ACTT

Building on activity among technicians at the Gaumont British Studios, the Association of Cinematograph Technicians (ACT) was registered as a trade union in June 1933.

Its effective development began, however, in January 1934 with the appointment of George Elvin as General Secretary. He held the post until 1969 when he was succeeded by Alan Sapper.

The union made its first industrial agreement with Gaumont British Picture Corporation in 1936, the year in which it affiliated to the TUC. It organised film laboratory workers from 1935 and signed its first major agreements with the laboratory employers in 1939.

During the 1939-1945 period, when film production effectively was incorporated into the war effort, it made its first agreement with the Association of Specialised Film Producers, the British Film Producers' Association and the Newsreel Association. It affiliated to the Labour Party in 1943.

When peace came, the union was established as the representative organisation of British film technicians, with a powerful and strategic presence also in the film laboratories.

Throughout the post-was period the union sought, without success, to secure recognition from the BBC for television technicians. It was successful, however, in its bid to organise technicians in the independent television companies after 1955. Its willingness to strike secured its recognition in 1955.

In March 1956 the ACT became the ACTT by adding 'Television' to its title. In August 1957 it signed its first agreement with the Television Programme Contractors' Association.

In the next thirty years its membership in ITV gave it an industrial and financial strength that cushioned it against the effects of the decline in the British film industry.

By the end of the 1980s, however, declining membership and financial weaknesses created favourable conditions for its amalgamation discussions with BETA. These succeeded where earlier discussions with NATTKE and ABS in 1964 and with ABS in 1970-1971 and 1976-1978 had failed.