NEW BRAND OF UNION TACTICS

Evening Star, Issue 22798, 5 November 1937, Page 12

NEW BRAND OF UNION TACTICS

MOVIE OPERATOR USES SCREEN PLEA TO PEOPLE. A new brand of union tactics ha* been inaugurated at New York, making the silver screen itself a picket’* placard. As audiences of two-motion pictures in New York City sat placidly watching feature films the screen went blank suddenly, the lights came on and the screen sound track took on a new voice. , . “I am the operator, vit said. ‘‘Please do not patronise this theatre. I am using this means to protest the inhuman working conditions in this theatre, and I want your aid. I work seven flays a week, lib hours a day and have no vacations. I eat,in. the booth, ‘ where the heat is sometime* unbearable. ; ' " , ■ “The management refused, t® listen. I' designated Local 306 of the Motion Picture Operators’ Union as my bargaining agent. I ask you not to patronise this theatre until the management signs up. Please tell your friends the same thing.” Mark Solomon, manager at one of the theatres, about this time informed the patrons they could get * refund on their tickets outside. The audience got up quietly and filed out to the street, where they , found, the union bad formed a line in the more conventional tradition of picketing. The operator. Morris M. Silver, who locked himself inside his_ projection booth after ho had- had his say, continued in his strategic position.