The 1937 Fleischer Studios strike was a labor strike involving workers at Fleischer Studios in New York City. The strike commenced on May 7 of that year and ended on October 12. The strike was the first major labor dispute in the animation industry and resulted in the industry's first union contracts.
Fleischer Studios had been founded in 1929 and grew through the 1930s, having over 150 employees by 1937. Many of these employees were not full animators, but instead worked in lower departments doing more menial tasks such as inbetweening or cel painting. Starting in the mid-1930s, there was growing discontent among the employees in these lower departments due to the poor working conditions and the disparity in pay between them and the animators. By late 1936, the Commercial Artists and Designers Union (CADU) Local 20329 began to organize at the studio, and in April of the next year it submitted a list of demands to Max Fleischer that included increased pay, better working conditions, a closed shop, and a 35-hour work week.
Fleischer refused to recognize the union as legitimate or negotiate with them. Over the next month, 15 employees were fired, with many pro-union employees believing that they were terminated because of their activities with the union. As a result, on May 6, about a hundred union members voted to go on strike the following day. The strike began at 6:30 p.m. on May 7, with picketing outside the studio's building on Broadway in Manhattan. Picketing spread to other locations, including Max and Dave's residences, and the union initiated a boycott of Fleischer cartoons that was somewhat effective in getting the productions pulled from theaters. By June, the National Labor Relations Board began to hold hearings regarding the union's demand for recognition, and a certification vote was held that August, which the union won.
As the strike continued to stretch into the later part of the year, the union's strike fund began to dwindle and morale decreased among the strikers, with some crossing the picket line to return to work. At the same time, however, Paramount Pictures began to pressure Fleischer Studios into accepting a deal that would end the strike and boycott, as they believed that the negative press was beginning to hurt their live-action productions. In late September, the union and company agreed to a tentative deal, and the strike ended on October 12, with the strikers returning to work the following day. The compromise agreement resulted in the union winning many of the key goals that they had pushed for, such as pay increases and guaranteed time off, though the company prevented the studio from becoming a closed shop.
Due in large part to the strike, Max Fleischer announced that the studio would be relocating to Miami, and following the move, the union lost a certification election, leaving the studio ununionized. However, within a few years of the move, the studio experienced financial difficulties related to the production of two full-length animated films and was ultimately absorbed by Paramount Pictures as a subsidiary. The strike precipitated a wave of organizing activity at other animation studios, including the 1941 Disney animators' strike. This upsurge would eventually lead to the unionization of the industry after the Screen Cartoonist's Guild organized all of the major American studios in 1943.
Background Working conditions at Fleischer Studios
In 1929, the animation studio Fleischer Studios was established by brothers Max and Dave Fleischer, who served as the company's president and vice president, respectively. The brothers had been notable pioneers in the early American animation industry, and their new company was founded to produce cartoons to be distributed by Paramount Pictures.
In the early years of the studio, there was a strong sense of camaraderie among the employees, and according to historians Michael Barrier and Richard Koszarski, Max was a paternalistic boss in his role as president. Among the company's early hires were many relatives, such as Max's son-in-law Seymour Kneitel, as well as recent graduates from the Cooper Union and the Art Students League of New York, two of Max's alma maters. Through the 1930s, the studio saw noted success with productions that featured famous characters such as Betty Boop and Popeye. By 1937, the company had over 150 employees working at its New York City studio, which occupied several floors of a building at 1600 Broadway in Manhattan, just north of Times Square.
During the early years of the company, animation in the United States was changing from a primarily artisan-driven industry to one shaped by the concept of the assembly line. For instance, in the 1910s, animation studio Bray Productions operated by having several dozen animators each working on their own cartoon, from start to finish, with help from a few assistants. By the 1930s, due to technological innovations and changes in techniques, the work associated with animation was gradually divided into smaller divisions, with multiple animators and other employees working on different parts of the project. This division of labor also led to the emergence of several distinct departments within studios, such as for cel painting and inbetweening.
Additionally during this time, it became less common for someone to be promoted from a lower-level position, such as inbetweener, to a full animator position. At Fleischer Studios, many new hires started off as inbetweeners, which was considered one of the harshest jobs in the company. Many worked in cramped conditions comparable to a sweatshop, with their workstations not having access to windows or air conditioning. Additionally, the in between department was headed by Edith Vernick, a stern manager whose actions upset many of the inbetweeners, such as timing how long employees were spending in the bathroom and constantly reporting people to the Fleischer Brothers for either not doing their job or not doing their job quickly enough.
