Disney employees vote against unionization

[amejr999]

I just sent an email to Guest Communications- I'm rooting for all of the great CMs in the DRC!

 

[lawyergirl77]

JP, gotta tell you, that incentive system is, well, a big heaping steaming pile of B.S.! I have noticed over the past few months when I have called CRO that things have changed... People aren't as willing to chat anymore, and now I know why. Can't say as I blame them...

What is really weird is that you don't get any credit for when a person modifies their reservation for the better (i.e. as I did - upgrade from a parking lot view room to a standard view room at AKL).

And I can't believe that TWDC isn't giving you any incentives based on your customer service evaluations. That just seems to fly in the face of every other employment practice that they have, no matter how sketchy it is!!!!!

What is FLA law like with respect to unions? Can you hold another certification vote any time soon?

 

[mkt]

http://www.flsenate.gov/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=Ch0447/ch0447.htm

 

[Enderikari]

What is FLA law like with respect to unions? Can you hold another certification vote any time soon?

Won't happen. What they are not telling you is that the union vote got shot down by a large margin. The plain and simple fact is the union isn't wanted by the voice of O & T. The friend I have in Guest Relations was quite adamant about the detrimental effect that the union would have on that department.
Also, keep in mind that this was a re-vote that was called for based on a technicality the union was trying to exploit (to no effect). And yes, Disney did post various items describing the union's effectiveness and effect on the cast members and their pay, however, the union's sent letters to the cast members at home, completely ineffective letters that ignored all the basic issues and could only be classified as whining.
And as the union applies to the call center, well, that sounds internal. They have their problems beyond any sort of employment. Complaints about wrong information given by the call center is way, way up, especially concerning Magic Your Way tickets.
Would the unions help O & T? That's up for the people who work for O & T to decide. They did. End of Story. Re-vote, my guess, given the general feeling of the people I know in O & T, the same thing would happen again.

P.S.

Most O&T positions require previous skills... or work in WDW Guest Relations, judging by how some of the people there do their job.

Wow... you of all people should know better...

 

[mkt]

Wow... you of all people should know better...

Jeff,

Just because you do your job well doesn't mean everyone in your department does. Second, had you not edited the quote you selected from my original post, you would know I wasnt referring to Guest Relations only... there are people who are half assed in CRO as well.

Then again, there are people who do their job poorly in all of WDW... hell, in all of the world.

But unlike some people, I choose not to put up with it, cause at the end of the day, I am the paying guest, I am the one that is paying to be served, not paying to put up with crap from an incompetent CM.

However Jeff, you are exempted from the list of half-assed CM's, because, you do your job well.

 

[speck76]

I DO believe in accountability, that is not the point. Having our job based on the RANDOM calls we recieve, and taking the time to give great guest service hurting us, is the point.

Make us accountable for ensuring accuracy. (as long as we get a deposit, no one checks to see if the reservation is correct, UNTIL a guest complaints, then the agent who fixes the mistakes makes no revenue on the call, the original agent may be talked to but will still get the revenue.)

Make us accountable to ensure we are friendly. (we can fail ALL of our call monitoring and cannot be fired if we make revenue.)

Make us accountable for revenue on all pricing or shopping calls but not info calls. (if you want to know what time the parks are open, when are EMH, park ticket information, etc. we need to rush you off the phone or tell you to go to the website, as you are hurting our revenue per hour.)

Make us accountable for revenue on all reservation calls. (if you are calling back to modify your reservation, or to correct mistakes, you are hurting our revenue per hour. Even if you purchase more, NOBODY gets credit for the additional revenue, only if you make a brand new booking and did not have anything previously booked.)

Make us accountable for helping all the guest who call, even if they call on the wrong phone number. (if you call to book Dinning on 407-W-DISNEY, we are not allowed to transfer you to WDW-DINE, but the time we help you counts against our revenue per hour.)

Make us accountable for the time we are serving guest. (if there is no calls comming in, it is counting against our revenue per hour.)

Again, sorry for the rant, but the Union vote seemed like it was our last hope. Now I personally know of about 10 really great cast member who will be "walked out" on Monday, now that the union has lost. I have been making revenue, so far, but how long will my luck hold out?

again....I feel an actual vs optimal quota system would probably be the best format, but I must say this:

You are a reservations agent.....your job is to make reservations. Other people are employed to answer questions not related to reservations, and if you are taking info calls, you are not making reservations, and not making money for the company.

