H/t for photo above: Jenny Lerew
President Emeritus Tom Sito writes:
1941- 70 Years Ago- THE WALT DISNEY STRIKE- Labor pressures had been building in the Magic Kingdom since promises made to artists over the success of Snow White were reneged on, and Walt Disney’s lawyer Gunther Lessing encouraged a hard line with his employees. On this day, in defiance of federal law, Walt Disney fired animator Art Babbitt, the creator of Goofy, and thirteen other cartoonists for demanding a union. Babbitt had emerged as the union movements’ leader. He has studio security officers escort Babbitt off the lot.
That night in an emergency meeting of the Cartoonists Guild, Art’s assistant on Fantasia, Bill Hurtz, made a motion to strike and it is unanimously accepted. Bill Hurtz will later go on to direct award winning cartoons like UPA’s "Unicorn in the Garden" and the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. Picket lines go up next day in cartoon animation’s own version of the Civil War.
Walt Disney had a nervous breakdown over the strike and a federal mediator was sent by Washington to arbitrate. In later years, Uncle Walt blamed the studio’s labor ills on Communists. The studio unionized but hard feelings remained for decades after.
My old man (Ralph Hulett) was involved in the '41 strike. He was against it. He crossed the line and went into work, even though he was a low-level (and low-paid) Disney employee.
The Screen Cartoonists Guild, which ultimately won the Disney strike, repped the Los Angeles animation industry for a decade before Walt and the IATSE teamed up to push it from power and relevance. But this job action had long-term impact in the business. It's the reason that other animation studios sprang up in the forties and fifties. And it's the reason that the majority of L.A. animation workers are still unionized seven decades later. And as Mr. Sito says:
What first motivated me to write Drawing the Line, was seeing how the studio histories skirted around the strike, like everyone was always one big happy family. But the artists themselves spoke of that strike as this traumatic event that was the defining moment of their careers.
Even as elderly men and women, they still wouldn't speak to one another. If it wasn't for the strike, UPA wouldn't exist, Jay Wards may not, no Pogo, no Dennis the Menace, no unique 50's design for Roadrunners and What's Opera Doc. No Charlie Brown Christmas. ...
What I'm aware of is how events from long ago can have positive and negative impacts generations later. Because of what happened in 1941, I had high-quality health insurance as a little kid, and my kids had much the same. Despite the pain and disruptions seven decades ago, thousands of animation employees today enjoy decent retirements. None of these things are trivial.