1937 Fleischer Studios strike
1937 Fleischer Studios strike | |||
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Date | May 7 – October 12, 1937 (5 months and 5 days) | ||
Location | New York City, New York, United States | ||
Caused by | Low pay and poor working conditions | ||
Goals |
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Methods | |||
Resulted in | Union and company agree to compromise labor contract, provisions of which include:
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Parties | |||
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The 1937 Fleischer Studios strike was a
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
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
In the early years of the studio, there was a strong sense of
During the early years of the company, animation in the United States was changing from a primarily
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.[12][5][11] At Fleischer Studios, many new hires started off as inbetweeners, which was considered one of the harshest jobs in the company.[5][11] Many worked in cramped conditions comparable to a sweatshop,[11][1] with their workstations not having access to windows or air conditioning.[5] Additionally, the inbetween 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.[13][11]
On top of the poor conditions, inbetweeners also experienced low pay.[2] Wages at the company had initially been considered fairly good,[5] with animator Shamus Culhane stating that he had had a weekly salary of about $100 while working at Fleischer Studios in 1930.[7] Additionally, yearly bonuses of several hundred dollars were not uncommon.[7]
However, pay across the board decreased as the decade continued,[14] with animator Don Figlozzi stating that his starting salary while working for the company in 1935 was $27 per week.[14][5] 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.[14] However, people outside the animation department made substantially less, with inbetweeners and cel painters making an average of $24.45 per week in 1937,[15] and other employees making as low as $17.40 per week.[2] 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.[2] Because of the low wages, many of the younger employees lived with their parents or had spouses who were also working to support them.[16]
Unionization in the animation industry
Given the issues regarding pay and working conditions, the studio was, according to animation historian
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).[21] CADU immediately began efforts to organize the local animation industry.[21] 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.[22]
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.[16] 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.[16][23] 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.[24]
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.[5][25] CADU began to focus its attention on organizing the workers at Fleischer in 1936[19][21] and, at a meeting of CADU's executive board on November 4 of that year, made the union campaign at Fleischer a top priority.[21]
Organizing efforts began in late 1936 and continued until early 1937, with the final push occurring in March of that year.
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.
In March 1937, CADU began its final push for organizing.[21] 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.[21] Ten days later, CADU initiated a slowdown in response to a speedup that the studio had implemented on work for Popeye the Sailor.[21] 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.[21]
On April 1, another inbetweener,
CADU seeks recognition at Fleischer Studios
On April 12, the
As a result, on April 19, CADU filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which sent attorney Lester M. Levin to discuss the matter with Fleischer attorney Louis Nizer.[27] Nizer argued that the union's demands would have increased the overhead, which he said was impossible for the company to accommodate because Fleischer Studios had actually not made a profit last year.[27] As a result, Levin urged the company to negotiate with the union on matters not related to overhead and to discuss a possible plan for implementing changes that would affect overhead when they were feasible.[27]
On April 29, the NLRB sponsored a meeting between union and company representatives, during which the company again argued that the union did not represent a majority of the employees.[27] Additionally, the union rejected the company's figures regarding its gross income and the costs that would be associated with the changes pushed for by the union.[29] On May 3, CADU petitioned the NLRB to hold a certification election for the union, but the company resisted holding any election due to the ongoing slowdown.[29]