A system should be put in place to correct route callers to the needed area, be in WDW-INFO, WDW-DINE, or whatever......

I realize that you have a issue with the quota system, but without such a system, many would take advantage and not focus on the task they are being paid for.

The reservation agents that we have are held accountable for a closure percentage number......of the call volume handled, a certain amount of callers must be booked. I feel it is a fair system, as when call volume is down, they are not held to the same revenue figure as when call volume is high......they are simply held to closing the same percentage of calls.

As for the union's promises....unions typically promise the moon and the stars, but rarely deliver.......and unfortunately, unions are not held to the same rules as employers are when a union drive is in effect. Unions can not keep job security.....I would assume people are not being terminated for "no reason" right now.....anyone terminated must have done something incorrect.....and if they do something incorrect, a union can not make the company give them their job back.

 

[JPVonDrake]

again....I feel an actual vs optimal quota system would probably be the best format, but I must say this:

You are a reservations agent.....your job is to make reservations. Other people are employed to answer questions not related to reservations, and if you are taking info calls, you are not making reservations, and not making money for the company.

A system should be put in place to correct route callers to the needed area, be in WDW-INFO, WDW-DINE, or whatever......

I realize that you have a issue with the quota system, but without such a system, many would take advantage and not focus on the task they are being paid for.

The reservation agents that we have are held accountable for a closure percentage number......of the call volume handled, a certain amount of callers must be booked. I feel it is a fair system, as when call volume is down, they are not held to the same revenue figure as when call volume is high......they are simply held to closing the same percentage of calls.

As for the union's promises....unions typically promise the moon and the stars, but rarely deliver.......and unfortunately, unions are not held to the same rules as employers are when a union drive is in effect. Unions can not keep job security.....I would assume people are not being terminated for "no reason" right now.....anyone terminated must have done something incorrect.....and if they do something incorrect, a union can not make the company give them their job back.

I do agree with most everything you said. And I do agree we should be accountable for what we do. It is a sales environment.

There is a system in place to route calls, but many guest prefer not to follow it. They simply (and I full understand why) just want to talk to a person, not follow a press 1, press 3, press 2; type of system. If a guest calls to make a dining advance reservation, and calls 407-W-DISNEY, instead of 407-WDW-DINE, we should not (and cannot) transfer the call. I agree the guest should not be made to hold yet again, just for not understanding the call route system currently in place. All of our guest are calling long distance and want to get on and off the phone as quickly as possible. And I personally want our guest to be able to spend their money on a magical vacation, not on long distance charges. But by doing this simple guest service, it is preventing us from receiving a reservation sales call, thus hurting our ability to achieve our revenue goal.

The revenue goals themselves are not unreasonable. The way the system is administered is. Seeing fellow agents make 150% one month, then 60% the following, because they randomly received a higher number of modification calls, dine calls, or general information calls that month is what is unfair. Too much of our revenue goal is based on “luck of the call” not job performance. These agents are getting 100% on call monitoring scores, are getting guest compliments, are on time and don't call in sick, are making goal most of the time, but miss it 3 times, goodbye (this truly is the sole reason they are being terminated.) Why should good agents be fired for good performance and bad luck?

I also see more and more agents abuse the system by rushing the guest to book a new reservation, ignoring courtesy holds made by other agents to steal the revenue, and not following procedures, that lead to guest dissatisfactions when they arrive. There currently is not a working check and balance system to stop this, so poor performance agents are exceeding their goals, and the good performance agents that are fixing the mistakes are failing the goal because of unnecessary modification calls.

The only reason I voted for the union is to stop the unfair firing until this system is re-examined. A union would be able to do that with an injunction.

My job is to make reservations, AND to give great guest service. The current system rewards those who make the money, regardless of their guest service skills, and punishes those that give simple guest service to every call we receive.

From your description, the system that your company uses does sound fair. That is all I want from my company.

 

[tracyandalex]

being a person who has worked on commission i can tell you that it is no fun. i worked at a clothing store and sure i nmade a butt load of money during christams, but that was about it. during slow times of the year i made minimum wage. it is sad that many compaines make making money more important than customer service - it certainly was in my store!!! good luck to all of you in a similar situation, i know how it goes - we lost many good employees (myself included).
tracy

 

[jcat2312]

I have read over the past postings very carefully. I work for a very large call center where the employees are all part of a union. Management is not. The union has its disadvantages at times (especially for management). Having the union in place works out well for all of the employees. If an employee is being punished, they can have a union representative present to make sure they are following the Union guidelines.

