Politics 28000 Layoffs coming to Disney's domestic theme parks - statement from Josh D'Amaro

[asianway]

Disneyland isn’t half the division. It doesn’t bankroll WDW at all.

DCL down and DVC sales are down

 

[GSP Guy]

Some final thoughts as I attempt to get this thing called sleep at now nearly 7am...

Yes Disney having to lay people of is the evil and vengeful ways of California and has absolutely nothing to do with stupidity like the following image that has brought us to now.
View attachment 508840

It's funny, actually absolutely hysterical to find that a study has conclude that when vampire bats feel sick, they socially distance themselves from groupmates in their roost. Same with lobsters, monkeys, fish, insects and birds are also known to socially distance when they detect illness in their peers. Yes, they are better at social distancing than Humans who cry that we are taking away their freedoms because they we have the gall to ask them to not spread a virus, because they read of facebook something something herd immunity, which looks marvelous when you willfully and gleefully aim to have 2 million deaths. All while you tout that you ended COVID while those you work with say that we aren't going to get it under control.

To add to this evil nasty California issue. Disney lost any and all room to talk against California when Robert Iger decided to act like a petulant child and resigned from the Covid task force because talks weren’t going his way. Yes it sucks people are out of work and people were laid off. However we need to look at it this way, all the closure does is mitigating spread of Covid. This is vital as we enter the second wave and because of the Covid party’s that have been rampant in California. And while both are acting in their best interests however this childish bickering needs to end. Both sides need to be reasonable, yet Disney honestly hasn’t shown me one iota to sway my opinion towards them nor has California all while the Company continutes to use the CMs as pawns while they won't take any further salary cuts nor bonus cuts. California’s response is solely from the lackluster response from the Federal Government and ill acting parties that decided to have parties during this which had required California to take what some have called draconian actions. Disney, you know if Robert Iger wasn’t so spendthrift since 2008, and the executives knew how to take a pay cut... you would be a little bit more fiscally well off.

But alas, here we are.

Good Night.

PS: Before anyone want's to quote me, look at the source of the "Covid is fake" The president at a rally yesterday was poking fun at COVID-19 by claiming that Barron, his son had COVID for about 12 minutes, Yes, the president was making jokes about a virus that he gleefully gave to his wife and his son. All while he touted the "Miracle Cure" which I shall note that he was given experimental treatment including the "cure" on compassionate grounds. All of this while the FLOTUS had to cancel an appearance last week over lingering effects.

Good night for real. Just needed an outlet to vent.

Some final thoughts as I attempt to get this thing called sleep at now nearly 7am...

Yes Disney having to lay people of is the evil and vengeful ways of California and has absolutely nothing to do with stupidity like the following image that has brought us to now.
View attachment 508840

It's funny, actually absolutely hysterical to find that a study has conclude that when vampire bats feel sick, they socially distance themselves from groupmates in their roost. Same with lobsters, monkeys, fish, insects and birds are also known to socially distance when they detect illness in their peers. Yes, they are better at social distancing than Humans who cry that we are taking away their freedoms because they we have the gall to ask them to not spread a virus, because they read of facebook something something herd immunity, which looks marvelous when you willfully and gleefully aim to have 2 million deaths. All while you tout that you ended COVID while those you work with say that we aren't going to get it under control.

To add to this evil nasty California issue. Disney lost any and all room to talk against California when Robert Iger decided to act like a petulant child and resigned from the Covid task force because talks weren’t going his way. Yes it sucks people are out of work and people were laid off. However we need to look at it this way, all the closure does is mitigating spread of Covid. This is vital as we enter the second wave and because of the Covid party’s that have been rampant in California. And while both are acting in their best interests however this childish bickering needs to end. Both sides need to be reasonable, yet Disney honestly hasn’t shown me one iota to sway my opinion towards them nor has California all while the Company continutes to use the CMs as pawns while they won't take any further salary cuts nor bonus cuts. California’s response is solely from the lackluster response from the Federal Government and ill acting parties that decided to have parties during this which had required California to take what some have called draconian actions. Disney, you know if Robert Iger wasn’t so spendthrift since 2008, and the executives knew how to take a pay cut... you would be a little bit more fiscally well off.

But alas, here we are.

Good Night.

PS: Before anyone want's to quote me, look at the source of the "Covid is fake" The president at a rally yesterday was poking fun at COVID-19 by claiming that Barron, his son had COVID for about 12 minutes, Yes, the president was making jokes about a virus that he gleefully gave to his wife and his son. All while he touted the "Miracle Cure" which I shall note that he was given experimental treatment including the "cure" on compassionate grounds. All of this while the FLOTUS had to cancel an appearance last week over lingering effects.

