Trouble in paradise: thousands of Disneyland employees threaten strike

Some 14,000 cast members at Disneyland in California voted by an overwhelming 99 percent to authorize a strike on Monday; however, a coalition of union members reached a tentative agreement with Disneyland Tuesday, mainly revolving around wage increases. The coalition, titled Disney Workers Rising, will open a vote on the agreement at Disneyland for employees on July 29.

According to Disney, there are more than 35,000 cast members (what they call their employees) who work at Disneyland in Orange County, California. The terms of the agreement have yet to be disclosed, but if Disney agreed to raise wages by twenty-five cents an hour — which certain employees have hypothesized could happen, though it will likely be by much more — that would cost them more than $18 million per year.

Certain news outlets and union members argue Disney could easily afford the raises. Forbes reports Disney spent $142 million to transform Splash Mountain into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure (a racially controversial endeavor, indeed). The Star Wars-themed area, Galaxy’s Edge, supposedly cost almost $1 billion to build. And most recently, workers are dismayed by the approval of a $2 billion park expansion in April of this year. Many union members believe the pay gap between employees and bigwigs is unfair. Disney CEO Bob Iger’s $31.6 million annual salary is hundreds of times the amount earned by Disneyland employees, as union negotiator and Disney merchandise hostess Colleen Palmer cited in a BBC report.

Disney is not exactly a picture of perfection. But, there may be a case for the organization when it comes to the charges union members bring against them. As of April, the minimum wage in California is $20 an hour. This has resulted in the loss of 9,500 jobs, as professor Lee Ohanian discovered. Eater LA notes in the last four years, Disney’s wages have already increased by more than 40 percent. 

A Disney tourist blog reports they’ve “heard an increasing number of reader complaints about Cast Members not being as friendly or helpful as they used to be.” In the same post, the author attributes the kindness and consideration of In-n-Out employees to the amount of money they receive hourly, at $23 with benefits, very similar to Disney wages. As the author of the post, Tom Bricker also notes some cast members are willing to accept lower wages than other employers in order to work for Disney. With more than 35,000 employees and four unions to choose from, only 14,000 agreed to the strike. And this very strike was threatened because workers wanted more bargaining power than they had from their prior contract which expired in June. After certain employees were penalized for wearing union badges at work, which Disney said went against their uniform policies, employees threatened the strike.

Most likely, the agreement the Disney Workers Rising Bargaining Committee worked through will be accepted to avoid a strike. “We believe this three-year agreement meets our needs and delivers us the wages, seniority increases, premiums and protections we deserve, but nothing is final until we all have a chance to review the offer and vote on it,” the coalition said in a statement. But there may be some who agree with one employee’s assessment per a comment on Disney Workers Rising’s Instagram post: “25$ or bust. I’m not settling for anything less.”