Editing Disney animators' strike (section)

===Labor action===
The SCG and Sorrell started meeting on a regular basis at the [[Hollywood Hotel]] from the start of 1941 to hear Disney workers' grievances and plan a unionization effort.<ref name=prescod /> Many animators, including [[Art Babbitt]], grew dissatisfied and joined the SCG. Babbitt was one of Disney's best-paid animators, though he was sympathetic to low-ranking employees and openly disliked Disney.<ref name=PBS/> Babbitt had previously been a senior official in the Disney [[company union]], the Federation of Screen Cartoonists, but had become frustrated due to being unable to effect change in that position.<ref name=prescod /> Disney saw no problem with the structure, believing it was his studio to run and that his employees should be grateful to him for providing the new studio space.<ref name=PBS/>

Sorrell, along with Babbitt and [[Bill Littlejohn]],<ref name=libcom.org>{{cite web
|url=https://libcom.org/history/1941-disney-cartoonists-strike
 |title=The Disney cartoonists strike, 1941
 |last=Lowry
 |first=Sam
 |date=Nov 1, 2006
 |website=libcom.org
 |access-date=June 23, 2018}}</ref> approached Disney and demanded he unionize his studio,<ref name=video/> but Disney refused. In February 1941, Disney gathered all 1,200 employees in his auditorium for a speech:

{{blockquote|In the 20 years I've spent in this business I've weathered many storms. It's been far from easy sailing. It required a great deal of work, struggle, determination, competence, faith, and above all unselfishness. Some people think we have a class distinction in the place. They wonder why some people get better seats in the theatre than others. They wonder why some men get spaces in the parking lot and others don't. I have always felt, and always will feel that the men that contribute most to the organization should, out of respect alone, enjoy some privileges. My first recommendation to the lot of you is this; put your own house in order, you can't accomplish a damn thing by sitting around and waiting to be told everything. If you're not progressing as you should, instead of grumbling and growling, do something about it.<ref name=PBS/>}}

The assembly was poorly received, and more employees joined the SCG. Tensions between Disney and Babbitt reached a peak when Disney began to see Babbitt as having personally betrayed him by becoming a union leader.<ref name=PBS/> Disney fired Babbitt along with 16 other employees who were members of the SCG.