Good night for real. Just needed an outlet to vent.

So I recently had a conversation with someone regarding people claiming disabilities and such to avoid wearing masks. I asked them following questions. 1. Have you ever known someone to obtain or display a Handicapped placard for parking privileges even though they aren't legit disabled? 2. Ever known someone to get fake "service animal" vests or credentials? 3. Know anybody that uses mobility scooters not for disability or pain but instead just laziness?
I guess it should be no surprise where the ideas of claiming disabilities or health issues to avoid the masks could have originated!

 

[Disney Analyst]

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Someone needs to explain to her that “Disney is a business” and that CM’s “need to put on their big boy pants.”

 

[DVCakaCarlF]

Someone needs to explain why she thinks she’s Native American

 

[tirian]

DCL down and DVC sales are down

True, but it still doesn’t excuse the pre-planned entertainment restructure to cut down on performers. This has been coming for a while. Chapek doesn’t think guests care. Covid accelerated the layoffs and provided a smokescreen.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Disneyland isn’t half the division. It doesn’t bankroll WDW at all.

It’s still likely 66%-33%

...shame on you for that rookie gaffe, Mono

 

[flynnibus]

Ask stupid questions and you won’t get honest returns Mrs Senator.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Ask stupid questions and you won’t get honest returns Mrs Senator.

They’re not stupid questions...they’re ones that were never gonna be answered with any legitimacy and your stupid to have asked them

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Someone needs to explain why she thinks she’s Native American

That was sarcasm, razor

Someone needs to explain to her that “Disney is a business” and that CM’s “need to put on their big boy pants.”

 

[MagicHappens1971]

While I agree with her sentiments, Disney doesn’t owe her any explanation.

 

[GymLeaderPhil]

Elizabeth Warren has a right to ask why a corporation as large as The Walt Disney Company did not spend their money in a fiscally responsible way. More leaders should be asking the same questions to other companies who value the price of the shares of their business versus the livelihood of their workforce who don’t have stock options/golden parachutes. People who no fault of their own now have to rely on state and federal run services to survive in a pandemic since the industry they work in has been decimated.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

Elizabeth Warren has a right to ask why a corporation as large as The Walt Disney Company did not spend their money in a fiscally responsible way. More leaders should be asking the same questions to other companies who value the price of the shares of their business versus the livelihood of their workforce who don’t have stock options/golden parachutes. People who no fault of their own now have to rely on state and federal run services to survive in a pandemic since the industry they work in has been decimated.

Our leaders should’ve handled the pandemic better and Disney probably wouldn’t be needing to lay off 28,000 cast members. While Disney’s choices were not in the best interests of its front line cast, as it almost never is, they did what they had to do as a business. There’s 100 ways to argue this, so for that reason, I digress.

 

[flynnibus]

Elizabeth Warren has a right to ask why a corporation as large as The Walt Disney Company did not spend their money in a fiscally responsible way.

No - she's asking why Disney didn't stockpile money like scrooge mcduck for the last 4 years so they could be ready to face a complete shutdown. She criticized their dividend (aka - returning profits to the owners) and stock by backs (building owner value) - not because of their fiscal soundness or investment worth - but because it wasn't just giving all the money to employees... who YEARS later, due to no fault of the company itself, had their roles put in grave danger due to a GLOBAL EVENT.

Yes - please Disney... please explain to the senator why you didn't foresee this and why on earth you'd give billions in profits to your OWNERS. WHY DISNEY? WHY?

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

No - she's asking why Disney didn't stockpile money like scrooge mcduck for the last 4 years so they could be ready to face a complete shutdown. She criticized their dividend (aka - returning profits to the owners) and stock by backs (building owner value) - not because of their fiscal soundness or investment worth - but because it wasn't just giving all the money to employees... who YEARS later, due to no fault of the company itself, had their roles put in grave danger due to a GLOBAL EVENT.

Yes - please Disney... please explain to the senator why you didn't foresee this and why on earth you'd give billions in profits to your OWNERS. WHY DISNEY? WHY?

that’s not at all what she said.

 

[flynnibus]

that’s not at all what she said.

No?

Let's quote the Senator directly from her letter...

