Union members voted down a contract proposal covering thousands of Walt Disney World service workers, saying it didn’t do enough to help workers cope with increases in the cost of living in housing and other expenses in central Florida Was.
The unions said 13,650 of the 14,263 members who voted on the contract on Friday rejected Disney’s offer, sending negotiators back to the bargaining table for a second round of ongoing talks through August. The contract covers approximately 45,000 service workers at Disney theme park resorts outside Orlando.
Disney World’s service workers, who are in six unions that make up the Service Trades Council union coalition, were demanding an initial minimum wage of at least $18 per hour in the first year of the contract, up from the initial minimum wage of $15 per year. More than. Hour won in previous contract.
The proposal rejected Friday would have raised the starting minimum wage for all service workers to $20 an hour by the final year of the five-year contract, a $1 increase each year for most of the workers involved. Some positions under the proposal, such as housekeepers, bus drivers and cooking jobs, would start at as low as $20 immediately.
“Housekeepers work so hard to bring the magic to Disney, but we can’t pay our bills with magic,” said Willen Raphael, who works as a housekeeper at Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa.
The company said the offer offered a quarter of those covered by the contract a $20-an-hour wage in their first year, eight weeks of paid time off for a new baby, maintenance of a pension and the start of a 401K plan. It was
Disney spokeswoman Andrea Finger said in a statement, “Our strong offer provides more than 30,000 cast members with nearly 10% immediate raises on average, as well as retroactive increased pay in their paychecks, and we Disappointed that those increases are now being delayed.”
The contract impasse comes as the Florida Legislature prepares to convene next week to complete the state’s acquisition of Disney World’s self-governing district. With the support of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the GOP-controlled statehouse last April approved legislation to disband the Reedy Creek Improvement District by June 2023, beginning a closely watched process that will see Disney World Will determine the composition of the government controlling the vast wealth.
Contracted service workers include costumed character actors performing as Mickey Mouse, bus drivers, culinary staff, lifeguards, theater workers and hotel housekeepers, who represent more than half of the workforce of more than 70,000 at Disney World . The contract approved five years ago made Disney the first major employer in central Florida to agree to a minimum hourly wage of $15, setting the trend for other workers in the hospitality industry-heavy area.
A report commissioned last year by Unite Here Local 737, one of the unions in the coalition, said an adult worker with no dependents would need to earn $18.19 an hour in central Florida to make a living wage, while two There will be a family with children. The living wage requires both parents earning $23.91 an hour.
While wages of $15 an hour were sufficient for the previous contract, “with rent, food and gas prices skyrocketing over the past three years, it is no longer possible to survive with those wages,” the report said.
Before the pandemic, workers with families in the $15 to $16.50 an hour wage bracket could pay their bills. The report states that as inflation increases the cost of food and gas, a worker who earns $15 an hour full-time is currently $530 more than the worker needs to pay for rent, food and gas each month. earns less.
Last month, food service and concession workers at the Orange County Convention Center voted to approve a contract that would raise the wages of all non-tipped workers to $18 an hour by August, bringing them up to that wage rate in Orlando. The first to arrive will become hospitality workers.
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