The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1942-02-20
HOLLYWOOD
FRONT
By TED TAYLOR

| Hereafter when any member of the
init. Alliance of Theatrical Stage EN-.
ployes is fired after working two
years for one studio he will be given
either two weeks notice or two weeks
pay That will apply to electricians
and laborers on movie sets, grips and
property men, photographers and
sound men, costumers and makeup ar
lists, laboratory technicians and stu
do OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES one-third of
Hollywood's 10000 labor force.
The deal is on the side from the
contract with the 10 production crafts
worked out in New York by the pro-
ducers in January, but Daily Variety
says it goes into effect Immediately.
This marks the entrance of the sew
erance pay idea into craft unions. Pre-
viously only desk workers enjoyed
such arrangements-and not too many
of them.
Notice Or" is not honest-toPete
severance pay, of course. Holly
woods publicity men argued such a
clause into their studio contract two
years ago. All they've had since is
the notice, not any additional pay.
Before the contract they mostly got
the gate without notice.
What the screen publicists wanted
was the sort of severance their broth
ers of the American Newspaper Guild
have - cash compensation upon dis
charge at the rate of up to three
weeks pay for each year of service.
1--WE can't do it," cried the produc
ers. Every union in Hollywood would
want it," So the publicists took the
notice Or"
But in the past few months one
other Hollywood union demanded
straight severance pay-and got it. No
one around here seems to realize it
yet, but some 1900 office workers en-
ployed by MG.M., R.K.O., Columbia,
Universal, Republic, and bunch of
smaller producers, have bona fide sew
erance pay in writing. Under the
contracts signed by the Screen Office |
Guild discharged worker
gets an extra weeks pay after six
two weeks after one year and |
three weeks after three years.
The LATSE notice-or-pay arrange
ment may not be as strong, but it
certainly establishes the severance
idea in a wide new field. For that
matter, craft workers don't ordinarily
even get notice.
Here is a logical extension of the
idea recognized by the social security
laws-that workers who stick to their
jobs week in, week out, are investing
their capital in the business. They
will have something coming to them
besides the weekly pay check.
The week ending February was
widely celebrated as General Shakeup
Week. While Civilian Defense was
being harnessed into six orderly chan
nels of effort in Washington, the film
industry's own controlling bureau, the
Hays office, was revised from the in
side. Jack Bryson is reported pro-
NOTED from the Sacramento lobby to
the Washington lobby in the place of
OHdIlSS IeltiJOuH5 SOIne ~ years lHe
big lawman for the movies.
And in Hollywood-with no connec-
ion, perhaps, but the troubled times
studios have started shedding produc-
srs like autumn leaves. At R.K.O.
Sol Lesser quit, Howard Benedict quit,
!. r. McDonough quit. At M.G.M.
Louis ID. Lighton quit to devote him
self to cattle raising. At Paramount
Arthur Hornblow quit to devote him
Ielf to MGM.
Lew Ostrow, a smart young quickie
who broke into the majors
With M.G.M. and swung from there t
,ver to goth Century-Fox, now goes {
o R.K.O. There is no reason to shed |
my tears about the others. They'll {
III be producing somewhere come I
Monday. 7
Quite a coterie of the producers 7
have just banded to- Y
,ether for purposes somewhat mys- '
erious, but ostensibly a revolt from /
he Hays bunch, or producers-with- s