On Mon, 12 Aug 1996 16:32:16 -0600 Joel Snyder said: >I only meant to indicate that the job was defined into existence >by a union (nobody but the greensman could touch the greenery and >the greensman was not allowed to touch anything else). The category of greensman was not defined into existence by union contract. There are about 150 different crafts contributing to the production of a film. Greensman is one of them. I have no special knowledge of when the first person was employed in that specialty, though I suspect it was a couple of decades before the first union contract in the film industry. The history of union organizing in the industry is complicated by competing unions, one groups under the AFL organizing along craft lines. The competing organization was supported by the CIO in an attempt to organize the industry along industrial union lines, such as characterizes the steel and auto union, where all workers in a plant belong to a single union. >OK? Or do I have to sing the "Internationale"? Only if you want to honor the people who attempted to organize an industrial union. When unions did come, the studios signed with craft unions, since they were easier to manipulate. Not counting the additional benefit to the studios of "sweetheart contracts" signed with organized crime racketeers, such as Browne and Bioff who served time for their malfeasances. As you might expect, the studio bosses, who bought these contracts did not serve time. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Cal Pryluck, Radio-Television-Film, Temple University, Philadelphia <[log in to unmask]> <[log in to unmask]> SCREENsite -- A Film/TV-studies site on the World Wide Web URL:http://www.sa.ua.edu/SCREENsite/ ------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]