Herb Sorrell

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Herbert Knott Sorrell was a union organizer and leader.^[1] He headed the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU) in the late 1940s, and was the business manager of the Motion Picture Painters union, Local 644 until the 1950s.^[2]

When he was 12 he got a job in a sewer pipe factory in Oakland, California and later in Oakland he worked with union leader Harry Bridges. At one point he tried boxing as a career. He moved to Los Angeles in the 1930s, became a scenery painter for the movie studios, and began union organizing there.

In May 1941 Sorrell called for a strike against the Disney film studio.^[3] The strike was supported by the newly formed Screen Cartoonists Guild, and the cooperation resulted in the organization of the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU), which Sorrell proceeded to lead.^[4]

In 1945, Sorrell lead the CSU strike that led to Hollywood Black Friday. The strike originated from a dispute between two unions, CSU and IATSE, over which one of them had union authority over seventy-seven set decorators. After an NLRB vote and War Labor Board decision in favor of CSU, the studios refused to recognize CSU's bargaining authority, and the strike began. After the violence on Black Friday, the strike quickly settled. However collusion between the IATSE leadersdhip and the studios^[5] resulted in another strike in September of 1946, which the CSU did not have the financial strength to endure.^[4] Sorrell was convicted of "contempt of court" and "failure to disperse" in connection with the 1945 strike, but acquitted of all the felony charges which included "inciting to riot" and "rioting".^[5]

[edit] Communist Ties

Peter Schweizer says that archives released by the Russian government after the fall of the USSR show that Sorrell was a Soviet spy.^[6] This may be an inference based on Sorrell's earlier association with Harry Bridges. Peter Schweizer goes on to say that the strikes led by Sorrell were secretly funded by the Communist Party]]^[6]; however, the Communist Party did not advocate strikes after the dissolution of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in June 1941.^[7]

In 1941 Sorrell testified before the California Legislature's Joint Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities when they had brief hearings on "Reds" in Hollywood. He testified again in 1946 before the same committee at their more extensive hearings, but there was insufficient evidence that he was tied to the Communist Party.^[8] In fact the CSU strike of 1945 which Sorrell lead was actively opposed by the American Communist Party. ^[5][4]

[edit] References

1. ^ Klingaman, William K. (1996) "Sorrell, Herbert K." Encyclopedia of the McCarthy Era Facts on File, New York, ISBN 0-8160-3097-9 ;
2. ^ Screen Actors Guild biography
3. ^ Denning, Michael (1997) Cultural Front: The Laboring of American Culture in the Twentieth Century Verso, London, ISBN 1-85984-170-8 ;
4. ^ ^{a b c} Horne, Gerald (2001) Class Struggle In Hollywood, 1930-1950: Moguls, Mobsters, Stars, Reds, & Trade Unionists University of Texas Press, Austin ISBN 0-292-73137-X ;
5. ^ ^{a b c} Friedrich, Otto (1986) City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940's Harper and Row, New York ISBN 0-06-015626-0 ;
6. ^ ^{a b} Schweizer, Peter (2002) Reagan's War: The Epic Story of His Forty-Year Struggle and Final Triumph Over Communism Doubleday, New York, ISBN 0-385-50471-3 ;
7. ^ Levenstein, Harvey A. (1981) Communism, Anticommunism and the CIO Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-22072-7 ;
8. ^ [http://www.sag.org/history/chronos_pages/40s.html Screen Actors Guild history

• "Painters Strengthen Labor Ties" in December 1941 Screen Actor Magazine.

[edit] External links

• excerpt from Reagan's War: The Epic Story of His Forty-Year Struggle and Final Triumph Over Communism by Peter Schweizer Washington Post November 25, 2002;
• "Review of Class Struggle In Hollywood, 1930-1950: Moguls, Mobsters, Stars, Reds, & Trade Unionists" Politics and Culture by Amitava Kumar and Michael Ryan;