Union Labor Bulletin

ACTORS' STRUGGLE FOR UNION IS LABOR EPIC
BY HAROLD Z. BROWN

"The Revolt of the Actors" is an epic of solidarity. It is doubtful whether Author Alfred Harding realized this fact,-as he chronicled in competent journalese the rise of Actors' Equity Association from an isolated little group of 112 players to a powerful A. F. of L. union with more than 10,000 members.

But it is nevertheless true that his 550-page book just published is a monument to that basic unity of interest which--going far deeper than mere slogans, doctrines, or theories links all those who live by labor in opposition to all those who live off labor.

When Equity was founded in 1913, America probably held no group or unorganized white collar workers more removed from organized labor in sympathies, traditions and outlook than the actors. To the usual superiority feeling of the brain or professional worker, actors added the aloofness of the artist who feels that he sells his genius, not his labor, and who is insulted by any attempt to value it in terms of mere money.

Yet the iron logic of economic exploitation forced this group into as open a revolt as was ever displayed by a bunch of bricklayers, printers, or street car men. The issues were the same as those in any labor fight, low wages, unlimited hours, bad working conditions, discrimination. The tactics of the battle were the same: Actors' Equity got nowhere at all until it definitely abandoned kid-glove procedure, sought its place in the ranks of organized labor and adopted the strike, the picket line, the "unfair" list the closed shop, and the unionist's wholehearted contempt for the scab.

Having done these things the actors won out-mainly, in their initial battles, through the solidarity of their fellow workers, the union musicians, stage hands, and other theatrical employes. That such solidarity is still essential to their success is amply attested by Equity's recent brush with the "talkie" producers, where lack of support from other organized studio crafts, plus "defeatism and some downright treachery in its own ranks" brought Equity what Harding calls "the most severe defeat in its history."

Today Equity--for Author Harding is editor of Equity's monthly magazine and at least a semi-official spokesman--proudly points to a history which shows it to be a fighting union. Not a belligerent union; not, certainly, a union founded on any abstract social theory of class struggle, but beyond doubt a union which has repeatedly shown its disposition to hit back and hit hard when the economic interests of its members are disregarded or endangered.

And Equity's gains, counted after 16 years of battle, are almost without exception the same kind of gains sought by miners and textile workers. Equity points with pride to the fact that actors are now paid every Saturday-not as in pre-Equity days, the following Tuesday or Wednesday, or maybe not at all. Companies stranded by managers on the road, formerly a commonplace, now are few; when a stranding actually occurs, Equity pays transportation back to the home town. The 8-performance week, with pay for overtime; the union shop, diplomatically called the Equity shop: the Equity standard contract; a minimum wage for chorus girls and men; limited instead of unlimited free rehearsals; pay instead of no pay for radio performances; pay for short layoffs: all these, merely fond dreams in the pre-union era, are now realities. And half pay for holiday weeks when business is bad but work is as usual; actors' costumes at their own expense; firing, layoffs, and pay cuts without notice: all these are things of the past.

That Equity "hard and fit for strenuous campaigning" will take another shot at organizing the talkies before long is an inevitable conclusion from Harding's book. The union's retreat from Hollywood , after its mere presence had scotched a pay cut and improved working conditions, he says was "in good order." "Equity's star is still rising." are the final words of the book.