Our Union

The next General Membership meeting will be held 7:00 PM sharp, at the Marlin Studios, 315 West 42nd St. near 8th Ave.  It will not be held at the Capitol Hotel as before.

The ruling of the membership fining members for non-attendance of meetings has served its purpose of reminding people to attend meetings.  But since so many members have been chiseling by arriving at the last moment and leaving at the first opportunity, the membership voted at the last General Membership meeting: “That any member who comes in 30 minutes after the official opening of the meeting should not be given an attendance card.”

Amendment to the motion: “That a member cannot leave without permission of the chair, or the attendance card is not valid or acceptable by the Sergeant at Arms.”

The membership also voted to employ a stenographer to write up the minutes.  We have been in need of that for a long time.  the arrangement is temporary until we can find out how much time and effort is required to keep the records in good order.

It was decided to postpone the election of a Recording Secretary and Trustee until the next meeting.

The Terry Unit requested the General Membership’s approval of the new west coast 25% minimum to be presented to the company immediately.  That studio has been operating without a contract for nearly two years and contrary to what it has claimed, some of the salaries are below the standard here.  (“For instance, painters still make $30.00.”)  The unit also decided to take a strike vote thirty days from the date of the meeting that is, Nov. 13th.

The meeting was enlivened when one our “Brothers” protested against a fine imposed on him by the Executive Board for failing to report his free-lance work.  Clearing free-lance work through our Business Agent is one of our most important rulings at the present time.  This ruling must be strictly enforced.  ”That before accepting free-lance or non-union shop work, members must obtain okay in writing from the union, or be fined one week’s pay.”  The penalty was made a stiff one because unless the union knows what and where free-lance work is being done, cut-throat inter-union competition could not be prevented.  We remind you once again of the established rates:

Animation:: $7.50 per foot; Assisting $4.50 per foot; Inbetweening 45 cent per drawing; Inking 24 cents per cel; Painting 40 cents per cel.  These rates are now nation wide since they have been accepted by the Hollywood local.

At the next General Membership meeting the members will vote on the following recommendation of the Executive Board: “To recommend to the GM that the Business Agent be paid at the highest minimum rate in the industry.” We all agree that Pepe has had this raise coming to him for a long time, since he received his last raise in Jan. 1945.

Who’s Striking Now?

We listened with grim agreement the other night when Pres. Truman flayed the “profiteers”, denounced the “selfish interests” and “selfish” men who played fast and loose with the welfare of the nation.  In particular he branded that “group of men” who always opposed the interests of the people of America.  Delighted, we began to feel as though the old fighting spirit of FDR had somehow returned in Mr. Truman’s shoes.

But we had merely been guilty of underestimating Mr. Truman’s great gift for double-talk.  For after his tirade against big business the President announced that these men would not meet their just fate.  Not at all.  The sentence was the exact opposite.  The guilty men were to be punished by getting exactly what they had been striking for.

Once before, during the early days of the war, business went on strike against the government when it refused to build armaments for the war effort except on its own terms.

Refusal to produce the goods except on its own terms by business is as much a strike as any action taken by unions in wage disputes.  Yet business spokesmen, ignoring their own arrogance and contempt for the public welfare, have the nerve to accuse the nasty unions of striking against “the peepul!”

Who are “the peepul” anyway?  There are 60 million citizens working for a living in this country.  They and their families constitute what is loosely known as “the peepul”.  They comprise the vast majority of the population.  When they pound picket lines they are not doing it because the want to make themselves or their neighbors uncomfortable.

This sort of obscurantism; like the inevitable “red herring” act, is not going to confuse American labor.  When we go out on strike we know darn well who we are striking against.

Painters Reject W. F. T. U.

At it’s recent convention in San Francisco, the Brotherhood of Painters voted down a resolution to affiliate with the World Federation of Trade Unions.  The WFTU represents 60 million organized workers throughout the world including Russian trade unions.  The Painters, therefore, voted to remain an isolated group of workers in a world badly in need of closer understanding and labor unity.

The sad feature of this isolationist attitude of the Painters was their hysterical use of the “red menace” idea to defeat greater labor unity.  At one point a delegate spoke against joining the WFTU because, as he claimed, women in the Soviet Union are prostitutes!  It is impossible for anything constructive to result from that sort of thinking.  So, because virtuous Painters might have to associate with communist workers, the resolution was defeated.

