Tammy Cruz has worked as a hostess at the Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, Florida, for three years. She currently makes $10.50 an hour. That’s in part because she is not considered to be employed by Disney, where the pay is higher.
“We wear Disney uniforms, we follow the same rules and regulations as Disney, so why aren’t we earning the same amount as Disney workers?” Cruz asks.
In August of 2018 unions at Disneyland won an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2021, but some workers are not seeing increases.
In August 2018, unions at Disney World won a deal to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2021, after 93 percent of union members had voted to reject Disney’s initial wage proposal. Disney withheld bonuses from union members throughout the contract negotiations.
A month earlier, unions at Disneyland in California won a $15 minimum wage that took effect in January.
While resisting even modest pay hikes, Disney reported a record profit in its most recent fiscal year.
While resisting even these modest pay hikes, Disney reported a record profit of $12.6 billion in its most recent fiscal year. And hundreds of workers, like Cruz, who work for subcontractors at Disney have yet to receive similar increases.
Currently, some 400 workers represented by Unite Here Local 737 are pushing for a $15 minimum wage in negotiations for a new contract with food and beverage contractor Palmas Services; their last contract expired in April 2018. The workers are employed at Disney World’s Epcot Mexico pavilion and Coronado Springs Resort, and have not received any wage increase since October 2017. The union represents cooks, stewards, food runners, servers, bussers, bartenders, and hosts at Palmas Services.
Cruz, who is among this group of workers, says she often must decide between groceries, paying car bills, and covering expenses for recent dental work she’s needed, all while trying to make ends meet as a single mother. “We have rent, things we need to pay, and this isn’t making it,” Cruz tells The Progressive. “This little raise will help tremendously.”
According to the union, around 300 workers for Sodexo at Disney employee cafeterias, and 100 employees for the Patina Restaurant Group that runs the restaurants in the Epcot Italy Pavilion, are still under their current contracts and have not received a $15 minimum wage increase either.
Disney World employs about 74,000 workers, making it the largest single-site employer in the United States. It’s unclear how many workers are employed at Disney by subcontractors.
“I don’t think it’s fair we wear the Disney uniforms and Disney name tags, and we don’t get the same pay,” says Tasshavia Alexander, a hostess at Disney Coronado Springs Resort who has worked there for six months and makes $10.50 an hour. “It’s very hard. Getting paid what we get paid and the prices of the rent and everything else going up, it’s a struggle because we can’t afford to live in this town.”
Alejandro Castillo has worked as a cook at Disney World’s Coronado Springs Resort for nearly four years, but makes only $13 an hour.
Alejandro Castillo has worked as a cook at Disney World’s Coronado Springs Resort for nearly four years, but makes only $13 an hour. He noted the base pay for cooks under the subcontractor is $10.75 an hour, while Disney cooks make more than $14 an hour as a base pay, and are set to make more than $15 an hour at the end of this year.
“We work the same place, we do the same work, we work hard. It doesn’t feel fair we don’t get the same pay,” Castillo says. “The management doesn’t want to talk about the wages and the health insurance.”
Castillo currently lives with roommates in order to afford rent in the Orlando area. According to a December 2018 report released by Zillow, home and apartment rents in the Orlando area increased faster than any other major city in the United States in 2018. “Everything is going up but the pay rates stay the same,” says Castillo.
Meanwhile, the wage increases Disney workers won in 2018 have already helped make the lives of those employees’ a little easier in what’s branded as “the most magical place on Earth.”
“I recently had to have an emergency root canal and because of the $2.50 an hour in raises so far, that helped pay for the root canal. I’m also saving for a new car and saving money for any emergencies,” says Mike Beaver, a Disney World employee at the Tomorrowland theme park area for more than eighteen years who made $13.02 an hour before the recent wage increases.
Disney spokesperson Andrea Finger declined to comment on this story. But a spokesperson for Palmas Services told The Progressive in an email, “Palmas Services, LLC, will continue to negotiate with UNITE HERE Local 737 in an effort to reach a collective bargaining agreement. Palmas has consistently shown up to meetings to listen and negotiate the written proposals provided by both parties throughout the process, striving to come to the best consensus possible. Palmas has high hopes that the union will do the same moving forward.”