Four unions representing more than 14,000 Disneyland workers in Southern California announced Friday that they were authorized to call a strike to demand better working conditions and pay, a vote that would be the first strike at Disney in 40 years.
Although it was approved, it does not mean that it will actually happen, however, the decision – voted in favor by 99% of the workers – “shows that the cast members [‘cast members’, como são referidos os trabalhadores das lojas e parques temáticos da Disney] “They are fed up,” Aaron Zarate of Disney’s workers’ bargaining committee said in a statement cited by NBC News.
Among the 99% are hundreds of workers who this week protested at the entrance to the amusement park over the low wages they receive, which for some is not enough to rent an apartment. This is the case of Cynthia Carranza, a Disney cleaning employee who, for four months last year, says she had to live in her car with her two dogs because her salary, plus the two she received from other jobs, was not enough.
“It’s annoying that the balloons we sell at the park are more expensive than what I make per hour. I have to work an hour and a half if I want to buy one of those Disney balloons,” she told CNN International. Carranza currently shares a small apartment with her boyfriend, who also works at the park, but their wages are still low compared to incomes in Southern California: per hour, Carranza earns $20.65 (about 18.96 euros), while the average rent in that North American city is $2,000 (about 1,836 euros).
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As of April 1 of this year, the minimum wage for California workers Fast food They became $20 an hour. In turn, the city of Anaheim, not Orange, where Disneyland is located, has approved that starting in January the park workers will be able to receive a minimum wage of $19.90, per hour, or that, according to their own , is not sufficient.
According to the BBC, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) calculated that a single person without children would have to earn $30.48 an hour to live near Disneyland in Orange.
“Without us, Disney would be like any other place,” one employee told the BBC, referring only to his surname Morgan, who says he lived for four years in motels around Disneyland with his children. And when they were with his mother, this Disney worker slept hidden on the street to avoid the police.
“It’s not the animatronics, it’s us. At least respect us enough to pay us a living wage,” he said.
Although the workers’ demands are economic in nature, the strike vote was called in response to complaints that workers were reprimanded for wearing union pins with a raised Mickey Mouse fist and distributing union information in the park.
In June, unions filed unfair labor practice complaints with the National Labor Relations Board against Disney for “unlawful discipline, intimidation and surveillance of union members exercising their right to wear union insignia on the job.”
Disney told CNN International that wearing union insignia goes against the park’s uniform policy and that only “a handful” of workers have been reprimanded.
In a statement, he also said that Disneyland parks strive to offer guests “an immersive and seamless experience” and that “anything that distracts from the show or story, whether it be an unapproved badge, pin or sticker worn by a cast member would be addressed by a person in charge.”
The unions and Disney have two more meetings scheduled for Monday, July 22 and Tuesday, July 23.
Source: Observadora
