BOYCOTT THREATENED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27386, 11 May 1950, Page 7

BOYCOTT THREATENED

American Films Made In Britain HOLLYWOOD LABOUR UNION NZPA Special Correspondent Rec. 7.20 p.m. LONDON, May 10. Hollywood labour unions are threatening to organise a boycott of American pictures made in Britain on the grounds that the workers employed in making such pictures are paid wages and salaries lower than those which would be paid in America. The Hollywood Film Council, which represents the American Screen Actors’ Guild, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, and other film unions, has brought the matter to the notice of the Secretary of State, Mr Dean Acheson, and has asked him to take it up with the British Government during his present visit to London. The council claims that the policy of the British Government in “freezing ” the earnings of American films in Britain is compelling an increasing number of American companies to make their pictures in Britain. The unions’ complaint is directly contrary to the policy of American film producers, which is now to encourage the making of American films abroad. Mr Tom O'Brien, M.P., general secretary of the British National Association of Theatre and Cinematograph Employees, said that the number of American films being made in Britain was small, and did not .justify the anxiety expressed by the Hollywood unions. *