United Artists Workers Picket

Robert Harney of East Hampton normally would have been stationed in the projection booths at East Hampton Cinema during the Hamptons International Film Festival. Instead, he was outside with a handful of picketers protesting layoffs and cutbacks for United Artists projectionists.

Mr. Harney, a 15-year employee of the cinema, has been driving a school bus and cab since he and 35 other United Artists projectionists were locked out of their jobs in February.

Out Of Work

The lockout was the second in the past two years, stemming from stalemated contract negotiations between U.A. and Local 640 of the Motion Picture Projectionists Union. Picketers also marched outside the festival in 1994 just days before the first lockout.

Projectionists in half of Long Island's U.A. theaters were out of work for six months following that, until a National Labor Relations Board judge sided with their complaint and ordered U.A. to reinstate them with full back pay. They were back on the job until this latest lockout.

U.A. has been phasing out the projectionist's position in many of its Long Island theaters, largely to save money. The role of operating the largely automated projection equipment has, instead, been transferred to theaters' managerial staffs.

"We'd just like to make people aware this is not the typical union situation, where the union just wants more money," said Robert Gottschalk Jr., the Projectionists Union's business representative. "We just want our jobs. We just want fair pay for a fair day's work."

The Projectionists Union would have assigned five projectionists to handle the Film Festival's busy four-day schedule. Because of the lockout, the theater had to bring in five projectionists from out of state.

Festival filmgoers pointed out numerous projection-related difficulties throughout the weekend, from minor volume and framing glitches to films stopping dead on the reel. Will Markert, the theater manager, said there are bound to be technical difficulties with some 70 films being rotated over four days.

"These guys were all pros," he assured. "They were the top of the crop."

The Projectionists Union this spring filed a second complaint against U.A. with the National Labor Relations Board. A new hearing is being set on the matter.