The union gives the employees peace of mind when it comes to possibly getting disciplined. I know of many cases when an empoyee was to be fired, but they only got a 3 day suspension because of the union backing them up.


Unless an employee does something to warrent an immediate termination (i.e. lying to customers, or falsifying sales), it is very hard to fire some with the union in place.

I, for one, belive the union should be in place in Disney. I feel that the employees of Disney are not getting enough pay (the union would help to raise this) and need fair practices when it comes to determining how "successful" a CRO agent is. It goes a lot deeper than how many "new" sales an agent is making.

I know I sound biased because I work for a company that has the union in place. I am a member of Upper Managemnt, and am not a union member. I just feel it would be better for the CRO's and other employees at Disney if they had union representation

 

[lawyergirl77]

While I certainly don't think that a union would have been a panacea for all of the problems that JP has identified with the quota system, he's right when he says that they may have been better placed to take legal action to stop what seems like a crappy system... I often think that unions are obsolete in much of the modern workforce, especially when it comes to white-collar jobs, but I have a different view when it comes to workers at TWDC. Because of the crazy power that the Company has within the state and the extreme power imbalance between it and its employees, I think that a union could do some good in most areas of TWDC. (And just so you all know, I actually work for a management-side law firm, so I'm pretty shocked at my stance on this!)

However, I still think that the root of the problem is the actual system that has been put in place. While performance incentives are absolutely crucial in a sales environment, it is absolutely ludicrous to have such a strict quota enforced when: a) calls are inbound and so CRO employees have absolutely no control over what they get during a shift, and b) there is an implicit requirement to uphold Disney's stringent customer service reputation, but this is not being enforced when it comes to a performance review.

Bottom line is that it makes no sense to me. And if it leads to more calls like the one I just had when I put down my deposit a few days ago (the CM was annoyed with me the whole time, resisted any attempt to have a conversation with me while we were waiting for my credit card to be approved and was clearly irritated when I told her that I had to make modifications to a second reservation), then I think that TWDC has a big problem brewing...

And if a union would have woken them up and taken concrete steps to avoid the further erosion of much of the goodwill that TWDC has built up over the years, then it's unfortunate that the employees rejected so soundly. Now management is going to see that vote as a mandate to continue to implement these kinds of programs, which is going to make me less likely to book through CRO myself, but rather to go through an agent so that I don't have to deal with a surly agent trying to make their quotas.

 

[speck76]

From your description, the system that your company uses does sound fair. That is all I want from my company.

Bring it up as an option....

My company did not become the largest and most successful hotel company by accident......we work hard to keep out associates happy and performing....

As our founder said "If you take care of your associates, they will take care of our guests"

 

[VacationMan]

I DO believe in accountability, that is not the point. Having our job based on the RANDOM calls we recieve, and taking the time to give great guest service hurting us, is the point.

Make us accountable for ensuring accuracy. (as long as we get a deposit, no one checks to see if the reservation is correct, UNTIL a guest complaints, then the agent who fixes the mistakes makes no revenue on the call, the original agent may be talked to but will still get the revenue.)

Make us accountable to ensure we are friendly. (we can fail ALL of our call monitoring and cannot be fired if we make revenue.)

Make us accountable for revenue on all pricing or shopping calls but not info calls. (if you want to know what time the parks are open, when are EMH, park ticket information, etc. we need to rush you off the phone or tell you to go to the website, as you are hurting our revenue per hour.)

Make us accountable for revenue on all reservation calls. (if you are calling back to modify your reservation, or to correct mistakes, you are hurting our revenue per hour. Even if you purchase more, NOBODY gets credit for the additional revenue, only if you make a brand new booking and did not have anything previously booked.)

Make us accountable for helping all the guest who call, even if they call on the wrong phone number. (if you call to book Dinning on 407-W-DISNEY, we are not allowed to transfer you to WDW-DINE, but the time we help you counts against our revenue per hour.)

Make us accountable for the time we are serving guest. (if there is no calls comming in, it is counting against our revenue per hour.)

Again, sorry for the rant, but the Union vote seemed like it was our last hope. Now I personally know of about 10 really great cast member who will be "walked out" on Monday, now that the union has lost. I have been making revenue, so far, but how long will my luck hold out?

