The screen writer (June 1946-May 1947)

S. W. G. BULIETIIV WAGE NEGOTIATIONS On June 1, the Screen Writers’ Guild addressed to the Producers’ Conciliation Committee and to all major producers signatory to the basic writer-producer agreement a letter reopening the provi¬ sions of the contract on minimum wages, one of the sections of the contract which may properly be reopened at this time, although the agreement as a whole runs until 1949. New minimum wages asked by SWG are: $300 per week for all screen writers on a weekly basis; $3,000 for flat deals covering all screen plays (thus automatic¬ ally eliminating the differentiation which has heretofore existed between so-called action pictures and other feature-length motion pictures). While recognizing the large jump re¬ quested over the previous minimums of $125 per week and $1,000 and $1,500 for flat-deal screenplays, the Guild’s Com¬ mittee points out that the present mini¬ mums of $345 per week for a 1st cam¬ eraman, $23 1.12 for a re-recording sound mixer, $262.50 for an art director (in his third year in the industry), $188 for a free-lance assistant director, more than justify the figure demanded by the SWG. Moreover, all of the crafts mentioned above achieved tremendous advances in working conditions and salaries during the past four years, while writers’ wages have remained frozen since the signing of the basic contract in 1942. In accordance with the terms of the Minimum Basic Agreement, the Concilia¬ tion Committee of producers and writers will meet to consider these proposals within 30 days. RATIONING Following the lead of writers reported in our last issue, urging the adoption of voluntary rationing at the studio commis¬ saries, the SWG Executive Board was pe¬ titioned by a group of members to take the initiative in making Hollywood the spearhead of a national movement for voluntary rationing. As a result, the fol¬ lowing resolution was sent by the SWG to all Hollywood guilds and unions; SWG to Hollywood Organizations ‘‘WHEREAS, the food situation throughout the world has reached a most desperate state and the starving peoples of the war-ravaged countries must depend for survival on the food supplies which can come to them largely from the Unit¬ ed States; therefore, be it “RESOLVED: That the Screen Writers’ Guild, at the urging of groups of its members at different Hollywood studios, calls upon ail Hollywood unions and guilds to join it in requesting that studio com¬ missaries prepare on Tuesdays and Fri¬ days special menus which will not include fats, cereals, wheat products or meats; and thereby, “That the motion picture industry, through the initiative of the labor organi¬ zations within its ranks, take the lead and set the example for a nation-wide cam¬ paign of voluntary food rationing which can make available from our stockpiles and supplies the food products so urgently needed by the rest of the world.’’ VETERANS’ ADMINISTRATION The Veterans’ Administration, 1041 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, has opened a new Motion Picture Services office, to furnish factual information and technical assist¬ ance to the motion picture industry on veterans and their activities. The office is headed by Douglas F. George, recentlyreleased naval lieutenant, before the war in public relations with 20th Century-Fox. Services of the film office will be extend¬ ed to producers of 16-mm. industrial and educational films as well as to major studios. The office, in its first release, offers information to producers (and writers) on the following aspects of veterans’ prob¬ lems: Education, Hospitalization, Voca¬ tional Rehabilitation, Loans (on farm, business or home), Low-cost Insurance, 44