Disney part-timers win pay boost
Scott Powers
Sentinel Staff Writer
October 12, 2007
Part-time Walt Disney World employees have been granted the same pay scales as their full-time colleagues under a new labor contract that was recently negotiated.
The three-year contract between the Service Trades Council and Walt Disney World, ratified by the union and approved by the company several weeks ago, contains improved pay scales and new benefits for approximately 8,000 Disney part-timers, whose jobs range from driving buses and preparing food to operating theme-park attractions.
The new part-timers' pact took effect Sept. 30 and will run through Sept. 2, 2010.
The workers are all represented by the same six unions, coordinated by the Service Trades Council, that negotiated a three-year pact for more than 21,000 full-time Disney World workers this past spring. The part-timers' contract was endorsed by all six unions and approved by 96 percent of their voting members, Service Trades Council President Morty Miller said Thursday.
"One of the great victories was that part-timers will now receive the same rate of pay as full-timers, based on job classifications and years of service," Miller said. "Previously, there were separate pay scales."
As a result, many part-time workers got raises starting Sept. 30 -- some of as much as a couple of dollars an hour -- to match their full-time colleagues, Miller said.
Disney World spokeswoman Kim Prunty said the company, too, wanted to align the wage scales, which was one reason negotiations went so smoothly.
The contract will also, for the first time, provide part-timers with extra pay for working some holidays.
"Our goals were similar, and I think that at the end of the day we reached an agreement that meets the needs of our cast members and our company," Prunty said.
The unions involved include two Unite Here locals; the Teamsters; the Transportation Communications International Union; the United Food and Commercial Workers; and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts.
Other Disney jobs covered by both pacts include monorail and watercraft operators, lifeguards, vacation planners, hotel housekeepers, parking-lot attendants, food and beverage servers, stagehands and costumed Disney-character actors.
The Service Trades Council full-timers' contract was ratified last spring, after extended and sometimes contentious negotiations. Prunty said the hard work that went into those talks laid a nice foundation for the part-timers' discussions -- another reason, she said, that they went smoothly.
Scott Powers
Sentinel Staff Writer
October 12, 2007
Part-time Walt Disney World employees have been granted the same pay scales as their full-time colleagues under a new labor contract that was recently negotiated.
The three-year contract between the Service Trades Council and Walt Disney World, ratified by the union and approved by the company several weeks ago, contains improved pay scales and new benefits for approximately 8,000 Disney part-timers, whose jobs range from driving buses and preparing food to operating theme-park attractions.
The new part-timers' pact took effect Sept. 30 and will run through Sept. 2, 2010.
The workers are all represented by the same six unions, coordinated by the Service Trades Council, that negotiated a three-year pact for more than 21,000 full-time Disney World workers this past spring. The part-timers' contract was endorsed by all six unions and approved by 96 percent of their voting members, Service Trades Council President Morty Miller said Thursday.
"One of the great victories was that part-timers will now receive the same rate of pay as full-timers, based on job classifications and years of service," Miller said. "Previously, there were separate pay scales."
As a result, many part-time workers got raises starting Sept. 30 -- some of as much as a couple of dollars an hour -- to match their full-time colleagues, Miller said.
Disney World spokeswoman Kim Prunty said the company, too, wanted to align the wage scales, which was one reason negotiations went so smoothly.
The contract will also, for the first time, provide part-timers with extra pay for working some holidays.
"Our goals were similar, and I think that at the end of the day we reached an agreement that meets the needs of our cast members and our company," Prunty said.
The unions involved include two Unite Here locals; the Teamsters; the Transportation Communications International Union; the United Food and Commercial Workers; and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts.
Other Disney jobs covered by both pacts include monorail and watercraft operators, lifeguards, vacation planners, hotel housekeepers, parking-lot attendants, food and beverage servers, stagehands and costumed Disney-character actors.
The Service Trades Council full-timers' contract was ratified last spring, after extended and sometimes contentious negotiations. Prunty said the hard work that went into those talks laid a nice foundation for the part-timers' discussions -- another reason, she said, that they went smoothly.
