This Thanksgiving, Cast Members Suffer Another Major Setback - Inside the Magic

Last year, Walt Disney World Resort cast members won a hard-earned raise in negotiations with the company but quickly saw those wages disappear thanks to inflation and the rising cost of living in Central Florida.

Despite the modest salary increase, the struggle of cast members continued this year as affordable housing became more challenging to find. Things continued to get worse as Florida and local municipalities cracked down on homeless encampments and people sleeping in their cars. 

However, the harshest law of 2024 was the Florida legislature’s decision to strip workers of heat protection. Under the Florida law, cities and counties were forbidden from enacting laws restricting work during extreme heat.

Under the law, Reedy Creek was barred from enforcing laws requiring cast members to have mandatory water breaks or to go indoors under certain conditions.

Cast members got a reprieve from the Florida law after the Biden Administration stepped in and ordered OSHA to create heat standards nationwide for workers. The new rules would require water and air conditioner breaks under certain conditions.

The new OSHA standards were a welcome change for cast members, especially as the temperature soared to well over 100 degrees in Central Florida this summer. Despite that reprieve, things are about to get much worse for cast members.

The OSHA rules would go into effect next summer. However, with a new administration coming into the White House, most experts believe the laws will never go into effect.

Jordan Barab, a former deputy assistant secretary of labor for OSHA under the Obama administration, told Orlando Weekly: 

The easiest thing that could happen, and probably the most likely, is they’ll just not work on it at all. It’ll just sit there and kind of molder, you know, for the next few years, and not progress at all.

When the law passed the Florida legislature, it had the support of dozens of major donors in the Sunshine State, including some of the same donors that gave to Trump’s campaign. Given that, the assumption is that any regulation on businesses in Florida and throughout the United States, will fall by the wayside.

With summers in Florida continually getting warmer, Disney World cast members can expect the extreme heat to only worsen for them. So, on Thanksgiving, it’s just one more thing for cast members to worry about.