On May 5, Fleischer representatives once again met with union representatives and once more refused to recognize the union as the legitimate representative of the bargaining unit.[29] Also starting that day and going into the next, Fleischer would fire thirteen employees who were members of the union.[29] The firing of these thirteen, as well as the two fired in the preceding months, was considered the breaking point for the union, and shortly thereafter, they began to plan a strike action.[19][20][30][2] On the night of May 6, about 100 union members voted to approve a strike against the company.[6] The decision to go on strike may have been due in part to a well-publicized concurrent strike that the AFL was supporting in Los Angeles involving 6,000 members of the Federated Motion Picture Crafts (FMPC) union.[29] In total, the 100 or so strikers would represent about half of Fleischer's total staff,[3][25] and while a vast majority of the animators and animator assistants would not be involved in striking,[2] an organizer for CADU told the soon-to-be strikers that the animators would honor the picket line.[29]
The strike was scheduled to commence the following day, May 7,[2][3] at 6:30 p.m.[28] That day, a Friday, was chosen because the strikers planned to disrupt the company's 3.5-hour evening work period on that day (which the company mandated in lieu of working on Saturday mornings) and also give other Fleischer employees the weekend to decide where they stood on the union question.[29] This would be the first major labor strike in the animation industry.[31]
Course of the strike
Early strike actions
The strike commenced as expected on May 7, 1937, at 6:30 p.m., with picketing outside of the studio's offices on Broadway.[29] Many of the picketers carried signs that had humorous slogans referencing the cartoons they worked on, such as, "We Can't Get Much Spinach on Salaries as Low as $15.00 a Week" and "Nudist Betty? How Can I Dress on Max Fleischer's Pay?", and chants of "I'm Popeye the Union Man" were repeated.[9]
Shortly after the strike began, several Fleischer employees who had been on their dinner break returned to the studio to find the picket line blocked entry to the building.[29] Wanting to get back in, some of the non-union employees decided to charge the line, resulting in a scuffle.[29] The fighting lasted for about 30 minutes, during which time several individuals sustained injuries, such as when inker Gill Fox threw his non-union supervisor Frank Paiker into the street.[29] The fighting only stopped when members of the New York City Police Department arrived.[29] More fighting broke out that night after police ordered the picketers to maintain a line near the curb, attracting a crowd of about 2,000 spectators.[29] In the aftermath, several picketers were arrested,[9] including three for assault and either ten or eleven for disorderly conduct.[29] This first night of picketing received widespread coverage from local media, including articles in the Daily News and the New York Herald Tribune.[29]
The violence from the first night led to the studio shutting down for the night.[29] The following day, the company sent a message to everyone in the animation department saying that work would resume on Monday, May 10, with the company providing protection for the animators.[29] While many animators opted to not cross the picket line at that time, 16 did, and work resumed, albeit at a slower rate.[32] Some notable employees who continued to work for Fleischer during the strike included Bob Kane, who would go on to cocreate the comic book character Batman,[33] and Lillian Friedman Astor, the first female to be given a role as a studio animator.[34][note 2] During the strike, workers at the studio would produce the cartoon Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves.[35] Over the course of the next week, many animators began to gradually return to work, and by that Thursday, only seven people from the higher departments of the company were continuing to honor the picket line.[32] By the end of the week, all of these individuals except one, animator Eli Brucker, had returned to work, and the company began to hire strikebreakers to replace the strikers in the lower departments.[32] Brucker would be the only animator to honor the picket line for the duration of the strike.[3]
Boycott
As animators returned to work and production at Fleischer resumed, the strikers turned their attention to another goal: organizing a
NLRB hearings and certification vote
Aside from the implementation of the boycott, another goal of the union during this time was to gain certification through the NLRB.[32] The NLRB had been busy handling cases regarding hundreds of other strikes nationwide, but the board finally focused on the Fleischer strike in June.[41] On June 16, the NLRB held its first hearing regarding the certification of CADU.[41] During the hearing, Nizer presented a petition that had been signed by the animators that stated they did not wish to be represented by CADU.[42] The petition was invalidated by the NLRB, who ruled that the signatures had been collected through intimidation, and the union countered that they had collected representation cards from over half of the employees at the studio asking for union representation.[42] On June 19, the NLRB ruled that a certification election would be held that would be open to all artists who were employed by the company on April 30, 1937.[42] Despite stalling from the company, this vote was ultimately held on August 16.[42] The initial vote was 74–0 in favor of the union, though 14 votes were later invalidated because they came from fired workers.[42] Due to delays by the company, the NLRB did not release its final report until October 8.[42]
End of the strike
The strike continued for several more months until late 1937.
However, the strike was also having a negative effect on the studio.