In the years leading up to this crisis, your company prioritized the enrichment of executives and stockholders through hefty compensation packages , and billions of dollars’ worth of dividend payments and stock buyback, all of which weakened Disney’s financial cushion and ability to retain and pay its front-line workers amid the pandemic

The September 29th announcement describes reducing staff as a “very difficult decision,” resulting from the “the prolonged impact of COVID-19 on our business.” However, this explanation fails to acknowledge Disney’s short-sighted business decisions that reduced its capital, including (1) spending billions of dollars to repurchase its own shares over the last decade, (2) rewarding its shareholders through billions of dollars in dividend payments, and (3) showering its top company executives with over-the-top compensation packages and salaries — which reportedly were restored several weeks before the September layoff announcement. Disney has spent tens of billions of dollars on share buybacks in recent years, spending $47.9 billion repurchasing its own common stock from 2009-2018 – a practice that is known to turn excess company cash into higher stock prices for the benefit of shareholders."

In addition to stock buybacks, Disney has similarly rewarded its shareholders through dividend payments, further depleting its capital reserves in the time leading up to the pandemic. In FY 2018 and FY 2019, the last two fiscal years prior to the pandemic, Disney spent $5.4 billion in dividend payments – a practice that was publicly criticized in April of this year as the company cut the pay of 100,000 workers 26 before payments were finally suspended by its board of directors

No sir.. that's EXACTLY what she was trying to criticize and paint as somehow 'weakening' Disney's financial ability to weather this storm.

Never once acknowledging the reality of... layoffs happening because of NO WORK

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

No?

Let's quote the Senator directly from her letter...







No sir.. that's EXACTLY what she was trying to criticize and paint as somehow 'weakening' Disney's financial ability to weather this storm.

I disagree. We are reading things differently.
But that’s ok.

 

[flynnibus]

I disagree. We are reading things differently.
But that’s ok.

Then in your eyes, What was the purpose of highlighting those expenditures by the senator?

she directly attributes the moves to “weakening” the company’s fiscal position. And if the money wasn’t spent, what do you think she infers it should have been used for?

hint: the answer is there in black&white in the first quote block where she directly attributes this behavior to Disney’s need to make changes during the pandemic.

 

[GymLeaderPhil]

No - she's asking why Disney didn't stockpile money like scrooge mcduck for the last 4 years so they could be ready to face a complete shutdown. She criticized their dividend (aka - returning profits to the owners) and stock by backs (building owner value) - not because of their fiscal soundness or investment worth - but because it wasn't just giving all the money to employees... who YEARS later, due to no fault of the company itself, had their roles put in grave danger due to a GLOBAL EVENT.

Yes - please Disney... please explain to the senator why you didn't foresee this and why on earth you'd give billions in profits to your OWNERS. WHY DISNEY? WHY?

I apologize in advance if I didn’t post this in the right place on the forums here at WDWMAGIC, but I don’t think there’s a place intended for eating the rich threads yet.

TWDC has seen it’s share of problems since they’ve gone public: Death of Walt. Oil crisis. First downturn of the traditional animation studio. Take over attempts in the 80s. Frank Wells’ death. 9/11. Second downturn of the traditional animation studio. All of the SaveDisney stuff. 2008 housing and financial crisis. ESPN profitability issues. Shanghai. Scatter in some poor performing business ideas like regional Disney locations, bad acquisitions, and costly underwhelming parks that performed poorly.

Here’s TWDC stock history since January 1962:

Meanwhile, through a combination of US government inaction and policies made internally by those who hold onto the money at a given line of business, those in power have created a system where low and middle class workers wages are largely stagnant. Cost of living is still growing. Complete financial inequality versus the highest earners. There’s a ton of charts about this here.

Given the disadvantages these employees face, time and time again whenever Disney faces an economic downturn - regardless if it was an act of nature or the ineptitude of management - why are they the first to suffer? Why are they disposable?

God forbid TWDC would have to wait until cash is in hand to grow their business or acquire another network/studio/franchise/brand.

God forbid someone who has the means to invest money into the stock market have to take a hit when things at TWDC go south.

God forbid a TWDC executive, chief officer, president, or board member have to suffer for their inability to protect the low level plebes who work for them.

 

[tallica]

WOW.

Please pay attention.

We had to close everything up to limit the spread of the virus and reduce active infections so that hospitals didn't get to the point they did in Italy - with bodies being stacked in random rooms because the morgues were full and doctors being forced to limit treatment to those under a certain age. THOSE THINGS HAPPENED. If you think they can't happen again, then you live in a dream world. Cases are on the rise again all over America...if people don't suck it up and wear masks and follow the CDC recommendations, we run a risk of being in that very situation.

The economy is NOT going to just keep chugging along as if everything is okay during a pandemic regardless of what you think. Job losses can be recovered over time. Dead people cannot.

More lives have been destroyed by collateral damage due to lockdowns than from covid infections. For the record, I wear a mask, social distance, and lean to the left. To quote Spock " The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few". Covid has not had a statistically significant impact on the world's population. Not to say it hasn't had an emotional impact.