The position taken by the Painters in no way differs from that of W. R. Hearst of the National Association of Manufacturers.  It was based simple on anti-Russian prejudice and not attempt was made to find out what organized labor as a whole stood to gain or lose by the action.  We have long deplored the eternal big business habit of blaming all our troubles on the “reds”.  It is a simple device used repeatedly to block intelligent solutions to real problems.  Only the enemies of labor will be pleased by this act of the convention.  With glee the anti-liberal, anti-union, anti-Russian publishers or American newspapers will print the anti-communist smears or labor.

It is a grim day when groups supposedly representing labor become the champions of isolationism and defeatism.

Trade News

Dwinnell Grant has left William Pictures to go into business for himself.  We hat to see him go because he was responsible for the fine working conditions at that studio.  Jack Zander has been hired to replace him.  Jack is well known as the ex-president of the Hollywood local.  We wish both men good luck.

We are pleased to report Zack Schwartz and Dave Hilberman visiting in New York.  They seem to have some interesting plans which are being well received here.  It is well known what they are capable of producing.

The west coast local has brought up three members in charges of offering to work for production under scale; and two girls from another studio on charges of scurrilous anti-union talk, including a statement that one of the Union’s officials was a “crook” and Executive Board members were “agents of Moscow”!  We approve the step taken by the Executive Board of Local 852.  Such measures have long been forthcoming.

Film industry reports that profits would be in the supercolossal class this year… $130,000,000 double last year’s.  Movie attendance was up to an all time high of 95 million a week and the excess profits tax was gone.  Costs, too, have gone up.  Dick Powell is now getting $150,000 per picture  instead of $50,000.  What kind of raise did you get this year?

Quartet of newspaper writers went to Atlanta on special assignment for their papers to start the ball rolling for the world premiere of Disney’s ”Song of the South” in Atlanta on November 12.

Surrealism in animated background will be utilized by United Productions in a forthcoming film made for the Navy.  First sketch conference on animated scenery for “A Mirror For The Sky,” a musical scheduled to open here in January, was held a couple weeks ago at UP.  John Hubley was designated to direct work on eight scenes, which total approximately 3,000 feet of color film and will mark the new departure from static stage sets.

Berny Wolf with Louis and Adrian Weiss have formed a cartoon studio for the production of 16mm and 8mm educational and entertainment films.  Louis Weiss will distribute the cartoons and Berny will be the director.

Terrytoons has been having trouble with the Musicians Union.  The musicians are requesting from all producers higher rates of pay to compensate the irregular nature of their work.  The idea is similar to our rates of time-and-a-half for free-lance work.  The musicians feel that since Terry doesn’t have to worry about vacations, severance pay, sick leave, etc.  he, as well as the other independent producers should pay more and employ more workers to balance the discrepancy.

The Screen Publicists Guild, Local 114, UOPWA-CIO, has informed us that it is sponsoring a “Screen Publicists in Art -1946″ exhibit at the Barbizon-Plaza Galleries, 58th Street and Ave of the Americas, from November 2-15, inclusive.  This exhibition is scheduled to be one of the most important cultural affairs in NY’s trade union history.  In staging it the SPG does so in the express hope of pointing the way to greater trade union interest in creative art.

General Motors Corp. has ordered 300 prints of each picture in its series of five “Power Primer Series” from Herb Lamp Cartoon Studios.  Each subject is about 1 1/2 reels in length, being shot in 35mm Technicolor and reduced to 16mm.

The west coast local has informed us that the 27 members of the Pal unit went out on strike Oct. 23rd.  The dispute arose because of discrepancies in wages between Pal workers and the rest of the cartoon industry. It is surprising to learn that, at this late date, Pal’s Class I people have been making less than the standard.  The company has refused to accept the unit’s compromise offer even though it still permits “Puppettoons” to compete at sub-standard wages.  We extend our sympathy and support to the Pal Unit.  Its strike action is clearly justified.  We hope the management of Pal’s realized soon that the Union cannot permit such inequities to continue.

Television Commercials

Now that our Local has entered into agreements with some television studios we are naturally concerned with developments in the field.  At a recent Television Broadcasting Association conference, executives in the field expressed themselves on the use and trends in commercials.  Reported a US Rubber Co. official: “For a one time one-station shot a commercial film is pretty costly.  If you try to use the strip of film time after time without change you get viewers in a mood to throw rocks through the set… a library of commercial shorts would be valuable, for these can be sent from station to station and teh cost per showing can be brought down.” (Why not throw in a good color cartoon?)

Said an executive of DuMont Labs: “If one picture is work a thousand words, then one visual commercial can be a thousand times as bad as the most objectionable aural message.  On the other hand, properly handled, a brief but well integrated visual commercial will sell a thousand times as well as the best aural one”. (Think what one good cartoon could sell!)

