Conference of Studio Unions.

History

The 1940s was a period of tumult in the Hollywood labor movement. It came to a head during the Hollywood Studio Strike of 1945-1946, the last in a series of strikes involving the major studios, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), and the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU). It pitted the rank-and-file labor federation, the CSU, led by the militant organizer Herb Sorrell, against IATSE, which, following years of Mafia domination, was headed at the time of the strike by anti-Communist crusader Roy Brewer.

In the 1945-1946 labor conflict, the CSU, as in previous strikes, lobbied the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), not just to remain neutral but to honor CSU picket lines. Under the influence of its executive leadership (Ronald Reagan, Robert Montgomery, and George Murphy), SAG ultimately voted to cross the CSU lines. Communist influence within the CSU, as much as the grievances of the set and prop builders (which had been the specific impetus for the strike), became a major issue in the dispute.

This last battle of the CSU, was, in some respects, the end of the struggle for a democratic labor movement in Hollywood and the prelude to the blacklist that would soon permeate the entire film industry. With the CSU decimated, IATSE regained its dominance and made business unionism the labor agenda in Hollywood for the rest of the century.