Bitter fruits of Equity's registration Actors' union in crisis

Some of the actors and actresses who lobbied the Equity Council last year during the demand for the West End pay rise. They now find their pay has been cut by £12 under the Torles' state pay law.

ATIONAL THEATRE ENTR ANY ILLUSIONS that Equity, the actors' union, might be exempt from the Tories state pay laws were dashed at a December 28, 1972, meeting at the Department of Employment. Present were a Mr Brand, under secretary, representatives from the Society of West End Theatre Managers and a delegation from Equity's Council.

Mr Brand's message was simple: both the £7 in Equity members' pay packets, and the further paid — bringing their minimum to £30 a week — government's wage freeze and must stop.

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Two months earlier-at a mass meeting on October 20—Equity general secretary Gerald Croasdell held out hopes that the proposed West End deal might not be subject to the Tories' future legislation.

If the deal were accepted, he said, it could be 'signed, sealed and delivered in 24 hours'. The meeting had been called, in fact, with the new laws 'very much in mind'.

It was hoped that with tance, a way round the found—as it was during 1966.

But Employment Minister Maurice Macmillan's signature on the January 1 order showed work fair heats d taid trad With Their Tar denl ing Bill, the Tories intended to 'fair rents' and 'fair tradbe scrupulously 'fair' ... actors' wages were to be frozen just like anyone else's.

In fact Equity was given distinction of being the first union in post-war years receive a direct wage cut!

By seeking special concessions, Equity's Council set up actors as a sitting target for the Tories who wanted to demonstrate to the whole trade union movement just how ruthless they intended to be to carry out their plans.

There has been no lead or call to action from the Equity officials. In fact, the response has been the kind of forebearance' which Heath paid tribute to in his Lancaster House Press conference last week.

The Council's paralysis is the logical outcome of its policies. The union's recently-published employment survey shows that average earnings are under £20 a week; that at any given time 70 per cent of the membership is unemployed; that in the past five years, while the cost of living has leaped up, earnings have scarcely increased at all.

CONDEMNATION If these figures—released the day after the government's 'freeze' order-were intended to thaw the Tories' hearts, they clearly failed. However, they do provide a damning condemnation of the union leadership.

And, while presenting no jobs policy, this leadership vehemently opposes nationalization ... all the more so as this policy gains increasing support among the ranks.

A resolution at the June 27, 1972, annual general meeting calling for nationalization of the entertainments industry without compensation and under workers' control was defeated by only a handful of votes. Croasdell opposed the motion on behalf of the Council.

He returns to the attack in this month's 'Equity Journal'. Referring to the fight against John Bentley's attempts to 'assetstrip' the Shepperton film studios in Middlesex, he writes:

'In these circumstances the utmost vigilance and continued unity on the part of the Federation of Film Unions is essential. We believe that this unity.. will be maintained in spite of the attempts to divert the Federation from the main objective by the insistence of a minority on injecting into every relevant resolution which they sponsor or support the sectarian and irrelevant signature tune of 'workers' control' 'At the present stage increase already £5 about to be contravened the the employers' assislegislation might be Labour's 'freeze' in battle for the preservation of Shepperton, it represents no more than political slogan wholly irrelevant to the immediate problem.' Socialist policies for the theatre and film industries are anathema to the Council because a struggle to implement them would involve a fight against the Tory government and determined offensive against the employers.

'NO POLITICS'

But the Council's policies are based on co-operation with the government in the name of 'nonpolitics' and with the employers 1n the name of "harmonious As the political and economic crises merge, the leadership is driven further into the arms of the government and employers to maintain its position and further away from the members' actual requirements.

Though it was compelled at the annual meeting to accept a resolution calling for strike action if the employers refused the full West. End claim, it has done everything in its power since then to bury that resoluEvery time a call was made for a fight on the full claim, it has insisted on the sufficiency of negotiation and the necessity to avoid presenting an ultimatum to the employers.

The employment figures how sufficient such methods have proved to be.

Two years' negotiations with the BBC ended with a new agreement last June which forced wage-cut on actors already earning above the minimum wage. Three futile months of negotiation ended with a BBC ultimatum: accept the cuts above the minimum or a 12;per-cent cut all round.

Equity responded by signing a productivity deal allowing the BBC to extend its whole range of programmes and to cut wage rates by 25 per cent.

Two months ago, at a time ot the worst-ever inflation, the Council signed an agreement for the new West End contract to be binding for five years.

It contains no holiday entitlement, or reduction of hours. Overtime is paid at 50p an hour, those who fall sick are to be paid half salary for the first and last weeks of their permitted month and rehearsal pay, said to be an absolute demand at the outset of negotiations, is to reach parity with performance pay in 1977.

Such are the rewards for the Council's policy of co-operation with the employers.

What is the prospect for Equity members now that even these concessions can no longer be won by the method of free secretary Gerald Croasdell collective bargaining?

Actors, singers and dancers face this crisis under a leadership which has already, by its policy of registration under the Industrial Relations Act, prepared the way for complete acceptance of state wage control.

It has encouraged the extreme right wing, the 'Goads' of Equity, to threaten the union with legal action, and to campaign for withdrawal of affiliation fees from the TUC in order to sever Equity from the trade union movement.

It has convinced employers such as the BBC of their ability to attack the union with impunity.

Above all, by its surrender of fundamental trade union rights, and by cutting Equity away from the strength of the movement, it has tied members' hands for the crucial battles which lie ahead on wages, on theatre and studio closures, and on unemployment.

VINDICATION

Only as part of the trade union movement, and in concert with all those unions which now face the government with wage claims, can Equity members fight for the future of their profession.

What emerges, therefore, from the present crisis is, on the one hand, a vindication of all those members who have fought in Equity for active policies against the Tory laws and the employers' offensive; and on the other and absolute condemnation of leadership.

There is no way forward now for any section of the profession without a fight to clear out this present Council and to demand elections, representative of every section of the profession, for a new leadership.

Such a leadership must be charged with carrying out the policies demanded by the membership at AGM's and with policies to meet the requirements of the present crisis:

ON WAGES: Industrial action for the immediate payment of the West End claim. Total opposition to statutory wage control. Full wage claims for every section of the membership.

ON UNEMPLOYMENT: Nationalization of the entertainments industry without compensation and under workers' control. ON THE INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ACT: Immediate deregistration. The new Council to build unity actively with professional and allied unions, to demand the recall of the -TUC for a campaign to force the Tories to resign and to elect a Labour government pledged to rupeal all