ANAHEIM, California. The demands of tens of thousands of workers for the Mouse are clear: it is time for Disney to pay its workers at Disneyland fair wages.
Over 99% of workers across four unions – which represent over 14,000 workers in total – have voted affirmatively to strike. If action continues, it will be the first at Disneyland in over 40 years, solidifying this decade as the era of labor action and worker uprisings, continuing the massive waves of SAG-AFTRA/WGA, our home CFA and Teamsters 2010 strikes, and the unfortunately short-lived UAW 4811 strikes.
The Disneyland “cast members”, a term used instead of employees to avoid “diminishing the magic”, perform all essential functions at Disneyland, from ride operation to food service. There are 35,000 employees at Disneyland, but the 14,000 who would be going on strike perform the park’s most critical duties. Disneyland is not able to operate without their labor; should they go on strike, the park would have to shut down, costing Disney nearly $5.5 million in profit per day. Given that the strike would come in the peak of summer, it is likely that these losses are even more significant.
In addition to the stalled state of contract negotiations, the unions filed multiple unfair labor practice charges against Disney, seeking to halt bad-faith and dangerous practices. These charges help protect the strikes, as they make them “non-economic” under federal labor law; while Disney can try to find replacement temporary employees to keep the parks open, everyone must get their jobs back at the end of the strikes.
For the past few weeks, employees have been holding rallies around and outside the parks, generating public awareness of their plight and bringing together employees from across different divisions. Titan YDSA Vice President, Jack Henderson, was at one such rally on Wednesday. He described the rally as “enthusiastic,” stating that “the energy seen at the rally showed a mixture of extreme excitement, anger, and hope that could only be shown by people fighting to earn a better life. Which, given how the vote passed with 99% approval, is not surprising.”
In 2018, Economic Roundtable and Occidental College studied the conditions of Disneyland workers, and found that 74 percent could not cover their basic necessities. These conditions have only gotten worse amidst insane inflation and the pandemic. Recent surveys found that 28 percent of employees face food insecurity, 64 percent are rent burdened with 33 percent being housing-insecure, and 42 percent running out of sick leave.
Disneyland and California State University, Fullerton share a deep relationship, and the pains of the park employees are felt by the students. A substantial number of us go on later to work for Disney, or even do research for Disney while enrolled; cybersecurity students here have done multiple studies with Disney, and CSUF teams created the reports that Disneyland used to justify its expansion plans to the Anaheim City Council.
Titan YDSA stands with UFCW Local 324, SEIU United Service Workers West, Teamsters Local 495, and BCTGM Local 83 in their fight for workers rights and a fair contract at the Disneyland parks, as we stand with all workers striving for better conditions. UFCW 324 provides regular updates on contract negotiations, rallies, and strikes here; we highly recommend that all regularly check their website for more information, and come out to the strikes (should they occur) with Titan YDSA to stand in solidarity.