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)

1546 MOTION-PICTURE JURISDICTIONAL DISPUTES Mr. Kearns. Yes, and I will instruct the secretary later as to the type of letter we will send each person. Mr. Levy. Our statement sets forth that Mr. Kibre planned to form an unemployment conference of various studio unions for the purpose of laying a foundation for an industrial union in opposition to the lATSE— which was and is a bulwark against Communist supremacy in Hollywood, and for the purpose of capturing control of studio labor for the Communist Party. Upon receiving information that it was possible to obtain an election to designate a collective bargaining representative imder the National Labor Relations Act, Kibre changed his tactics and organized the United Studio Technicians Guild (USTG), petitioned for an election, obtained an order for such election from the National Labor Relations Board, and endeavored to win control of all studio labor by this method. This plan was thwarted in 1939 when the Communist sponsors behind Kibre were exposed. This exposure showed, among other things, that Kibre was reporting to Bob Reed — Parenthetically, I do not know where Bob Reed is. I have never met the gentleman, and I am in no position to give you his address — a Communist Party representative in New York, and to Harry Bridges — I have never met Mr. Bridges. I don't know where he is. I understand his residence is San Francisco. Mr. McCann. I don't think we will have any trouble finding him. Mr. Levy. All right — that one Irwin Henschel was a part of the organization that assisted Kibre — Mr. Irwin Henschel was a member of the lATSE. I parenthesize this. I met Mr. Henschel in California on one of my trips out there as counsel for the lATSE. My present knowledge of his whereabouts is nil. I understand that he lives in Los Angeles or in that area — that Henschel was sent to the 1938 convention of the lATSE with instructions from Kibre as to a certain resolution which Communist Party representatives in California wanted passed by that convention; that the acting secretary of the Communist Party of Ohio objected to Henschel's activities, as indicated in correspondence by Roy Hudson, then trade-union secretary of the Communist Party and later editor of the Daily Worker in New York ; that Henschel's Communist motives and reliability were vouched for ; and that Kibre's efforts were directed to establish a Communist faction within the lATSE. This is the same Irwin Henschel who was the leader of the so-called "rank and file movement" of the Sorrell-directed strike of the CSU in 1945. Mr. McCann. Are we to understand that this Henschel, who was a member of the lATSE, transferred his union membership to a union that was connected with the CSU? Mr, Levy. No, sir. Mr. McCann. Well, would you i^lease explain that ? Mr. Levy. Yes, sir. You are to understand, sir, that the lATSE had also a number of Communists seeking to undermine the organization of the lATSE in cooperation with their spiritual colleagues who were working in the Conference of Studio Unions. I do not make the allegation that Mr. Henschel withdrew from the lATSE and went over to the Conference of Studio Unions. I make the allegation that it was his job to work in the lATSE and it was the job of his colleagues to work in the Conference of Studio Unions. When it was discovered that Mr. Henschel was disloyal to the lATSE and to America, the lATSE, in accordance with law, undertook to expel him from the organization and did so. (&) The same program which Kibi-e has outlined originally in his reports (that is, before he changed his plan to procure an election under the auspices