Said a representative of Station WRGB, Schenectady: “While at the moment we do not have what may be called an organized motion picture section, we are equipped to produce incidental sequences which our scripts may require…” (Why not ask the nearest producer to whip up a few hundred feet of good, clean animated fun?)

Said an official of Marchalk and Pratt: “In a film approach to commercials, 1. Keep each scene simple and its content large.  2. Narrate only what you show. 3. Create picture continuity that by itself tells your story. 4. Every picture should contain motion.  5. Use superimposed lettering, and art work to sell your main points. 6. Make free use of wipes and dissolves.” (Why not simplify matters by letting the nearest animated cartoon studio handle the job?)

Why Union

The first thing the Fascists did when they seized power was to smash trade unions.  They knew that the fight for real democracy was led by the unions.

Does your child go to a free public school? 125 years ago he couldn’t have because free public schools didn’t exist.  It was the trade unions which led the fight for “free, equal, non-sectarian” education for all.

When you went to the polls to vote did the clerk ask you how much property you owned?  125 years ago that might have happened.  The trade unions won the right for you to vote whether you owned property or not.

Call the roll of laws that have helped the common man.  The Wage and Hour Law which abolished child labor, Workman’s Compensation, The Wagner Act, The Social Security Act, these and many others were fought for and won by the trade unions.

Landlords, O. P. A. and You

When George Ottino voted at the last elections he couldn’t have foreseen how effectively his candidates were going to help him by creating the OPA.  His landlord in Cresskill, NJ is compelling him to move from his tiny apartment with his wife and three children.  Only OPA lawyers have been able to help him.  In a similar case, Pepe’s landlord is extorting $300.00 from him in exchange for a new lease.  A more careful choice of representatives in the last election might have prevented this sort of thing.

Events in the political arena demand that we exercise more care than ever before in our selection of candidates for public office.  Our job is studying all the candidates and their records.  For example, which man has done the most for the people, the workers, you and I?  Which man seems to have the interests of the money barons at heart?  You don’t have to be an expert to know that men like Taft and Bilbo do not represent our interests.  But all issues aren’t quite that clear.

Why have veterans, teachers and union men marched on Albany and occupied the State Legislature?  Mr. Dewey has boasted of balancing the state budget.  We know that pleases the big money boys whose taxes have been cut, but what does it mean to homeless veterans, to workers unable to meet the rising cost of living, to teachers struggling along on $1800 a year?

The next time you gripe about rising prices or tyrannical landlords remember that politicians you elected made those situations possible.  It is up to YOU to put men in office who will protect your interests.  The other guy isn’t going to do it for you.

Frame By Frame

It has been brought to Washington’s attention that people get hungry when they don’t eat… …American Action, Inc, new pro-fascist, anti-labor organization had been linked to higher-ups in the Republican Party… …US Citizens invade Canada where, thanks to  careful rationing and price controls, there are ample supplies of meat at low prices –well, at least WE have free enterprise… …What two Screen Gem’s boys went through CSU picket lines at Columbia claiming they thought it was all right as long as they paid their assessment?  …Henry Morgan, rising radio comedian, says that what this country needs is a good five cent psychiatrist… …Both labor and industrial spokesmen are predicting serious labor strife ahead as a result of removal of price and wage controls… …Pepe got it from both ends at last meeting.  ”Brother” Connovale volubly accused Pepe of fining him while the Executive Board raked Pepe for NOT fining him… …Congrats to Life Magazine’s October issue which carried a fair amount on the Hollywood strike and blamed it upon “ineptness” of the producers…  …Insiders inform us that Pres. Truman is suffering from foot-in-mouth disease… …After spending a night in the jug for picketing, the Hollywood Local’s Business Agent’s report read as follows: “I wish to state that in my official opinion the chow and accomodations at Lincoln Heights Jail are lousy!” …Disney’s labor man, O’Rourke, is convinced that the Hollywood Cartoonists are communists after mistaking a large Mexican art exhibit drawing of Timoshenko for Stalin.

Letters to the Editor

Hollywood, Calif.

…I’ve been denied unemployment insurance because of the labor situation in the studios, even though there is no picket line in front of any cartoon studio.  Things are really looking up for Joe Labor.  And some people still say that the Unions shouldn’t concern themselves with politics! …I got knocked around a bit in the violence at MGM a week or two ago.  I didn’t get beaten up like some of the other guys did.  I saw tow or three fellas get their faces beaten to bloody pulps with revolvers butts while they were being held by other cops… …But I got knocked down by a two ton cop with one of those baseball bats they carry.  Fortunately, I was wearing a steel helmet, which now has a big dent in it.  I also got a whack on the shoulder with something that may put my right arm out of commission for about a week.  I’ve done some picket duty since but I have met no more violence.  I suppose I sound pretty casual, but actually I’m pretty hot about the whole thing.  Talk about Hilter’s stormtroopers!….

