There’s a rumor that, as of midnight, the Disneyland cast members covered under the Master Services Agreement will be dropped by their union(s). The Master Services Agreement covers many front-line cast members such as Ride Operators, Vendors, Store Operations, Custodial, and more.
Disneyland cast members have often had a tense relationship with their unions. There was a bitter strike in 1984, and just as the course was changing from cast members making a middle class living in a lifelong position to a lower-paying structure that would promote higher turnover, Michael Eisner had been brought on as Disney CEO with a deal that would ultimately net him hundreds of millions of dollars.
Being behind the conservative Orange Curtain in Orange County, California, many cast members have resented being forced to join a union in order to be cast members, and paying what they felt were steep dues for a low paying job, seeing those dues support political campaigns with which they didn’t agree. Many cast members chose to exercise their "Beck rights."
There were several points throughout the years since the strike where cast members have grumbled that their unions have dropped the ball, or ignored their concerns, including issues with contracting jobs out, and the Resort expansion and subsequent changes to the original expanded Resort set-up.
There was a particularly nasty situation in 2004 that resulted in one of the unions granting a brand-new local to some Disneyland cast members, led by a lifelong cast member who had spearheaded the efforts to correct what she saw as significant problems with the union local in which they’d been.
According to the current rumor, cast members had been circulating a petition due to their dissatisfaction with the current situation, and now their union(s) have responded by dropping them.
Anyone have any hard information to share?
Honestly, given how crappy a job the unions representing DL’s employees have done, it’s astonished me that only the hotel workers were able to threaten their union with an election.
It seems to me that such a rumor would be hard to contain. The OC Register would be all over it (in that such a story would play very well to their readership and that it also fits into their political views.)
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