On October 1, The New York Times reported that a day prior, a breakthrough had been made between the company and the union that would see an end to the strike.[43] Though details of the agreement were not made public at the time, the newspaper reported that it was a compromise that would see some wage increases, a 40-hour work week, and other benefits that the union had pushed for.[5] On October 12, representatives for the union and studio met at the offices of Arthur B. Krim, a legal counsel for the company, and agreed to end the strike.[44][note 3] According to an article published in The New York Times, the strike at the time involved 75 "artists and cartoonists" of the company.[44] With this agreement reached, these employees returned to work the following day.[9]
Aftermath
Contract details
On October 19, Fleischer Studios officially recognized CADU as the representative of its animation employees.[45] As such, they were able to establish the first union contracts implemented in the animation industry.[5][19]
The contract was a compromise and did not include all of the initial demands that the union had pushed for.[9] For instance, the studio never became a closed shop, instead operating with about 60 percent of the workforce unionized and the other 40 percent nonunion,[45] and union membership was not necessary for new hires.[36] However, the contract did provide for a standard 40-hour work week, extra pay for overtime work, one week of paid time off for vacation, sick days, wage increases of 20 percent, and guarantees of production quotas from the union.[5][45][note 4] Additionally, the contract stipulated that any grievances would be addressed by committee under the arbitration of New York County District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey.[45]
Later history
The strike severely changed the dynamic in the office;[3][36][12] as animator Orsestes Calpini recalls, "the family feeling was gone".[9] Max Fleischer was very affected by the strike, as many long-time Fleischer animators later stated that Max became less involved with the cartoons' production processes following the strike and mostly remained in his office during the workday.[3][36][9] About a month after the strike had begun, Max had also entered into discussions with the chamber of commerce in Miami about relocating his studio to the city.[5][46] On January 21, 1938, Max officially announced the studio's plans to relocate,[9] which occurred less than a year later.[5] Many historians believe that the move was at least partially a response to the union, as Florida was seen as a much less friendly state towards organized labor than New York was,[47] and union presence was much less strong at the new location.[5]
Many of the pro-union employees refused to relocate, and immediately after the move, Fleischer petitioned the NLRB for a new certification election, which the union lost.[48] A later union drive at the Miami studio in 1938 by the United American Artists similarly ended in failure.[48] Ultimately, Fleischer would produce two feature-length films out of Miami, Gulliver's Travels (1939) and Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941), both of which proved to be financial disappointments for the company.[49] Due to its financial issues, in the early 1940s, it came under the direct ownership of Paramount Pictures,[5] which renamed the studio to Famous Studios and relocated it back to New York City.[19]
The strike preceded a new wave of organized labor activity in the American animation industry,
Notes
- ^ Sources vary on how many employees were working at Fleischer Studios at the time. In a 1987 article published in the journal Film History, historian Harvey Deneroff stated that Fleischer Studios had a production staff of "at least 167" people prior to the strike, not counting Max or Dave.[7] However, in a 1999 book, animation historian Michael Barrier states that the staff at Fleischer Studios was roughly 200 people.[3] A 2005 book by Max's son Richard Fleischer states that the company had "almost 250 employees" at the time,[8] while a 2008 book by film historian Richard Koszarski states that the company had around 175 employees at the time.[9]
- ^ Astor had initially honored the picket line, but returned to work at the studio on May 13.[32]
- ^ Historian Richard Koszarski gives a slightly different date, writing in a 2008 book that "a compromise resolution [was reached] on October 13".[9]
- JSTOR Daily, The New York Times reported that the deal between the union and studio included "vacations and sick leave with pay".[5] Historian Tom Sito, writing about the strike in a 2006 book, stated that Fleischer had "consented to ... one week of paid vacation, holidays, [and] sick leave", among other things.[45]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Deneroff 1987, p. 1.
- ^ a b c d e f g Koszarski 2008, p. 331.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Barrier 1999, p. 188.
- ^ Pointer 2017, p. 62.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Hunt 2020.
- ^ a b c The New York Times 1937a, p. 5.
- ^ a b c d e Deneroff 1987, p. 2.
- ^ a b Fleischer 2005, p. 89.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Koszarski 2008, p. 332.
- ^ a b Deneroff 1987, pp. 1–2.
- ^ a b c d e f Barrier 1999, p. 187.
- ^ a b c d Ohmer 2019, p. 62.
- ^ Deneroff 1987, p. 5.
- ^ a b c Deneroff 1987, p. 3.
- ^ Barrier 1999, pp. 187–188.
- ^ a b c Deneroff 1987, p. 6.
- ^ Black 2016, p. 116.
- ^ Denning 1997, p. 405.
- ^ a b c d e f g Sito.
- ^ a b Gabler 2006, p. 356.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Deneroff 1987, p. 7.
- ^ Sito 2006, p. 83.
- ^ Yu 1999, p. 41.
- ^ Deneroff 1987, pp. 6–7.
- ^ a b Fleischer 2005, p. 90.
- ^ a b Deneroff 1987, pp. 7–8.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Deneroff 1987, p. 8.
- ^ a b Fleischer 2005, p. 91.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Deneroff 1987, p. 9.
- ^ a b Black 2016, p. 117.
- ^ Dobson 2009, pp. xxiii, 76; Black 2016, p. 117; Denning 1997, p. 405; Lenburg 2006, p. 90; Deneroff 1987, p. 1; Evans 2011, p. 121; Cohen 1997, p. 158.
- ^ a b c d e f Deneroff 1987, p. 10.
- ^ Worth 2021, p. 10.
- ^ Lenburg 2006, pp. 96–97.
- ^ Koszarski 2008, pp. 330–331.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Fleischer 2005, p. 92.
- ^ Arnold 2017, p. 99.
