Hong Kong - They call it 'The Happiest Place On Earth,' but in a quiet backstage corner, out of sight from the thousands of visitors milling around Hong Kong Disneyland, Minnie Mouse is in floods of tears.
The young woman in the Minnie Mouse outfit - one of 120 employees hired to wear character costumes, greet guests and take part in daily parades - had just emerged from an encounter with a male visitor that was far too intimate, colleagues said.
'This man groped her chest,' said one fellow costumed character. 'She was very upset, and she cried and cried when she went back to her rest station.'
'This kind of thing happens a lot,' the worker said. 'People grab your private parts for a joke, or if you are one of the bigger male characters like Tigger or Pooh, they will punch you in the head or the body or pull your tail. It can be very painful.
'With small children we can accept it, but sometimes it is adults that do these things. ... We need more respect from guests, and we need more support and protection from the management.'
Unpleasant incidents like the one that reduced a Minnie Mouse to tears are rare, but for at least some of the 120 costumed employees, anxiety over the incidents and the perceived lack of management support is symptomatic of a wider malaise among this small but highly visible sector of the 5,000-strong Hong Kong Disney workforce.
To protect its costumed characters, Disney sends a 'greeter' with each Mickey, Minnie, Pluto and Goofy when he or she meet the crowds and has instituted an intricate system of hand signals and arm-squeezing to allow the costumed employees to signal distress.
But there are other complaints at issue. Seven months after the opening of the first Disney park on Chinese soil, some employees are becoming increasingly agitated about their pay and working conditions to the extent that holding a protest is being discussed unless conditions improve.
The action would see characters in costume holding up banners to protest their pay and working conditions in front of thousands of guests during one of the daily parades in the park.
According to the Disneyland Cast Members Union, 90 of the 120 have put their names to a petition calling for a pay raise to put them on a par with show performers. The letter complains of 'unfairness and injustice' and said they have been made to feel 'secondary and valueless.'
The employees beneath the costumers complain that their starting salaries of 9,000 Hong Kong dollars a month (1,160 US dollars) are 20-per-cent lower than show performers, that they do not get as much time off as they had expected and that their costumes, and the Lycra bodysuits they must wear underneath them, are stifling.
'If you want to know what it's like, try putting a plastic supermarket bag on your head, leave it open at the bottom, then go outside in the sun for about 30 minutes,' said one of the petition's signatories.
'It is like being in a sauna,' the worker said
Another signatory described landing a job with Disney last year as a 'dream come true.'
'I loved the Disney characters from when I was a child, but my feelings for Disney have changed so much in the past year,' he said. 'It is a very low atmosphere. The characters are smiling on the outside, but inside, they are unhappy and very tired and very down.'
Elaine Hui, the union's organizing secretary, said Disney had failed to address major issues among its employees.
'When we talk to them about individual cases, they may take it seriously,' she said, 'but when you talk about policy issues, like working conditions and costumes, there are no concrete solutions. They just make vague promises.'
Disney executive, who said only 20 people attended a union meeting last week, said they have not yet seen the petition, which Hui said will be presented to managing director Bill Ernest in May.
Greg Morley, director of human resources services, said: 'For them to not be open with us about something that potentially represents our cast members, I think, is disingenuous. There is no arguing that the management team has spent a significant amount of time with the cast, and that the cast are helping to make a great environment. The union has said that is what they want, too. I am not so sure.
'To say we haven't acted on issues they have brought forward to us is just not honest. It is not what has happened.'
Disney executives produced five costume employees who refused to sign the petition. One of them said: 'I was asked by my peers to sign it. I was told to sign if I wanted a pay rise.'
Executives pointed out that trouble appears to have started after pay raises ranging from 2 to 5 per cent were awarded to most staff and said the cast members raising complaints might be among those who were disappointed with what they were given.
Asked about the 75 per cent who are said to have signed the petition, Morley replied: 'I could probably go into the most happy working environment in the world and get the vast majority of people there to say, 'Yes. I'd like a pay increase.''
Ninety per cent of the people who worked at Disneyland at its grand opening in September are still with the company, Morley added. The retention level in the entertainment division, which includes the 120 character performer was 94 per cent - amounting to what he termed a 'stunningly low fall-out rate.'
Disney executives acknowledged that the Magic Kingdom has lost its sparkle for some Hong Kong staff and that Walt Disney's vision of a theme park that is 'The Happiest Place On Earth' may not be a reality for everyone.
There is no trace of irony in Morley's voice, however, as he insists: 'For most of us, it is.'
