Motion Picture Herald (Mar-Apr 1947)

STUDIO PAY BOOST Universal, Rank COST $11,000,000 Schlesinger in South A fricaDeal Producers Offer 17% Cost of Living Increase to 15,000 Craft Workers Approximately 15,000 production employes at the studios of the major companies, members of all unions and guilds holding contracts with the Association of Motion Picture Producers, were offered an 11-point 17 per cent cost-of-living increase last week by the producers. The increase corresponds exactly to the rise of the cost-of-living in the Los Angeles area as charted by the U. S. Department of Labor between July 1, 1946, and January 1, 1947. The pay boost is retroactive to January 1 and effective until December 31. It was offered in compliance with the interim agreement entered into by the producers last July as a means to end the two-day studio strike which ended when all unions received a 25 per cent retroactive increase. The same kind of an increase was received by the Screen Extras' Guild last month under the terms of a special contract held by that organization. To Cost $11,000,000 Annually According to estimates from the Motion Picture Association, the increase will cost the producers some $11,00,000 in 1947. Independent producers are expected to copy the wage-scale offered by the majors. The only unions not covered by the new offer are those who are out on strike, the Musicians' Union, which got a special contract last year, and the IATSE cameramen and sound men, as well as others whose contracts still are in the negotiation stage. On the Hollywood jurisdictional strike scene, another union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 40, which up to now had respected picket lines established by the Conference of Studio Unions, late last week ordered its members back to work. A statement from the union leadership said Dan Tracy, International president, and Richard Walsh, IATSE head, had reached an agreement providing for the recognition of the December, 1945, AF of L jurisdictional directive and for the settlement of all remaining disputes on a local level. Strive for Strike Settlement Herbert Sorrell, Conference president, last week discussed the jurisdictional dispute with Frank Wenig, the Federal conciliator. Later Mr. Wenig met with Pat Casey, the major producers' labor contact man, in an exploratory session. It was understood that he was planning to get all parties to sit down around a conference table in an attempt to arrive at a strike settlement. Meanwhile the District Court of Appeals for the State of California, by a unanimous decision, affirmed a prior ruling of the Superior Court in Los Angeles, upholding Mr. Walsh's authority to take over control of the Affiliated Property Craftsman's Union, Local 44, under the emergency powers granted him by the International constitution. The emergency developed in March 1945, when Local 44, in alleged violation of its obligations to the International and contrary to Mr. Walsh's directives, joined forces with the Conference of Studio Unions, which then went out on an eight-month strike. The walkout was terminated by a decision of an Executive Council Committee of the American Federation of Labor. Delegation Seeks Aid The CSU point of view was explained at a meeting of various AF of L unions at New York's Piccadilly Hotel late last week by & three-man CSU delegation which included J. L. Nisbett, Walter R. Scheibel ' and Edward J. Smith. The Conference representatives established temporary Eastern headquarters here in a move to solicit financial support from AF of L locals in the New York area. The meeting disclosed that almost $3,000 a week had been contributed to the Conference fund by the International Association of Machinists. The Brotherhood of Painters pledged a $10,000 contribution. Elsewhere on the labor scene, the Screen Actors' Guild has informed 400 producers that it has set April 15 as the starting date for negotiations for a new contract to replace the present agreement which expires May 15. The group named a 17-member committee and suggested that the producers set up a numerically similar committee to represent them. In New York, negotiations between 18 Eastern laboratories and representatives of the Motion Picture Laboratory Technicians, Local 702, were resumed last week. The contract between the union and the labs expired March 9. Screen Writers Revising Authors Authority Plan Following a battle of charges and counter-charges last autumn, the Screen Writers Guild in Hollywood has made radical changes in its proposed "American Authors' Authority" to centralize the leasing, rather than the outright sale of literary works for commercial use. These changes were brought about following attacks by opposition groups which claimed the SWG was seeking to establish a dictatorship over American writing. Under the new plan an agency would be established in which membership would be voluntary. The agency would not be in a position to force any writer to use the agency's channels. Universal and J. Arthur Rank, themselves united in partnership, have joined with the Schlesinger interests of South Africa in a three-continent dea4 announced Monday in London, New York and Johannesburg. Under this latest of the Rank maneuverings, all of the product of the Rank group and the newly organized Universal-International company will be exhibited by the 400 theatres controlled and serviced by the Schlesinger interests in that part of Africa south of the Equator. Schlesinger operates a large number of those 400 theatres itself and serves the balance, which are independently operated, with their film requirements. In a further union of interests, the Rank group and the Universal group have acquired an interest in African Consolidated Theatres, Ltd., and African Consolidated Films, Ltd., with the control of those two companies remaining with the Schlesinger group. The Schlesinger group plans to acquire film interest in both Great Britain and America. According to the joint announcement, African Consolidated Theatres has a fiveyear building program, a "considerable portion" of which has been delayed by the war and subsequent building restrictions. Sites for the new theatres already have been acquired. The American-British-African agreement also includes a hint of joint production activities. Says the announcement: "The Schlesinger group, through African Film Productions, Ltd., has plans for the future development of film production in South Africa in connection with which large modern production studios are to be erected at Parkmore, Johannesburg, and it is anticipated that the Rank group and Universal group may also become interested in African Film Productions, thereby making available the vast film production resources of those two groups for the future development of film production in South Africa through that company." Marker, U. S. Attorney on Television Suit, Resigns Joseph B. Marker, special attorney for the Department of Justice's New York antitrust division, last week announced that he had resigned from the Department to return to private law practice. Mr. Marker has been in charge of the Government's television anti-trust suit against Paramount, General Precision Equipment, Television Productions, Inc., Scophony Corporation of America, Scophony, Ltd., and others since its inception. Despite his resignation Mr. Marker has agreed to continue to assist the anti-trust division in further negotiations. 46 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, MARCH 22, 1947