The Daily Populous Sunday July 21st, 2024 night edition
Authored by washingtonpost.com and submitted by aceqwerty

Disney workers in Southern California overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike as their unions push for increased wages and other measures, arguing that many workers are experiencing food and housing insecurity. Disney Workers Rising — a group of four unions that together represent 14,000 workers at Disneyland, Disney hotels, and nearby attractions Disney California Adventure and Downtown Disney — said in a statement Friday that 99 percent of the coalition’s members who voted backed a strike. It did not reveal how many members took part in the vote.

“We make Disneyland the place for family vacations, birthdays, and celebrations. We make the theme parks’ profits and the magic you find across the resort. But instead of rewarding our hard work and dedication, Disney is intimidating, surveilling, and unlawfully disciplining members, harming our negotiations and our ability to get the contract we deserve,” the bargaining committee said in Friday’s statement. The “overwhelming unfair labor practice strike authorization vote sends a clear message to the company: We are stronger together and will not be divided by scare tactics.”

The decision does not necessarily mean that workers, known as cast members, will go on strike, but it provides union leaders the authority to do so if a new contract with Disney cannot be reached. The unions hope the vote will add pressure on the company after a rally earlier this week at the resort entrance, where union members held up signs with slogans such as “Mickey would want fair pay!”

Disney Workers Rising said the unions are set to meet with the company again Monday and Tuesday, adding that “a strike is always a last resort.”

“We greatly appreciate the important roles our cast members play in creating memorable experiences for our guests,” Disneyland said in a statement, “and we remain committed to reaching an agreement that focuses on what matters most to them while positioning Disneyland Resort for growth and job creation.”

The company added that the strike authorization “is not unusual as part of a negotiations process” and said that Disneyland Resort “continues to welcome guests.”

Gavin Doyle, founder of the theme-park-centric media outlet MickeyVisit.com, said he expects Disney Workers Rising and Disneyland to avoid a strike or any disruptions for guests because Disney needs the support of cast members and the local community to continue its plans for growth.

A slate of theme park announcements are expected next month at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event in Anaheim, Calif., Doyle said. With the city council’s approval of the DisneylandForward development initiative in May, Disney has the green light to build and renovate attractions, dining, retail, and hotel spaces on its property. The company also announced last year that it would increase investments in its theme park segment to about $60 billion over the next decade. As workers seek livable wages in its next three-year agreement, they also have many Disney theme park enthusiasts on their side, Doyle said.

“The cast members are an integral part of the Disney theme park experience,” he said. “Everyone wants to see them get fairly compensated for the work they do to deliver a great vacation for guests.”

On Wednesday, Disneyland’s 69th anniversary, hundreds of union members held a rally outside the entrance to Disneyland Resort, calling for increased wages and incentives for longtime employees.

Among them was Cynthia Carranza, an overnight custodial worker at Disneyland, who said management has intimidated workers by cutting their hours and making them train other employees to do their jobs, creating fear that they will be replaced.

She said she enjoys her work making sure the grounds are clean before visitors arrive, but her wage — now just over $20 an hour — led to her being evicted from her apartment.

Carranza said she lived in her car with her puppies while working three jobs from July to November 2022. To get to work at Disney, she said, she parked her car at one of her part-time jobs, the sounds of cars passing on the nearby freeway muffling her dogs’ barks, and carpooled with another cast member. She used the costuming building’s showers and feminine products, she added.

Carranza now shares a studio apartment with her boyfriend, but her issues of being overworked and underpaid remain. “We are the people that create the magic in the park,” she said. “We are willing to do whatever it takes to move our contracts, to get respected, to earn a livable wage, to be valued.”

A Disneyland strike would be “catastrophic” for the company and the rest of the theme park industry, said Dennis Speigel, founder and chief executive of the global consulting organization International Theme Park Services. During the last Disneyland strike, which lasted 22 days in 1984, Speigel said division heads left their offices and operated attractions.

In the event of a work stoppage this year, Disney would be short 14,000-plus cast members during its peak summer season, Speigel noted, disrupting the millions of visitors as well as their hotel and airline reservations.

“I’m sure everybody within the Disney organization is putting pencil to paper and seeing how they can do everything they can … to avoid this,” he said.

Disney Workers United — also known as the Master Services Council — represents the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 324; the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Local 83; the Service Employees International Union-United Service Workers West and the Teamsters Local 495.

The unions, which represent workers from custodians and ride operators to candy-makers and merchandise clerks, began negotiations over contract issues including wages and attendance policies in April. They say that 28 percent of Disney employees surveyed this year reported food insecurity, while a third have reported experiencing housing insecurity.

The Disneyland Park contract expired last month, and the contract for Disney California Adventure Park and Downtown Disney will expire Sept. 30. The unions have since accused Disney of mistreating more than 675 union members, saying they “have been intimidated, surveilled and disciplined for wearing union buttons in support of their contract campaign.”

apple_kicks on July 20th, 2024 at 18:28 UTC »

From everything I hear about these parks what really adds to experience esp if they want to make it ‘immersive’ is all the actors and puppeteers around the park and interacting with them. They keep pushing the immersion thing without thinking of how much commitment that requires from actors and trying to do it cheap as possible

Square_Cellist9838 on July 20th, 2024 at 18:23 UTC »

These people are an important part of the brand. Pay them accordingly

aceqwerty on July 20th, 2024 at 17:30 UTC »

> Unions representing up to 14,000 Disney workers in Southern California accused the company of unfair labor practices. Contract negotiations are ongoing.

The UFCW324 Disney contract updates page reiterates that this does not mean they are currently on strike, but poised to, should it come to that. The union is set to meet with Disney again on Monday, July the 22nd.

This would be the first strike at Disneyland since 1984, when 1,800 cast members launched a 22 day strike after Disney proposed a 2 year wage freeze, elimination of health benefits for part-time and seasonal workers, and the freedom to outsource union jobs.

When Disney filed a $250,000 lawsuit, securing a temporary ban on picketing outside the park, almost all of the striking workers held a vigil in its place.

Escalating matters even further, Disneyland's president, Dick Nunis, sent letters to those workers insisting on their replacement if they did not return by mid-week. Angered by these intimidation tactics, 120 workers defied the picketing ban and held an hour-long demonstration outside the park gates, resulting in the arrest of 6 union officials who refused to leave.

Later that evening, the California state Supreme Court temporarily lifted the picket ban on appeal and hundreds of picketers returned in force. They even engaged in stealth operations such as entering the park and distributing pamphlets to park-goers.

In the end, the unions didn't succeed in stopping the 2 year wage freeze, but did get to keep health benefits for part-time and seasonal workers and got policy enacted to limit outsourcing union work to 10%.

Sources: https://www.ocweekly.com/how-the-disneyland-strike-of-1984-changed-the-magic-kingdom-forever/

https://duchessofdisneyland.com/park-history/1984-cast-member-strike/