The June 17 orders officially put the Council “on record [as] opposing the decision of Loews management to lock out union projectionists.”
Brodeur said the union will press ahead with its boycott in spite of the fact that projectionist unions across the country have had little success in similar contract disputes.
“Bigger and stronger [unions] have gone through the same thing, and were hard hit,” he said.
He described Loews’ action as part of a larger pattern affecting movie theaters nationwide.
“They are trying to replace trained projectionist professionals with people who have a minimum know-how in running film,” he said. “We’ve heard that films are being shown where the print is scratched, where they had to issue refunds because film was damaged.”
—Staff writer Eugenia B. Schraa can be reached at schraa@fas.harvard.edu.