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/...isney_workers_protest_Mickey_Mouse_conditions
The young woman in the Minnie Mouse outfit - one of 120 employees hired to wear character costumes, greet guests and take part in daily parades - had just emerged from an encounter with a male visitor that was far too intimate, colleagues said.
'This man groped her chest,' said one fellow costumed character. 'She was very upset, and she cried and cried when she went back to her rest station.'
'This kind of thing happens a lot,' the worker said. 'People grab your private parts for a joke, or if you are one of the bigger male characters like Tigger or Pooh, they will punch you in the head or the body or pull your tail. It can be very painful.
'With small children we can accept it, but sometimes it is adults that do these things. ... We need more respect from guests, and we need more support and protection from the management.'
Unpleasant incidents like the one that reduced a Minnie Mouse to tears are rare, but for at least some of the 120 costumed employees, anxiety over the incidents and the perceived lack of management support is symptomatic of a wider malaise among this small but highly visible sector of the 5,000-strong Hong Kong Disney workforce.
To protect its costumed characters, Disney sends a 'greeter' with each Mickey, Minnie, Pluto and Goofy when he or she meet the crowds and has instituted an intricate system of hand signals and arm-squeezing to allow the costumed employees to signal distress.
But there are other complaints at issue. Seven months after the opening of the first Disney park on Chinese soil, some employees are becoming increasingly agitated about their pay and working conditions to the extent that holding a protest is being discussed unless conditions improve.
The action would see characters in costume holding up banners to protest their pay and working conditions in front of thousands of guests during one of the daily parades in the park.
According to the Disneyland Cast Members Union, 90 of the 120 have put their names to a petition calling for a pay raise to put them on a par with show performers. The letter complains of 'unfairness and injustice' and said they have been made to feel 'secondary and valueless.'
The employees beneath the costumers complain that their starting salaries of 9,000 Hong Kong dollars a month (1,160 US dollars) are 20-per-cent lower than show performers, that they do not get as much time off as they had expected and that their costumes, and the Lycra bodysuits they must wear underneath them, are stifling.
'If you want to know what it's like, try putting a plastic supermarket bag on your head, leave it open at the bottom, then go outside in the sun for about 30 minutes,' said one of the petition's signatories.
'It is like being in a sauna,' the worker said
Another signatory described landing a job with Disney last year as a 'dream come true.'
'I loved the Disney characters from when I was a child, but my feelings for Disney have changed so much in the past year,' he said. 'It is a very low atmosphere. The characters are smiling on the outside, but inside, they are unhappy and very tired and very down.'
Elaine Hui, the union's organizing secretary, said Disney had failed to address major issues among its employees.
'When we talk to them about individual cases, they may take it seriously,' she said, 'but when you talk about policy issues, like working conditions and costumes, there are no concrete solutions. They just make vague promises.'
Disney executive, who said only 20 people attended a union meeting last week, said they have not yet seen the petition, which Hui said will be presented to managing director Bill Ernest in May.
Greg Morley, director of human resources services, said: 'For them to not be open with us about something that potentially represents our cast members, I think, is disingenuous. There is no arguing that the management team has spent a significant amount of time with the cast, and that the cast are helping to make a great environment. The union has said that is what they want, too. I am not so sure.
'To say we haven't acted on issues they have brought forward to us is just not honest. It is not what has happened.'
Disney executives produced five costume employees who refused to sign the petition. One of them said: 'I was asked by my peers to sign it. I was told to sign if I wanted a pay rise.'
Executives pointed out that trouble appears to have started after pay raises ranging from 2 to 5 per cent were awarded to most staff and said the cast members raising complaints might be among those who were disappointed with what they were given.
Asked about the 75 per cent who are said to have signed the petition, Morley replied: 'I could probably go into the most happy working environment in the world and get the vast majority of people there to say, 'Yes. I'd like a pay increase.''
Ninety per cent of the people who worked at Disneyland at its grand opening in September are still with the company, Morley added. The retention level in the entertainment division, which includes the 120 character performer was 94 per cent - amounting to what he termed a 'stunningly low fall-out rate.'
Disney executives acknowledged that the Magic Kingdom has lost its sparkle for some Hong Kong staff and that Walt Disney's vision of a theme park that is 'The Happiest Place On Earth' may not be a reality for everyone.
There is no trace of irony in Morley's voice, however, as he insists: 'For most of us, it is.'
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/...isney_workers_protest_Mickey_Mouse_conditions