Credit: DisneyEarlier this week, Disney’s largest worker union threatened to shut down the Disneyland Resort via a strike authorization vote. It is a momentous and hugely economically impactful move by a powerful collective labor organization, but it is not just about wages and living conditions.
Fourteen thousand union workers, including Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) Local 83, the Service Employees International Union-United Service Workers West (SEIU-USWW), the Teamsters Local 495 and the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 324, will soon vote whether or not to strike and leave Disneyland, Downtown Disney, California Adventure, and Disney hotels without enormous numbers of key personal.
As one can imagine, a protest strike of this magnitude could severely impact the plans of tens of thousands (if not millions) of Disney Guests. These guests frequently plot out their Disneyland vacations for months ahead of time and go thousands of dollars into debt to treat their families to a visit to the Happiest Place on Earth. A shutdown at Disney could make a lot of things go wrong for a lot of people.
But the Disney Workers Rising Bargaining Committee has been protesting workplace conditions and wages for cast members for months and is now facing alleged intimidation and harassment from Disney itself, forcing it to consider shutting the whole thing down.
Related: Bob Iger Takes Grotesque $31 Million Salary While Disney Announces Mass Layoffs
The committee released a statement saying:
“Our goal for negotiations has always been to reach an agreement with Disney — one that provides cast members with wages they need to live in Southern California, the respect they deserve for the years they’ve dedicated to the company and an attendance policy that works for everyone while keeping park guests safe.
“But instead of working with us toward a fair contract, Disney has engaged in multiple instances of conduct we allege are unfair labor practices, including unlawful discipline and intimidation and surveillance of union members exercising their right to wear union buttons at work. We know these actions are only an attempt to stop us from exercising our rights and saddle us with a contract that perpetuates the status quo at Disney.
“We won’t accept less than what we deserve because we know our value to Disney. The theme parks’ profits come from our hard work making a trip to Disneyland a magical experience for guests. By undermining our rights, Disney has only made harder our fight to help our guests and keep our parks safe, which is why we are compelled to take a vote next week on whether to authorize a strike after our contract expired. With this strike authorization vote, we will ensure Disney hears Disneyland’s cast members’ voices.”
While many will assume this threatened strike is about Disneyland workers and their wages and poor living conditions, a closer look reveals that the Mouse House is being accused of not just refusing to negotiate in good faith but actually harassing the workers who make the parks run.
Inside the Magic spoke with a current Disneyland cast member, who explained her side of the story.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Related: Disney Scales Back Entertainment Offerings Amid Performer Unionization, Dozens of Cast Members Fired
Inside the Magic
We have a Disney cast member here who has been kind enough to speak with us regarding the ongoing situation at Disneyland. Could you please tell us your name?
Coleen Palmer
My name is Colleen Palmer.
Inside the Magic
Thank you. And what is your position with the park?
Coleen Palmer
I work in the stores. I’m a retail cast member.
Inside the Magic
Today, there has been a strike authorization vote announcement, the results of which are to be revealed to the public [on July 20, following internal announcements]. How do you feel about this?
Coleen Palmer
Well, it’s an unfair labor practice strike vote, and I think that we’re doing the right thing. The company has been surveilling and making people very uncomfortable in the last month while we are at work trying to do our jobs. It’s gotten to the point where something has to be done.
Inside the Magic
Yeah, that definitely sounds as though it would be very uncomfortable. So, would you say that Disney has been observing the union cast members in a way that does make you feel harassed and not heard?
Coleen Palmer
Yes. Yes, yes. A lot of people heard about the button.
Inside the Magic
Yes.
For more about the Disneyland button situation, read here:
Disneyland’s largest union coalition took its fight for a pay raise to the streets by handing out Mickey Mouse raised fist buttons to visitors entering the Anaheim theme park.
Disneyland union employees distributed buttons on Monday, July 1 with the Disney icon’s white gloved hand raised in a fist as a symbol of fighting oppression and asked arriving theme park visitors to sign a petition in support of union contract negotiations seeking fair wages.
Cast members, Disney parlance for employees, handed out the buttons with Mickey’s cartoon fist at the corner of Harbor Boulevard and Disney Way while wearing their theme park uniforms.
Coleen Palmer
The button, okay. So, that’s pretty much where it started. They were telling us that we weren’t legally allowed to wear the buttons, which we were, according to the Supreme Court. And we had managers who were standing around corners watching people, listening to conversations. Telling them that they did not have the right to wear the button. Again, listening in on conversations to make sure that we’re not talking about anything union-related or possibly union-related.
Inside the Magic
Do you think it would be fair to describe that as intimidation?
Coleen Palmer
Yes, a lot of the employees do feel very intimidated by it.
Inside the Magic
I see. This is Disney and, Disneyland specifically, who seem to want these labor issues to just go away, it feels like.
Coleen Palmer
It’s very possible. I can’t speak for their motives.
Inside the Magic
Certainly. But it has been pretty public knowledge and part of public discussion for a long time that many cast members are in very unfair living conditions. This is something that’s been coming to a head for quite a while. Do you feel like the strike authorization vote is the result of that?
Coleen Palmer
Well, it’s important to differentiate between the economics of our ongoing contract negotiations and the unfair labor practice vote that we are taking next week.
Inside the Magic
Sure. The Disneyland cast member contract expired on June 16, and the California Adventure and Downtown Disney is going to do the same [on September 30]. So you do feel there’s a differentiation between that and [the strike authorization vote]?
Coleen Palmer
I believe that. The unfair labor practice[s] that the company is participating in may absolutely have something to do with the contract that we’re negotiating, because it is a very tough negotiation.
Inside the Magic
Yeah, it seems like it.
Coleen Palmer
But our cast members and the public need to understand that there is a vast difference between an economic strike and an unfair labor practice [strike]. That’s what we’re voting on, an unfair labor practice strike vote.
Inside the Magic
I see. What do you hope the impact will be for cast members should this strike authorization go through?
Coleen Palmer
I would hope that our cast members would be able to do their job without knowing that management is standing around the corner watching them and listening to what they’re having to say, and that they’re not following them around on their breaks and picking up any union papers that they may be handing to somebody else or leaving an edit table for the next person to read.
You know, just all of this is stuff that our cast members, our employees are dealing with. And that’s what we’re bringing to light in this strike vote.
Inside the Magic
That makes a lot of sense. And I do see what you mean between the unfair labor practice [strike] and an economic [strike]. It does sound like something very important to have a full vote on. In a related question, what do you see the impact of this on Disney Parks as a whole?
Coleen Palmer
I know that the public’s going to go to Disney, that the public loves Disney, and they will continue going to Disneyland. And that’s perfectly fine. I love having the guests there. You know, I’ve been there for 37 years. And I talk to people from around the world every single day. So I hope that they do continue to go to Disneyland.
But I hope that the public, in general, recognizes that we, the employees, are humans who deserve to be treated with respect by the company that we work with. That’s really what I hope that the public sees, that we deserve to be treated with respect by the company that we work with.
What do you think about the allegations that Disney intimidates union cast members? Tell us in the comments below!