http://www.orlandosentinel.com/the-daily-disney/os-disney-unions-20101229,0,5856998.storyDisney workers may face choice: Accept contract — or strike
By Jason Garcia, Orlando Sentinel
6:58 p.m. EST, December 29, 2010
When Caitlin Owens, a 23-year-old attractions worker in Disney's Hollywood Studios, studies the contract
Walt Disney World has offered to its largest labor group, she sees herself losing ground. Owens, who must pay for pricey family medical insurance to cover her husband and daughter, says she would ultimately earn less money, as rising insurance premiums more than wipe out modest annual raises.
"With the resources that Disney has, the almost endless funding that Disney has, they can do better. They're just choosing not to," Owens said.
But when Andy Gonzalez, a 41-year-old chef's assistant in Hollywood Studios, looks at the same proposal, he sees peace of mind. At a time when regional unemployment is almost 12 percent, Gonzalez said Disney is offering 3 1/2 years of job security — plus three raises and a bonus.
"Look at what happened to
SeaWorld," Gonzalez said, referring to the 125 layoffs that the Orlando marine park made earlier this month. "With this economy that we're going through right now, we're very happy to keep our jobs."
It's a split that extends across Disney World, where the resort's management and the Service Trades Council — a coalition of six unions that represents 20,800 full-time workers — are locked in contract negotiations stalled for more than two months.
Workers have already rejected the contract once, voting it down in October. But Disney, determined to keep a lid on expenses after a year in which labor costs swelled across its global theme-park division, insists that its first offer was its final one.
To break the stalemate, it appears increasingly likely that Disney workers will be presented with a stark choice shortly after the New Year begins: Accept the terms — or authorize a strike.
"Something's got to give," said Ed Chambers, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1625 and a critic of the contract proposal. "We're going to have to do some type of major job action to get the company's attention and let them know we're serious."
In broad terms, the contract that Disney has put on the table would give full-time employees an immediate $550 bonus and three annual raises beginning in April. But health-insurance premiums would also rise, potentially climbing by the end of the deal by as much as $12 a week for employee-only coverage and $38 a week for full family coverage.
For many Disney World workers, where pay ranges from $7.45 an hour to more than $20 an hour depending on the job, opinions on the contract depend largely on what they do at the resort.
Housekeepers, for instance, generally support it, as they would get raises of 3.5 percent in 2011, 3.75 percent in 2012 and 4 percent in 2013 — among the biggest pay jumps Disney is offering anyone. But most merchandise workers, who would receive only 3 percent raises each year, oppose the deal.
Watercraft and monorail drivers like that they would get an extra 60 cents an hour in exchange for random drug testing. But bus drivers, many with Disney for years and at the top of their pay scales, hate that such "topped out" workers would receive smaller annual raises — 2 percent to 2.5 percent.
Not surprisingly, the unions representing housekeepers and monorail pilots are among the three council groups lobbying to get the contract ratified. The unions representing merchandise workers and bus drivers are among the three campaigning against it.
Wages and insurance are essentially the only issues that remain in dispute. Six months of negotiations have resolved almost all "noneconomic" issues — from the size of the dining parties for which waiters get automatic gratuities to the types of cleaning products that housekeepers can use in hotel rooms — with the exception of a scheduling dispute involving bus drivers.
But Disney has said repeatedly that it does not intend to add more money to the pot. The resort says the overwhelming majority of its workers would make more money under the pact and that only in rare circumstances — workers in the lowest pay grades with the most expensive insurance options — might someone lose ground.
"The package we offered is fair and guarantees yearly pay raises and affordable, high-quality health-care options," said Steve Eisenhardt, vice president of labor relations for
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. "It is our final offer and, given its strength, we have no further plans to enhance it."
The Walt Disney Co. recently concluded its 2010 fiscal year, in which operating profit in its theme-park division sank 7 percent — to just more than $1.3 billion — in large part because its labor costs jumped 6 percent.
Bargaining, which began six months ago, has been put on hold during the holidays, as Disney management and workers alike focus instead of the annual crush of Christmas-to-New-Year's visitors. The talks will restart again Jan. 7 when the two sides will meet for the second time with a federal mediator, though the first session, held earlier this month, proved fruitless.
Absent an unexpected compromise, union officials say it appears they will bring the contract back to their members for a second vote later in the month. This time, however, they say the vote will likely be coupled with a request to authorize a strike.
Few think a walkout is a possibility. But workers must make it clear how far they are willing to go in hopes of pressuring Disney into sweetening its offer, said Joe Condo, president of Transportation Communications International Union Local 1908, another of the council's six unions.
"We have to determine: Are we willing to strike?" said Condo, who supports the contract. "If it's not going to improve, what are we going to do to make it improve?"
Jason Garcia can be reached at
jrgarcia@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5414.
