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The short-lived labor action at the Oaks Theater has ended in a settlement, and the picket line has vanished outside the Art Deco showcase at 1875 Solano Ave. 

The pickets stopped Friday evening, after the theater’s new operator and a union representative reached an accord that will end the job of one union member and enable the other, Richard Graves, to work the final year needed to achieve full retirement benefits. 

The settlement will go to union members for ratification at a meeting tonight (Tuesday).  

The dispute began after Allen Michaan, owner of Renaissance Rialto Inc., sold his lease to Metropolitan Theatres of Los Angeles. 

David Corwin, the fourth generation of Corwins to serve as president of the 115-screen family-owned Metropolitan chain, began operations with the intent of eliminating both union positions, though Corwin said he planned to retain one of the workers for the time being. 

“We’re pleased,” said Corwin, president of Metropolitan. “We tried from the beginning to take care of Richard Graves, and he’ll be able to retire with full union benefits.” 

“They wanted us to promise that we’d go away at the end of the year,” said Jason Mottley, business agent for Local 169 of The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, Its Territories and Canada (IATSE). 

“There’s no way we would agree to that,” he said. 

It remains to be seen whether the job will remain a union position after Graves’ retirement. 

“I wish we’d had more time before we took over,” Corwin said, lamenting beginning his ownership at the Oaks amidst labor strife. “As it was, we ran out of time.” 

“When they found out we were going to picket, they made a ridiculous offer,” Mottley said. “We could fight, but they said they would rather close than continue” with both union workers. 

“It’s a matter of economics,” said Corwin. “The economics of the business have changed.” 

Like other unions, IATSE has been losing ground since former President Ronald Reagan smashed the air traffic controllers union early in his administration, Mottley said. 

IATSE, which is still strong in Hollywood despite the increasing number of films and television shows shot in non-union locales and in Canada, where wages are lower, has lost ground in the projectionists’ booth. 

“Before, we represented only the projectionists in theaters, but now we’re doing manager/operators and technicians and workers at specialty art centers,” Mottley said. 

Local 169 represents projectionists at the Saul Zaentz Film Center and at two locations on the UC Berkeley campus—the Pacific Film archive and Wheeler Auditorium—as well as some workers at the Landmarks Theater on Shattuck, the California Theater and Act I & 2 in downtown Berkeley. 

Giant chains like Regal Theaters, the largest motion picture exhibitor in the country and the operators of the UA Berkeley 7 multiplex on Shattuck Avenue, have no unions in their shops except at those in Chicago and New York, where unions remain relatively strong. 

Mottley said he was pleased with the enthusiastic response to the pickets, but feared the union would have been unable to maintain the enthusiasm if the labor dispute stretched from days into months.  

“Jason was reasonable,” said Corwin. “We all had a common goal in hand and we were glad to be able to reach an agreement.”