Equity and the Theatre Managers The dispute between the Drury
Lane Theatre manage- ment and the British Actors' Equity Association has assumed the form of a test case, in which each side is contending for a principle. The objection of the managers is not to the adoption of a standard contract as such between themselves and their employees, but to the introduction into the contract of a clause requiring them to employ none but members of Equity. They complain that this would in effect turn them into recruiting agents for the actors' trade union. Equity, on the other hand, ask how they are to secure the acceptance of the standard contract which is so necessary for the protection of their members except by means of the " closed shop." The London West End Managers are themselves anxious to co-operate with Equity in preventing exploitation by unscrupulous or unreliable managements. Actors who are members of both societies believe that there are ways of achieving the desired end without the " closed shop " clause in individual contracts. The Conciliation Depart- ment of the Ministry of Labour is now at work and should help to stop a quarrel which nobody wants to pursue to the point of a stoppage.
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