Sadistic Film Flood

Is the present flood of sadistic motion pictures such as “The Killers”, “The Big Sleep”, “Crack-Up”, “The Stranger”, etc., just a passing fad without special significance?  Or does it reflect the growing fears, uncertainties, insecurities and sadistic hatreds of postwar society?

Horror pictures have long been a popular Hollywood commodity but there are unique differences in the present crime wave.  A report on the subject made by Siegfried Kracauer, staff member of the Museum of Modern Art Film Library, is well worth serious consideration.  Reports Mr. Kracauer, “The current vogue is unique in its predilection for familiar, everyday settings in which crime and violence occur.  Nightmares are seen in broad daylight, murderous traps are sprung just around the corner.  Everyday life itself breeds anguish and destruction.  And at the same time the villains become more prepossessing; they charm innocent girls and win the confidence of guileless bank-tellers.  Sinister conspiracies incubate next door, within the world considered normal –any trusted neighbor may turn into a demon.  Apprehension is accumulated.  Threatening allusions and dreadful possibilities evoke a world in which everybody is afraid of everybody else, and no one knows when or where sudden interest in psychiatry is being increasingly used as merely a fresh device for portraying films packed with senseless sadism, morbid personalities and unresolved conflicts.  Such films are contributing to the disbalanced emotions of a people desperately in need of mental clarity and emotional stability.”

We feel that Hollywood moguls would do the public a service by taking Mr. Kracauer’s remarks to heart.  Perhaps we are being utopian to expect Hollywood to produce meaningful, healthy films.  But we insist that our postwar society is sick and confused enough without being further weakened by a steady diet of sadistic nightmares.

Hollywood Strike…continued

Last week, after a tired day at the studio, we went to the movies and, in the newsreel, instead of news, we were slipped two mickeys -Truman talking on meat (“…reckless group of selfish men… there is only one remedy left…”) and the other, the glamourous pusses of the actor who went to Chicago to fight for the producers and the IA.  The similarity of both subjects was painfully striking; both were spouting doubletalk and lip service to high causes while both were really representing someone else.

A few weeks ago Life presented an article on the Hollywood strike supposedly written by Bob Montgomery.  We believe in the honesty of most of the actors, but when one of them signs his name to the statement that the Actor’s Guild “has a record second to none in intelligent trade unionism” we begin to wonder.  Hollywood knows to its sorrow the kind of unionists the actors are.  Actors who rarely attend meetings and cannot  know much about what is going on, and those close to the producers don’t care.  In important maters a letter is sent to the actors requesting a yes or no answer.

In comparison to this sickening display of servitude, the Film Technician’s Local 683, an enslaved IA local, had the guts to vote unanimously to respect the CSU picket lines.  These 2,000 laboratory workers know only too well that they were sticking their necks out, not because of anything the producers might do, but because of their own International President.  The IA is not a democratically run union like ours.  The International, 3000 miles away, can stop any action taken by the members.  Furthermore, the President can suspend anyone he pleases.  He condemns Russia because he claims she is autocratic, and yet the unanimous decision of 2,000 workers does not mean a thing to him.  It’s all nice and legal too, since the constitution gives him that despotic power.  No one can foresee the outcome of this revolt of Film Technicians.  The IA may take the Local away from its members, but no power on earth can force men to work against their will.  How the Local feels is revealed by the following statement: “We are fed up with the dictator like domination of Washl and Brewer which has tried to deprive us of the right to run our own local and make our own decisions.”

Perhaps someday the IATSE locals will be strong enough to rebel against the kind of constitution they now have.  The actors, no doubt due to their fortunate financial condition, seem to like their present reactionary position.  With pomp and cameras they went to Chicago.  They got what they wanted- the mythical creation of arbitration machinery that isn’t worth much.  If the actors were the unionists Bob claims they are, militant and progressive and interested in the well being of their fellow workers, the strike could be settled in no time.  If among the actors there were more men with guts and principles like the Film Technicians, this messy struggle could be washed up over night.  But the leaders of the Actors have chosen to let the beatings and imprisonment of workers go on.  Their claim to possess a unionist “record second to none” is the funniest thing to come out of Hollywood since Chaplin.  But were aren’t laughing.