On top of the poor conditions, inbetweeners also experienced low pay. Wages at the company had initially been considered fairly good, with animator Shamus Culhane stating that he had had a weekly salary of about $100 while working at Fleischer Studios in 1930. Additionally, yearly bonuses of several hundred dollars were not uncommon.
However, pay across the board decreased as the decade continued, with animator Don Figlozzi stating that his starting salary while working for the company in 1935 was $27 per week. In 1937, studio manager Sam Buchwald stated that the average weekly salary for those in the animation department ranged from $90.80 to $70.59 depending on your position in the department. However, people outside the animation department made substantially less, with inbetweeners and cel painters making an average of $24.45 per week in 1937, and other employees making as low as $17.40 per week. According to Koszarski, the decreased wages may have been a result of the closure of The Van Beuren Corporation, a New York City-based animation studio, in 1936. Because of the low wages, many of the younger employees lived with their parents or had spouses who were also working to support them.
Unionization in the animation industry Given the issues regarding pay and working conditions, the studio was, according to animation historian Michael Barrier, "fertile soil for labor unrest". The 1930s saw the first serious attempts by labor unions to organize cartoonists in the film industry. The first major efforts at organizing were at Iwerks Studio in 1931, but these efforts were ultimately thwarted by the studio's management. Organizing efforts at Van Beuren similarly ended in failure for the union.
In 1936, the Artists Union, a New York City-based union, spun off one of its departments into the Commercial Artists and Designers Union (CADU) Local 20329, which was associated with the American Federation of Labor (AFL). CADU immediately began efforts to organize the local animation industry. At the time, unions were not entirely uncommon at the company, as both the studio's camera operators and musicians were organized under local unions, with Dave Fleischer being a member of the latter.
Among the inbetweeners and others involved in the animation process, talks about unionizing had been commonplace since the early 1930s, but in late 1934, discussions became more serious after an inbetweener named Dan Glass contracted tuberculosis. Glass died in January of the following year due to the disease, and many inbetweeners blamed the working conditions for Glass contracting it in the first place. The event was at least the second time that an inbetweener had contracted that disease, as another Fleischer employee was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1931 and ultimately died in 1935 as well.
Also in 1935, the United States Congress enacted the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, which greatly strengthened the ability of labor unions to organize workplaces. CADU began to focus its attention on organizing the workers at Fleischer in 1936 and, at a meeting of CADU's executive board on November 4 of that year, made the union campaign at Fleischer a top priority.
Organizing efforts began in late 1936 and continued until early 1937, with the final push occurring in March of that year. Among the primary organizers at the studio, only one was an animator, with the rest coming from lower departments such as inbetweening. Among these, Lou Appet, an inbetweener, was considered the most influential, having previously been a member of the Film and Photo League and having many contacts within organized labor.
The organizers recruited almost exclusively from the ranks of the lower departments at Fleischer, with Appet expressing concern that animators in the organizing process may prove to be more of a hindrance than a help. Additionally, many animators were either ambivalent towards the union or were concerned about the left-wing nature of the group. CADU was a popular front organization with ties to the Communist Party of the United States and had a faction consisting of party members, fellow travellers, and communist sympathizers that planned strategy for the union.
In March 1937, CADU began its final push for organizing. On March 20, Fleischer Studios fired employee Carl Wessler and, according to historian Harvey Deneroff, union activists believed that the termination was due to his union activities. Ten days later, CADU initiated a slowdown in response to a speedup that the studio had implemented on work for Popeye the Sailor. According to an article published in the Daily Worker, the speedup had nearly doubled the work rate for inbetweeners, and the slowdown was intended to return production rates to their normal levels.
On April 1, another inbetweener, Marty Taras, was fired for trying to play an April Fools' Day prank on a coworker by giving him a hot foot. While it was illegal to light a match in the studio because of the presence of highly-flammable nitrate film, Taras and some other employees believed the termination was due in part to his union activities.
CADU seeks recognition at Fleischer Studios On April 12, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the National Labor Relations Act was constitutional, leading to a notable uptick in organizing activity throughout the country. Shortly after this ruling, CADU representatives went to Max Fleischer and made their first direct demands to the company. Among the union's demands were an end to the speedup, a 12 percent increase in wages, paid time off for sick leave and vacation, double pay for overtime, a 35-hour workweek, and a closed shop. However, believing that the union did not represent the will of the majority of the employees, Max refused to recognize or negotiate with the union.