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)

MOTION-PICTURE JURISDICTIONAL DISPUTES 1993 him, and when they did not deal throngh him, he made a deal for the other xV. F. of L. crafts and pulled them off the picket line. And we will show that the same thing happened in 1945 and in 1946. We will further present testimony before we are completed that as late as 2 weeks ago in the hearing room downstairs Mr. Richard Walsh, in the conversation with Mr. Harvey Brown of the machinists, which was overheard by 10 or 15 people, made the statement that the machinists are out of the studios, that they will never get back, the studios are the exclusive jurisdiction of the lATSE, and they intend to have it. So if there is anj^ showing of industrial unionism, which is, I presume Mr. Levy is accurate in saying, a policy of the CIO, and which apparently was the policy of Mr. Kibre as the representative of the Communist Party, assuming he was a representative of the Communist Party, it is the policy which has been followed by the lATSE. I have a number of documents here which I want to read into the record, which will show first that it has been the consistent policy of the lATSE to destroy the craft unions in the studios; secondly, that in this work they have had the complete and constant cooperation of the producers ; and, third, that the C4'y of communism was raised only against Mr. Sorrell, and the people with whom he is associated, because, one, they opposed racketeering in this industry, and secondly, because they stood up for the rights of the craft workers in the industry. The first clipping that I have to read is from the Los Angeles Times of ^May 22, 1937. This concerns the 1937 strike during the settlement of which, as you will recall, according to Mr. Sorrell's sworn testimony, he was offered $56,000 by Willie Bioff. I am not going to read the whole of it, because it is a very long clipping. In a four-point statement which was interpreted to mean that an early settlement of the difficulty is an outstanding possibility, the lATSE leaders declared : That the striking Painters Union must first apologize to the lATSE for asserted slanderous accusations made by the former during the current strike difficulties. That the lATSE dictate any jurisdictional disputes involved. That the producers have been served notice by the working studio union groups not to negotiate with the FMPC leaders. I might state parenthetically that the group that went on strike was called the Federated Motion Picture Crafts. That, if the producers sign an agreement of settleipent with the painters on strike, the lATSE will pull all members out on strike and darken every unionized motion picture theater in the United States and Canada. I should have said before I started this that at this time Willie Bioff was the head of the lATSE in Hollywood, as the personal representative of (jeorge Browne, the international president. This is a quote from the Los Angeles Herald-Express of the same day, May 22, 1937 : George E. Browne declared that when the strike is settled the TATSE will define the jurisdictional rights of the scenic and make-up artists, affiliates of the painters and, with the latter, comprising most of the 1,000 men and women of the FMPC still on strike. "If any studio negotiates a settlement with the FMPC unbeknown to us," Browne continued, "we will call a strike at that studio and call out the motionpicture operators of every theater where the studio films are exhibited.