Disneyland Resorts Workers Turn To Hunger Strike In Two year Fight For Contract

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Workers Independent News

by Doug Cunningham

Workers taken for a long ride by Disneyland on an unresolved labor contract are planning a hunger strike at Disneyland resorts. Jesse Russell has more.

Two years without a contract has hotel workers for Disneyland Resorts planning a hunger strike starting on Tuesday. Two thousand one hundred workers are represented by UNITE Here Local 11. Starting on February 9, 10 workers plan to sit down in front of Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel and Spa in Anaheim and begin subsisting only on water. The union said this week it would be willing to sit down with Disney and a federal mediator, but that offer has gone unanswered by the House of Mouse. The two sides are at an impasse over how to best handle health care. The company is asking employees to be part of a plan run by Disney that would see employee contributions. However, UNITE Here offers its own health care plan which would not require any employee payments. There have already been two employee walkouts due to workers concerns over increased workloads. However, the company contends workloads have remained the same even after recent renovations that have resulted in larger beds in many rooms.


Read more: http://www.laborradio.org/node/12884

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[Auggie]

1. Hunger strike?

How will that hurt Disney?

[No Elephants]

3. Publicity? Boycotts by pro-labor folks, like me?

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

2. So Disney should be in favor of single payer to bring down

health care costs, right?

[No Elephants]

4. I bet they're more in favor of high salaaries and bonuses for executives, so executives can afford

to buy the best health insurance around.

I was there in 1978. The only place I saw African Americans working? The riverboat--as waiters and busboys. A Southern themed cafe--forgot the name--also as waiter, and as members of a band that cruised the tables. Some oaf asked them to play "Dixie," too, with a lot of laughing at the table.

They played it, but about four times as slowly. Sounded like a funeral dirge. At least a couple of the rednecks at that table had enough grace to get red in the face, too, by the time the band finally finished.

[cory777]

5. I thought Disneyland was the place where dreams came true.