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)

2204 MOTION-PICTURE JURISDICTIONAL DISPUTES 'rudiments of fair play' ("citing eases) assured to every litigant by the fourteenth amendment as a minimal requirement (citing cases). There can be no compromise on the footing of convenience or expediency, or because of the natural desire to be rid of harassing delay, when that minimal requirement has been neglected or ignored." Respectfully submitted. Zach Lamab Cobb, Attorney for the Complaining and Locked Out Carpenters of Hollywood, and their Carpenters Local Union No. 946. Now, Mr. Chairman, the question was very properly asked by Mr. Owens, of the committee, as to what had been done to bring a solution to this problem through the agency of the National Labor Relations Board. I have shown you what has been done by the carpenters. Mr. Landis. Could you give us a date on that 'i Mr. Cobb. The charges were dated October 22, 1947, some 6 weeks after the hearing in Los Angeles. In making the charges you will note from the record I have placed before you, tliat all charges against the lATSE were embraced in one document for each of the studios. A ruling has just come out from the Washington office that certain of the charges should be segregated from the others, so that those certain charges were refiled on October 25, 1947. Now I understand, of course, that under the law the Labor Board cannot go back of 6 months, except where unfair labor practices that occurred more than 6 months prior to the date of the charges, have been kept alive and continued from their first occurrence, to within the 6 months' period. And it is shown in the charges that the unfair labor practices were not only continued and kept alive up to the date of the charges, but the record before this committee, I submit and will submit by book and page reference and law in the written brief to be filed with you, are still being pursued as unfair labor practices. Now, Mr. Chairman, I stated my desire to speak to you in calmness and in the spirit of good will. I have no quarrel with any person, either of counsel or of management. I have no interests except the interest of my clients, to get a square deal, and of course the public interest that the law of the square deal may prevail in labormanagement relations. In seeking this square deal what more can we do than apply to the Labor Board set up by law ? And I now invite counsel for the lATSE and counsel for the major motion-picture production companies, not to put these gentlemen on the spot ; I do not call for an immediate answer from them; they will have to consult their clients before they can answer the invitation I now extend. This is our country. This is our Government. This is all that is stable and sound and good in the government of the world. No man, no company, no human being is bigger than his country. No combination of companies is bigger than the law that protects them. No labor organization is bigger than the law that permits its existence. Speaking for these locked-out carpenters in all good will, I now invite the lATSE and the motion-picture companies, to join in asking the Labor Board for a fair and open hearing before a fair and impartial hearing officer, with the right of subpena, examination, and cross-examination of witnesses, alike for all parties concerned, in order that the cancer spot of America's labor relations may be removed in the orderly way of compliance with law.