Disney part-timers organize
By Robert Johnson
September 23, 2002
Rank-and-file union members at Walt Disney World expanded by 20 percent -- to more than 30,000 workers -- earlier this month when part-timers voted to organize.
"Disney part-timers obviously want more money," said Ed Chambers, president of the United Food & Commercial Workers Local 1625. His group is one of six unions under the umbrella of the Service Trades Council, which already represented about 25,000 full-time Disney employees.
Since March, the council has been supporting the volunteer efforts of some part-time workers at Disney World -- including waiters, florists and performers -- to get at least half of their 6,000 colleagues to sign consent forms for union representation.
Chambers said 3,200 have already signed, empowering the Trades Council's various unions, including the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Locals 737 and 362, to negotiate part-timers' contracts for the first time this fall.
Disney World hasn't opposed the part-timer organizing movement, because Disney management agreed during the negotiations in the last full-time contract pact with the STC, a three-year deal signed in 2001, to take a neutral position in any future labor movements among part-timers.
"This means that the union now represents more than 5,000 casual regular cast members," Disney World spokeswoman Rena Callahan said.
Casual regular cast members are part-timers who are permanent, rather than temporary, and who typically work in the range of 16 to 24 hours a week.
Chambers said he expects negotiations for the part-timers to be relatively painless and quick.
"We expect to come out of this with a little more money for them, but we're not going to reinvent the wheel. Most part-timers haven't had a raise in over two years; we'd just like to get them up to where the full-time workers are," he said. Full-time Disney workers under union contracts get annual raises in October.
Dues for full-time Disney union workers are in the range of $5 to $6.75 per week. Chambers said part-timers' dues will be slightly lower. Part-timers at Disney typically make about $7 an hour.
By Robert Johnson
September 23, 2002
Rank-and-file union members at Walt Disney World expanded by 20 percent -- to more than 30,000 workers -- earlier this month when part-timers voted to organize.
"Disney part-timers obviously want more money," said Ed Chambers, president of the United Food & Commercial Workers Local 1625. His group is one of six unions under the umbrella of the Service Trades Council, which already represented about 25,000 full-time Disney employees.
Since March, the council has been supporting the volunteer efforts of some part-time workers at Disney World -- including waiters, florists and performers -- to get at least half of their 6,000 colleagues to sign consent forms for union representation.
Chambers said 3,200 have already signed, empowering the Trades Council's various unions, including the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Locals 737 and 362, to negotiate part-timers' contracts for the first time this fall.
Disney World hasn't opposed the part-timer organizing movement, because Disney management agreed during the negotiations in the last full-time contract pact with the STC, a three-year deal signed in 2001, to take a neutral position in any future labor movements among part-timers.
"This means that the union now represents more than 5,000 casual regular cast members," Disney World spokeswoman Rena Callahan said.
Casual regular cast members are part-timers who are permanent, rather than temporary, and who typically work in the range of 16 to 24 hours a week.
Chambers said he expects negotiations for the part-timers to be relatively painless and quick.
"We expect to come out of this with a little more money for them, but we're not going to reinvent the wheel. Most part-timers haven't had a raise in over two years; we'd just like to get them up to where the full-time workers are," he said. Full-time Disney workers under union contracts get annual raises in October.
Dues for full-time Disney union workers are in the range of $5 to $6.75 per week. Chambers said part-timers' dues will be slightly lower. Part-timers at Disney typically make about $7 an hour.