Disneyland’s Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and the rest want to unionize
While Disney World's character actors have been in a union for years, Disneyland's are still fighting for fair wages
Aux News Goofy
What has the world come to when even a princess can’t earn a living wage? The fictional Cinderella may have left behind a life of labor, but the actors playing her and all of her fairy tale friends in Disneyland haven’t. Now, they’re seeking to unionize under the Actor’s Equity Association so they can continue to whistle (and earn a living wage) while they work.
The union is currently seeking to represent 1,700 Disneyland employees who—close your eyes, kids—play Minnie, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and the like around the park and in parades (via CNN). After just three days, the union says it already has over 30% of employee support, but that it is waiting until it has at least 60% approval before filing for a representation vote with the National Labor Relations Board or seeking recognition of the union from Disney.
It likely won’t be too hard for them to achieve this, since the Disneyland character actors are not the first group of cast members to seek union representation. Actors doing the same work across the country in Disney World have been in a union for years and until November 2023 were earning significantly more per hour than their colleagues, even though the cost of living is far greater in Anaheim than it is in Orlando. There are also already more than a dozen unions currently active in Disneyland, representing over 21,000 employees in retail, food service, security, hair and makeup, pyrotechnics, and more. But for some reason, it hasn’t happened for the character actors until now.
Currently, Disney isn’t really showing its cards regarding where it stands on this effort. “We believe that our cast members deserve to have all the facts and the right to a confidential vote that recognizes their individual choices,” the company said in a statement (via CNN). “They love working at Disneyland. That doesn’t mean they don’t need enough money to live on,” Kate Shindle, president of Actor’s Equity, added from her own side. “Everybody recognizes that Disneyland is a special place, but magic alone doesn’t pay the rent.”
Let’s talk about magic for a second. Mickey may be timeless, but a whole lot of work goes into making him that way. While it might ruin the wonder, stories of the grueling lengths Disney actors have gone to stay in character and maintain the guest experience aren’t hard to come by. A Goofy actor in this Fodor’s Travel story, for example, talks about how he learned about a close friend’s death ten minutes before his shift and still had to smile and dance and sign autographs even though he was sobbing inside of his costume. It’s a more common experience than you’d think, and one that absolutely deserves to be compensated with more than just a sprinkle of pixie dust.
16 Comments
This surprised me. From a general union pro/con aspect, California is pro union and Florida is con. So I just assumed that the CA Disney performers already were union.
Disney is still Disney, though. It might be on the right side of politics with DeSantis, but it’s still a multibillion (I assume) dollar corporation. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had engaged in … maybe not union-busting exactly but certainly discouragement.
I still think people give Disney way too much credit for “being on the right side of politics” with DeSantis. Disney doesn’t support LGBTQ+ people and their rights because of deeply-held beliefs or values (that much was clear when LGBTQ+ employees had to pressure executives to publicly oppose the “Don’t Say Gay” bill); they just didn’t want Meatball Ron to scare them off from spending their money in Disney’s parks.
I won’t argue against that, and it also didn’t escape anyone’s notice that Disney didn’t say anything about DeSantis until there was a bit of a public outcry about their silence. I think people should never forget that corporations are going to corporate.
Exactly; Disney’s attempts to, say, put LGBTQI characters in their movies have been tokenistic at best (and easily removable for those lucrative Mid East/Chinese markets). It’s not so much that “Wow, these gays are people too!” but more “Huh. Money from a lesbian’s credit card is exactly the same as money from a straight’s credit card”. Or, in meme form, regarding Disney vs Desantis:
You assume correct; Disney’s market cap is currently just over $200 billion.
I suspect that Disneyland’s proximity to Hollywood means that their performers are more on the hunt for career upgrades than the FL performers, and as a result are not thinking as long term about the work that they do.
It’s more a local culture remembering a good job that the reality is slow to correct.Once upon a time a job at Disneyland was a plum gig – they paid pretty well, the hours were good, your friends back at school would be jealous, the company valued long term employees and worked with the union to keep everyone relatively happy. If you wanted to, you could easily expect to start at street sweeper and work your way up (or not) until you eventually retired.Now? Mostly minimum wage starting positions, artificially low hours to ensure you don’t qualify for union representation, the union cowering like a beaten dog in a kennel, massive turnover, the works.
Yeah, I knew people from college that saw amusement park gigs as a way to practice skills and pay the bills while trying to step up to something bigger. But it seems like Disney has succumbed to the same corporate mindset that requires more and more profit, damn the consequences.
Exactly. It’s a widespread rot unfortunately. They did things like eliminate ‘lead’ positions that were trained in ride operations for entire areas as opposed to single rides – which meant one was not available on the day that someone died in an accident caused by an improperly trained crewmember with an improperly maintained boat. Or eliminate the majority of overnight maintenance crew causing corners to be cut on maintenance red tag checks leading to a ride vehicle separation on a rollercoaster leading to a fatality.*sigh*I’ll admit. I used to buy into it.
California may be pro union, but Disney is definitely not pro union or even just labor friendly. They fought tooth and nail – all the way to the Supreme Court – to avoid paying their workers the locally mandated minimum wage. Luckily they lost.https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-10-25/california-supreme-court-ends-disneylands-fight-against-anaheim-wage-law
Good.
It’d be nice to see any of Disneyland’s unions regain some of the ground they’ve lost over the years.Character actors have a crap gig. I grew up in the area and knew people in the parades, in the rubberheads, in the face roles. If it’s one of the bigger roles – a popular princess or what have you – you wind up having to watch your coworkers more than the audience or you’d get sabotaged. Even outside that the employment can be borderline abusive just getting work. I’ve heard stories of the notification system – you were notified the morning (or late morning if an afternoon shift) that you’d be needed. If you weren’t available because you had another job or what have you, you got a strike. Two strikes meant moving to the “alternates” list where you were called after the main list. Three meant you didn’t get calls. Strikes reset on a two-year basis, all for part time work.I’d hope it’s improved over the years, but their stories were pretty ugly.
Holy shit that’s terrible.
If The Irishman does nothing else, I hope it reminds people why Unions were an important thing to begin with, and before he became a legend for disappearing, Hoffa was a legend for what he did for workers.
Good, unions should be powerful, transparent and government-monitored and supported.