Disney Goes Back to the Table in Union Dispute
Friday, January 7, 2011
By: Nicole Creston

January 7, 2011 | WMFE - Today, a federal mediator is trying once again to break the stalemate between Walt Disney World and its largest labor group. In October, the Service Trades Council, which includes six separate Disney unions, narrowly rejected the theme park's contract offer. A mediation session last month ended without a breakthrough...and now, the Council remains split, Disney won't budge, and no one knows what to expect from today's meeting.

Just like any Disney story, this one begins with a cast of characters. First, there’s Andrea Finger, a spokesperson for the Disney World resort. She lays out the basics of Disney’s contract offer.

“The proposal that we’ve presented for our cast members is a good deal for our cast members,” she says. “It guarantees them 3 percent pay raises for each of the next three years and also maintains a choice of affordable, high-quality healthcare options for them and their families.”

Finger says the offer also includes a one-time bonus of $550 for each employee. Additionally, to help defray rising health insurance premiums, she says Disney’s offering on-site medical facilities and an optional wellness program that earns participants an extra $300. 

The next character in the story is the Service Trades Council, which represents about 21,000 full-time Disney workers. The coalition as a whole voted against Disney’s contract offer in October. However, three of the six separate unions within the coalition are actually in favor of the contract offer, and three are opposed.

Harris Rainer is the head of Local 737 Workers United, representing most of Disney’s servers, housekeepers and cooks. His group supports the contract offer, along with the union of stage technicians and the one that represents monorail and boat drivers. Rainer says it isn’t his dream contract, but he’s looking at the bigger picture.

“Would I love to see people earn more money? Sure I would,” points out Rainer. “But am I also cognizant of the fact that the average wage settlement according to the Bureau of National Affairs last year was 1.6%, and here we’re talking about a minimum of 3%?”

Ed Chambers is the president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1625. His group of retail, floral, and banquet workers doesn’t support the contract. Neither does the union of custodians and attraction workers, nor the union of bus drivers and costumed character performers. Chambers says the deal is unfair to people who earn the lowest wages. 

“Three percent, if somebody makes $7.50, is 23 cents. Now, Disney offered a minimum of 25 cents, so most people were going to get 25 cents,” explains Chambers. “If you make $16 an hour or in that range because you’re a higher-skilled person, 3 percent’s not bad.”

But, here’s the twist, says Chambers. Under the new contract, most skilled workers making around $16 an hour, like stage techs and monorail drivers, would get more than a 3-percent raise – maybe 3-and-a-half or 4 percent. But Chambers says skilled workers are already rewarded with a higher starting pay rate, so their bigger raise percentage is unfair to people who work just as hard but had to start at the bottom. 

“If they think they’re working harder, stand there for 8 hours at a register, dealing with guest after guest after guest after guest. That’s what my people do,” says Chambers. “We don’t think it’s a fair deal for us. We believe there needs to be a redistribution.”

What form that redistribution would take is still up in the air, but Chambers says is bringing a few ideas to the mediation table.  Disney seems to be in no mood to compromise, though.

“After 4 months of negotiation, we presented our best offer in October and continue to stand by it,” says Disney spokesperson Andrea Finger. “It’s our final offer and, given its strength, we have no further plans to enhance it.”

If a new agreement is reached, all 6 unions will have to vote on whether to accept it. But if neither Disney nor the Council will budge, Chambers says it’s back to the drawing board to figure out a way to get a fair contract. He says a strike is technically on the table, but it’s not what he wants, and he doesn’t think it’ll happen.  He hopes the parties can work things out ... because after all, few storytellers do “happily ever after” better than Disney.