- ^ a b c d e Sito 2006, p. 93.
- ^ The New York Times 1937b, p. 3.
- ^ a b c Deneroff 1987, p. 12.
- ^ a b Sito 2006, p. 91.
- ^ a b c d e f Sito 2006, p. 92.
- ^ The New York Times 1937c, p. 46.
- ^ a b The New York Times 1937d, p. 11.
- ^ a b c d e Sito 2006, p. 94.
- ^ Dial 2000, p. 315.
- ^ Langer 2012, p. 315; Gabler 2006, p. 356; Black 2016, p. 117; Koszarski 2008, p. 332; Deneroff 1987, p. 1; Dial 2000, p. 315.
- ^ a b Sito 2006, p. 95.
- ^ Koszarski 2008, p. 333.
- ^ Lent 2010, p. 160.
- ^ Lent 2016, p. 181.
Sources
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- ISBN 978-0-19-802079-0.
- Black, James Eric (2016). Walt Kelly and Pogo: The Art of the Political Swamp. Foreword by ISBN 978-1-4766-2300-9.
- Cohen, Karl F. (1997). Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in America. Jefferson, North Carolina: ISBN 978-1-4766-0725-2.
- Deneroff, Harvey (1987). ""We Can't Get Much Spinach"! The Organization and Implementation of the Fleischer Animation Strike". Film History. 1 (1). JSTOR 3815036.
- ISBN 978-1-85984-170-9.
- Dial, Donna (Winter 2000). "Cartoons in Paradise: How the Fleischer Brothers Moved to Miami and Lost Their Studio". JSTOR 30150575.
- Dobson, Nichola (2009). Historical Dictionary of Animation and Cartoons. Lanham, Maryland: ISBN 978-0-8108-6323-1.
- Evans, Noell K. Wolfgram (2011). Animators of Film and Television: Nineteen Artists, Writers, Producers and Others. Jefferson, North Carolina: ISBN 978-0-7864-8603-8.
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- ISBN 978-0-8135-4552-3.
- Langer, Mark (2012). "The Disney–Fleischer Dilemma: Product Differentiation and Technological Innovation". In Neale, Steve (ed.). The Classical Hollywood Reader. New York City: ISBN 978-0-415-57672-7.
- Lenburg, Jeff (2006). Who's who in Animated Cartoons: An International Guide to Film & Television's Award-winning and Legendary Animators. New York City: ISBN 978-1-55783-671-7.
- Lent, John A. (Autumn 2010). "The global cartooning labour force, its problems and coping mechanisms: the travails of the marginalised cartoonist". Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation. 4 (2): 160–172. .
- Lent, John A. (2016). "The Unfunny Tale of Labor and Cartooning in the US and Around the World". In Maxwell, Richard (ed.). The Routledge Companion to Labor and Media. New York City: ISBN 978-1-135-04249-3.
- "Movie Studio Strike Voted by 100 Workers; Union Employes of Max Fleischer, Maker of Animated Cartoons, Seek Recognition". from the original on December 6, 2022. Retrieved December 5, 2022.
- "2 Film Houses Picketed; Fleischer Studios' Strikers Ask Boycott of Cartoon". from the original on December 6, 2022. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
- "Fleischer Studio Strike Ends". from the original on December 6, 2022. Retrieved December 5, 2022.
- "Fleischer Strike Ended; Artists and Cartoonists, Out Six Months, Win Settlement". from the original on December 6, 2022. Retrieved December 5, 2022.
- Ohmer, Susan (2019). "Classical Hollywood, 1928–1946". In Curtis, Scott (ed.). Animation. New Brunswick, New Jersey: S2CID 242609809.
- Pointer, Ray (2017). The Art and Inventions of Max Fleischer: American Animation Pioneer. Foreword by ISBN 978-1-4766-6367-8.
- ISBN 978-0-8131-7148-7.
- Sito, Tom. "Guild History". The Animation Guild, IATSE Local 839. Archived from the original on November 24, 2022. Retrieved December 5, 2022.
- Worth, Rik (2021). The Creators of Batman: Bob, Bill and The Dark Knight. Philadelphia: ISBN 978-1-5267-7764-5.
- Yu, Kie-Un (1999). "Global Division of Cultural Labor and Korean Animation Industry". In Lent, John A. (ed.). Themes and Issues in Asian Cartooning: Cute, Cheap, Mad, and Sexy. Bowling Green, Ohio: ISBN 978-0-87972-779-6.
Further reading
- Langer, Mark (Winter 1991). "Institutional Power and the Fleischer Studios: The "Standard Production Reference"". JSTOR 1224976.