Local News in Brief : Union Local Loses Fight

Leaders of Hollywood’s largest craft union local lost a second bid Wednesday to block a takeover by their international union when a Los Angeles federal judge issued a preliminary injunction authorizing the union to act as trustee of the local for 18 months.

U.S. District Judge John G. Davies, rejecting a demand that he remove himself from the case because of his past representation of a Hollywood studio, authorized the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees to take over Local 44’s business affairs and effectively placed the local’s present leadership on suspension.

The takeover came last month amid charges of mob connections and financial mismanagement at the local, but its leaders say the international is really trying to quell dissent during upcoming contract negotiations with producers.

“You know who’s going to settle this?” the local’s business agent, Joe Basile, fumed after the hearing. “The members of Hollywood. We’ll go back to the ‘40s, and I’ll show ‘em how to do it.”