Naturally I was curious about the parties mentioned and a little web searching found that Mr. D'Inzillo ran for president of the IA in 1972 and 1974, narrowly losing in both cases. He died in 2000.
D'Inzillo Obit
Mr. Walsh was president from 1941 to 1974 and passed away in 1992.
Walsh Obit
Frank, I think you're being unduly harsh here, to the point of inaccuracy. 10 holidays at 1.5 time per year, four vacation weeks, sick time, overtime pay, medical, dental and optical plans, grievance
machinery, pensions,etc. were real gains that few janitors can equal.
<Mostly they faced give-backs after give-backs and NLRB investigations for corruption and illegal practices.>
Yes, the give-backs of the late 1980's and '90'swere painful, and the
law suits and investigations were probably justified. How much the
Local was weakened I cannot estimate, since I've been retired for about five years. But if you compare the wages paid Local 306 projectionists to any others revealed by non-union Film-tech posters,
there is no comparison, even today.
In my mind, Steve D'Inzillo's tragic flaw was hubris. He never trusted the membership to exercise the democratic rights embodied in
the IATSE and Local's constitutions. He never recognized any "loyal opposition", unlike the leaders of my other union, the United Federation of Teachers. Thus anyone running against him, or suggesting any reform, was regarded as a "Nixonian enemy." Steve
long outlived his productive years of service to the union, but refused to relinquish authority, even when faced with ill health, deafness and near-blindness. He resisted others developing
leadership skills, unless it was someone he personally chose, who would carry out his policies unquestioned.
Given his great accomplishments of service to his membership and union causes in his youth and middle age, I regard Steve D'Inzillo as
a tragic figure in his last decades.
You are probably right, no one is ALL bad. And I am sure D'Inzillo did some good things for the union. But I don't think I am being innacurate. If you look at the health plan, the vacations, the sick days in 1980 when I was approached and what they are now, all have been drastically reduced -- I understand that they even cut healt benefits for members families in the last round of contract negotiations.
I didn't want to go into all of the negatives that I have seen happen under Boss D'Inzillo's tenure on this forum because it's not the place nor the topic, but you hit a bunch of nails on the head and I'll be happy to leave it at that, other than to say that the reason I steadfastly refused to join Local 306 was precisely because of the way D'Inzillo approached me, basically saying I would be out on my ass if I didn't "play ball." Well, that kind of bullying and arm twisting might work on some, but all it did with me was to make me dig in; in the end, we out-lasted 306's punny picket lines, we out-lasted D'Inzillo's threats to the city council try to get our funding withheld. We even outlasted his abusive, boorish threatening telephone calls. And the funny thing is, I would have been happy to join 306 if it weren't for that enormous hubris of the man. As it turns out, even at the time he was threating me, telling me if I knew what was good for me I would become a memeber, I was making more than the union could ever offer, I had 5 weeks paid vacation and a health package that the union couldn't begin to match. As time went on, my union here at the performing arts center kept negotiating better contracts for us while Local 306 kept loosing benefits, members and pay scales. I am glad I stuck to my guns; Our Local 2334 out-performed Local 306 at every turn and I certainly am MUCH better off now than any NY union projectionist.
I'm glad you found a better local. Is Local 2334 IATSE or NABET?
From the limited history of IATSE I've read, D'Inzillo, born more than
90 years ago, grew up in an era of gangster and communist attempts to
infiltrate and take over unions and fought against them, as well as against oppressive managements. Unfortunately some of the goon squad
tactics must have stuck to him. One gentle soul who approached him with a complaint told me he laid his handgun on his desk before asking
what was the grievance?
The link in the post atop this column gives an official IATSE eulogy
of the man, and avoids speaking ill of the departed. Yet his paranoia and failing mental and emotional health were visible for many
years, and unfortunately suffered by the members, to the detriment
of all.
Gerard
As far as that fellow who said D'Inzillo laid his hand gun down on the desk, I certainly can believe that since the way Steve lost his sight was that at a union meeting, a disgruntled member shot him in the face, or so the story goes.
Anyway, enough of this.....it's off topic and probably a post or two more away from getting locked. Sorry, Brad.
But to get it back on topic again, I kept a really neat can insert that Disney sent out with one of their umpteen re-releases of FANTASIA explaining how even though it was a Stereo (optical) track, it was IMPERATIVE that at no time it be played in mono, which would cause severe flanging since the original mix was something like 7 or 9(depending what account you read) optical tracks that were not in absolute phase with each other. They were not off enought to tell if you were playing each separately, but mix them together and it sounds like everything is swooshing in and out of phase. The note also explained how the picture HAD to be projected 1.37 and not 1.85.
It had nice little graphics of Micky and the hippos around the text.
Steve K., if you tell me how to post a scanned picture of the insert to one of these posts, I will put it up here.
I also had a note from Warner's in the can of the HAIR print that pointed out that the dirctor Milos Forman INTENDED for the music to be much louder than the dialogue and you were to set the sound level for the dialogue and then let the music play at whatever level it was recorded at. Of course, if you did that anyone over 40 would be out in the lobby complaining and whining so we tried to strike a happy medium. I am sure there must be lots of these "instruction" type notes found in cans. The other one I remember was a note for THE CHAMBER which said that eventhough the SDDS track was present, you were only allowed to play it in SR-D and DTS (actually, I am not sure of the DTS). I remember thinking, yah, and if I had payed $9,000 for an SDDS system and only had that hardware, I am SURE that slip of paper would have gotten lost.
Best example I've seen is a guy in Oxford - bought a cheap clock, ripped the guts out and fitted this on th elid of a film tin. Used leader numbers (SMPTE of course - otherwise you'd go to bed at 8pm !) to indicate the hours - has tons of queries about buying these ..
quote:
(SMPTE of course - otherwise you'd go to bed at 8pm !)
You mean Academy. SMPTE Universal leader starts counting at 8.