Walt Disney responded to the five-week strike by firing many of his animators, but was eventually pressured into recognizing the Screen Cartoonist's Guild (SCG) by signing a contract with them, which involved, amongst other concessions, rehiring those who wished to return.

In the 1930s, a rise of labor unions took place in Hollywood in response to the Great Depression and subsequent mistreatment of employees by studios.

By 1941, SCG president Herbert Sorrell had secured contracts with every major cartoon studio except Disney and Leon Schlesinger Productions.

[4] 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.

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.

Disney retaliated by depicting some of the striking employees in caricature in Dumbo as antagonistic circus clowns, and on one occasion even attempted to hit a picketing Babbitt, but was stopped by studio guards.

In turn, the strikers maintained a carnival-esque atmosphere on the picket line, using humor and artistic skills in producing signs, and at one stage carrying a mock guillotine in a march and using it to behead a mannequin of Walt Disney.

As a result the U.S. Conciliation Service brought both sides together in talks in Washington DC: an agreement was struck, which included the reinstatement of employees fired before the strike, equalization of pay, a clearer salary structure and a grievance procedure.

However, they still were able to gain some talent in the following years, including Bill Tytla, Isadore Klein, Morey Reden, T. Hee and Paul Busch.

[46] In the years following World War II, Lusk, Hee, Jones, Weeks, Marsh, Duncan, Schaffer, Hawkins, Salkin, Patin, Davidovich, Lokey, Battaglia, and Bradbury returned to the studio for varying lengths of time.

Disney never forgave the participants and subsequently treated union members with contempt,[6] arguing in a letter that the strike "cleaned house at our studio" and got rid of "the chip-on-the-shoulder boys and the world-owes-me-a-living lads".