1937 Fleischer Studios strike

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.