the Conference of Studio Unions for the purpose of taking the jurisdiction they felt they could capture by closing the studios. Mr, Walsh's agreement to abide by the tribunals of our Nation was ineffective.
The record will show that Mr. Sorrell, the leader on the ground of the strike in Hollywood, made promises that before they would go back to work he would get for the carpenter^;' organization the jurisdiction which the carpenters claimed they were entitled to take from the lATSE.
Mr. Owens. Where is that statement ?
Mr. Levy. I have that here and I will present it. I say the record will show that. We collected the statements made by Mr. Sorrell as published in their own publication and in the quotes of the trade journals in Hollywood at the time. They are being collected and are being presented to this committee.
I think Mr. Walsh testified in Los Angeles about the conferences that he had with all the international presidents, telling them, "Go back to work because our people want to work in the studios. Their jobs depend upon it."
It was found out he could not persuade Mr. Hutcheson to get the people to go back to work unless Mr. Hutcheson got the jurisdiction, which he wanted and which he stated to be all work on wood, wood substitutes, and woodworking machinery.
Now this was merely respecting a bona fide American Federation of Labor picket line because the set decorators went out on strike, not for wages, not for hours, not for working conditions, but for jurisdiction— it was not a matter for Mr. Hutcheson or for the general president of the carpenters' brotherhood to say, "Before I will let you go back to work I will insist upon getting all the jurisdiction which I have claimed I am entitled to from 1881."
So I say to you that in adition to what has been stated I have here a photostatic copy of the demand for the jurisdictional work })resented by carpenters' local 946, at or about the time of the 1944 or 1945 strike, which indicates what the jurisdictional demands were that the carpenters wanted.
My point is, gentlemen, that there was in my opinion a definite conspiracy between the carpenters' organization and the Conference of Studio Unions in order to freeze out the lATSE of jurisdiction in the Hollywood studios because it was felt that with a manpower shortage during the war they would be able to keep the studios closed, either through the picket line, through manpower shortage, through mass violence or anythinsr else.
Mr. Owens. Weren't they a part of the same organization?
Mr. Levy. No, sir.
Mr. Owens. Weren't they all joined together in one group, the Conference of Studio Unions?
Mr. Levy. At that time the carpenters were not in the Conference of Studio Unions.
Mr. Owens. The carpenters were not?
Mr. Levy. No, sir; not in March of 1945. They came in later, officially.