You are so right on Taget! This is simply an extention of the "Accountifying <SP?> of Disney" that has Cheapend the Disney brand over many years.

Disney Management MUST eventually realize that reservations is not SALES, it is a service, and that SALES of PROPERITES is based upon the merit of the PROPERTIES AND LOCATIONS.

Disney managment obviously thinks that reservations need the "Time-share" approach - hard sell, up sell, etc., which , will over time SEND people away from Disney Reservations. While I think the union route might affect the quality of service in a similar negative fashion (someone working there that shouldn't, being sheltered by union rules), it will take time to snap back to the proper Disneys principals in handling guests. It's a shame thay many good employee's, that care about the brand & company, will be gone.

 

[johnvree]

This is actually a second vote ordered by the courts because Disney meddled in the first one when it took place. This time Disney atleast pretended to "play fair" but still posted anti-union propaganda everywhere at the job sites and even gave "unions are bad" lectures to new hires.

And yes, Reservations are "incentive" based workers - which is a nice way of saying commision. The better they do, the harder their goals get, and once you fail, you're out. Extremely high turn-over. Lately the goals are reaching the point where the hard-sell is inevitable.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that the union was not saying good things about management during its campaign too.

The incentive program is disappointing. I have never felt like I was getting a hard sell when I called to make reservation. However, when I have had to change my reservation, I have almost always noticed a difference in the service and often the reservation has gotten screwed up.

 

[johnvree]

Because they were willing to represent us. All we needed was professional negotiators. We, the cast would create our list of changes we wanted and they would negotiate for what they could get. Feel free to go to www.betterdisney.com the union's website, to see what they said they could do for us.

I don't work for Disney, so I am not trying to change anyone's mind, BUT . . . be careful about buying into a union's promises of what they can do for you. A union is a business and representation is their product. Your union dues are their revenue. Often, unions make tons of promises during their campaign, many of which they know that they have no chance at delivering.

Remember, once a union is elected, they only obligation on the company is to 'bargain' with the union. The company is not required to concede to any proposal. A union cannot force the company to do away with the incentive program. They can propose its elimination, but the company is free to reject the proposal during negotiations.

Sorry for the rant and for probably what appears to be anti-union propaganda. I am not anti-union. Unions still serve a role in some industries, maybe even this one. But I have seen plenty of instances where a union comes in and the employees are worse off than before.

 

[mkt]

Unions have no purpose in right-to-work states

 

[tecowdw]

Wow. This whole incentive program sounds very "unmagical" to me for it's employees. These will become revolving door kind of jobs and CRO will find it harder and harder to get people hired with any sense of caring about their job. If I had a dime for every fast food or store employee that didn't care, I could meet the CRO quota! Before you know it, due to the low quaility of staff they are able to maintain, they will look at outsourcing it overseas like many other call centers.

It'a a true shame since so many people want to give their best to work for such magical place. The almighty quest for the dollar too often out weighs management decisions in Corporate America.
:goodnevil
Quite frankly, this makes the theme park janitorial jobs looks alot more appealing as a way to start a Disney career.

 

[tecowdw]

A little OT

Here's a question for those of you that are or have been CRO agents:
Are the work schedules for CRO agents as eratic as in the theme parks? Or do they maintain any type of regularity from week to week?

 

[shoppingnut]

I have noticed the decline of CRO over the years. It used to be that the person answering the phone was very knowledgeable about WDW in general, now for the most part that is not the case and mistakes in the reservation have steadily increased. Most agents don't have a clue and don't care, so I've stopped booking through CRO and now use a travel agent. In addition, there have been several times that I had called for rate information and got someone on the line that had such a heavy accent, I couldn't understand them, so I would end the call and call back to get someone else.

 

[mousermerf]

Here's a question for those of you that are or have been CRO agents:
Are the work schedules for CRO agents as eratic as in the theme parks? Or do they maintain any type of regularity from week to week?

Set schedules but with a nastey caveat - their peak time is the park's downtime (think about how far out you/others plan), and overtime is mandatory during these periods, sometimes near 60 hours.

 

[lawyergirl77]

Set schedules but with a nastey caveat - their peak time is the park's downtime (think about how far out you/others plan), and overtime is mandatory during these periods, sometimes near 60 hours.

Whaaat? Mandatory overtime? Isn't there any labour legislation in FLA???

(sorry... brain temporarily left its casing... I forgot that it was run by a member of the Bush dynasty... right to work... yadda yadda... *sigh*)