Catmull is staunchly anti-union, and has fought tooth-and-nail to keep the company he co-founded, Pixar, a union-free shop. While a union seems like a no-brainer for keeping employees happy and content, they are still resisted by people in positions of power, whether that person be the co-creator of Rick and Morty or Ed Catmull, the current president of Walt Disney Animation Studios. Animator Art Babbitt, one of the strike leaders, leads a picket at the premiere of вЂњThe Reluctant Dragon.вЂќ Union shops in Los Angeles understand that they canвЂ™t take advantage of their employees, which is why some animation studios, like Titmouse, try to skirt the system by launching satellite studios in other parts of the United States where they can pay employees less than a living wage. But to this day, it remains the best option for artists who want to earn pensions and medical insurance, and ensure that they are treated with basic dignity and fairness by their employer. It is also not the strongest union in Hollywood, not by a long shot. The union is not a panacea for all of the animation industryвЂ™s labor ills. And so, on May 29, 1941, the journey to improving the working conditions of animation craftspeople took one of its most significant steps forward. If Disney was held to a higher standard, other industry players would be compelled to follow its lead. (In fact, much of the country had been striking since the passage of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, a foundational statute of workersвЂ™ rights that gave employees the right to form trade unions and negotiate collectively.) But the Disney strike was different because then, as now, Disney was the most prestigious name in American animation. In 1937, East Coast artists at Fleischer Studios had picketed. The Disney strike was not the first animation strike.

Disney artist studio