Realizing that unionization was imminent, Walt acknowledged and entered into limited negotiations, with a staff organized union, called the Federation of Screen Cartoonists. In January of 1941 though, the National Labor Relations Board certified the Screen Cartoonists Guild as the union organization that formally represented film animators. This Guild, led by a touch labor tactician began targeting all the leading Hollywood animation studios. The SCG turned its sights on the Disney Studio, calling the Federation of Screen Cartoonists as a company union manipulated by Disney management. One of the companies highest paid artists said that he was directly encouraged by Disney’s lawyer to accept the position as the president of the Federation of Screen Cartoonists, saying that if the Federation could find enough support among Disney employees, the SCG would be prevented from gaining a hold. Some artists remained with the Federation, some joined both, and some transferred support to the SCG, likely swayed by extravagant promises about wage deals that would be negotiated.
There was very little difference between the wage levels that the Federation had negotiated and the wages secured by the SCG at other studios, but the Guild argued that the superior quality of Disney artists should receive higher wages. They implied, basically, that Disney Studios was rolling in money, even though the Studio faced a rapidly worsening financial situation. At that time, no less than 45% of income came from overseas markets, and the war closed off Germany, Italy, Poland, and Czechoslovakia to Hollywood, and Britain and France ordered the freezing of American revenue earned in their countries.
Walt was really hurt by the criticism that his $500 a week salary was too high. Walt risked everything to build his vision, and when things went well, both he and Roy not only resisted taking the dividends due to them (about two and a half million dollars) but distributed to the staff over seven years, bonuses totaling over four hundred and ninety thousand dollars, nearly a half a million. Walt had unattractive options to consider in order to meet the financial obligations of the Studio’s high output. One choice was to cut salaries, drastically. A cut of nearly 50% for the top earners and everyone else by no less than 10%. Walt did not like this option at all, he thought it would not increase production, and might have lowered morale and caused a panic. Roy cut all departments 10%, and Walt asked some higher bracket, loyal employees to help by taking a cut that they thought they could stand. They gladly complied, and Walt and Roy personally took a salary cut of 75%. Around this time, the President of the Federation tried to secure a $2.50 a week raise for his assistant. At that time, the president earned about $300 a week, while his assistant earned about $25. Walt’s explaination of the descrepency between the two wages was that a more experienced animator could produce much more film footage per week than an inexperienced assistant. It was possible for an animation assistant to have the opportunity to prove themselves on the same footage cost scale, and if they produced quality cost effective work, they would be paid the $275 per week difference. Art Babbitt continued to demand a raise for his assistant, and offered to pay the additional $2.50 per week from his own pocket.
Part 3 to come…