News Disney World Cast Member unions to begin week of negotiations for wage increases, healthcare costs and more

[flynnibus]

Curse those employees who think they are owed a job! Don’t they know it’s employers who are owed their labor?

Pfft.. No owes you a job, and employers aren't owed labor. Congrats on your strawman.. I hope you put a lot of effort into it.

Please bear in mind that we are talking about Disney in this thread. We are not talking about a small business on razor thin margins that hires high school kids to part-time jobs and gives them personalized apprenticeship experiences and instruction. We all know how much the prices for everything at the Disney parks have skyrocketed while employee wages have remained largely stagnant. Pretending there’s no money to pay employees and that, oh my, we could never raise prices to increase wages - it’s the height of disingenuousness.

Then maybe people should make arguments specific to Disney and not universal wage arguments about how every employee is owed a standard of living.

 

[Lilofan]

I did this as well, I tutored ochem, gen chem, gen bio, gen physics, and calculus. I didn’t take another on campus jobs, because there was a big need for tutoring.

Either way, this honestly has no bearing on what I think should happen to CMs. I was originally just responding to someone who was dismissive of hard work.

My impression is this. Disney needs employees and a lot of them. They’re having trouble finding new employees, the park experience is hurting as a result. In order to meet these needs, they have to incentivize employment to the point where people take and keep the jobs. My guess is that they have to raise wages to do this. The market is making the determination in real time and we can all see it. It’s not really employee entitlement. I would say that the CMs deserve it in the current market.

Now the cultural shift to expecting more… I’m going to stay out of that.

Disney loosened the grooming guidelines in allowing cast and incoming cast to openly show their tattoos , allowed males to grow mustaches and beards, allowed cast to wear open jewelry - perhaps to satisfy cast and attract new ones?

 

[lightningtap347]

who was dismissive of hard work.

Not dismissive of hard work - Dismissive of "hard workers" who are using their tangential experience to put others down and perpetuate a predatory system that impedes on generations of folk.
I've worked very hard in my life and young career and don't plan on pulling the ladder up on future generations who deserve equal or greater standards than we have attained, and it's trying reading points that lead to that conclusion here.

 

[lazyboy97o]

It's amazing how this keeps getting framed as an employee problem when Walt Disney World is still under staffed. That's the problem and that it keeps getting twisted that employees who are not treated that great and have to put up with a lot of extras not found at jobs with similar tasks, is just bizarre. It is Disney's responsibility to attract and retain employees.

 

[Drdcm]

Not dismissive of hard work - Dismissive of "hard workers" who are using their tangential experience to put others down and perpetuate a predatory system that impedes on generations of folk.
I've worked very hard in my life and young career and don't plan on pulling the ladder up on future generations who deserve equal or greater standards than we have attained, and it's trying reading points that lead to that conclusion here.

Sorry I got you. I’ll edit my post, didn’t mean to throw you under the bus.

 

[MrPromey]

Amazed at some people's lack of awareness in this thread.

WDW shouldn't be run with majority Frontline employees that make minimum or close to minimum wage. It's a luxury resort that is demanding a luxury price. I think Disney can do better.

I'm starting to picture a lot of the people in this discussion as characters from The White Lotus.

 

[lightningtap347]

Sorry I got you. I’ll edit my post, didn’t mean to throw you under the bus.

You're fine; I'm a poor writer who can't succinctly articulate my points (even more so when I'm trying to have three conversations at once!).

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

I'm starting to picture a lot of the people in this discussion as characters from The White Lotus.

I call dibs on Jennifer Coolidge.

 

[flynnibus]

No one pays "sticker price" for college except for the extremely wealthy. Yeah you need scholarship, but everyone gets scholarship, and the poor and working class get the most scholarships. And the elite schools (i.e. the most expensive schools) are the most generous with their financial aid.

I'm sure your tune will change in 10+ years when you start looking at it yourself.

Everyone pays sticker price - the amount of students on scholorship is very low, with most only getting a few grand a year here and there. When tuition was 4k a semester that meant something. Now it's just a sales discount, not an enabler. Don't conflate the discussion with schools with huge endowments. You're talking a tiny fraction of a percent of students and not the center of mass.

The financial aid system doesn't care about your expenses, it only cares about your income, assets, and how many kids you have in school at a time. Are you already paying 50k in loans off? Doesn't matter! The system is completely blind to your actual disposable income and actually punishes you for saving for your future. "hey, I see you got that nice 401k you've been saving, and that 6month emergency cash reserve so you don't collapse if you lose your job... Guess that means you don't actually need any financial aid"

No one is paying their way from scratch. You're either the top percentage that get meaningful scholarships, you have someone paying for you, you're taking massive debt, or you're staying at home and trying to take a handful of classes at CC or the local school.

My father had no assistance and was married with kid and worked his way through school working at a grocery store. It's a nice story, but nothing like my school experience (tho I did work at grocery stores too!), and nothing like my three kids school experience. But I'm also dealing with colleges in the last 6+ years.. so it's not like my experiences are limited to the 1970s and 90s.

 

[Lilofan]

I'm sure your tune will change in 10+ years when you start looking at it yourself.

Everyone pays sticker price - the amount of students on scholorship is very low, with most only getting a few grand a year here and there. When tuition was 4k a semester that meant something. Now it's just a sales discount, not an enabler. Don't conflate the discussion with schools with huge endowments. You're talking a tiny fraction of a percent of students and not the center of mass.

The financial aid system doesn't care about your expenses, it only cares about your income, assets, and how many kids you have in school at a time. Are you already paying 50k in loans off? Doesn't matter! The system is completely blind to your actual disposable income and actually punishes you for saving for your future. "hey, I see you got that nice 401k you've been saving, and that 6month emergency cash reserve so you don't collapse if you lose your job... Guess that means you don't actually need any financial aid"

No one is paying their way from scratch. You're either the top percentage that get meaningful scholarships, you have someone paying for you, you're taking massive debt, or you're staying at home and trying to take a handful of classes at CC or the local school.

My father had no assistance and was married with kid and worked his way through school working at a grocery store. It's a nice story, but nothing like my school experience (tho I did work at grocery stores too!), and nothing like my three kids school experience. But I'm also dealing with colleges in the last 6+ years.. so it's not like my experiences are limited to the 1970s and 90s.

Financial aid helped a kid a few years ago from inner city Miami. Coming from a single parent household working in the tourism industry she applied for financial aid when applying to Harvard and for 4 years Harvard covered her entire tuition room and board.

 

[Smiley/OCD]

Don't get the 1000 upload and download speed. Don't get the latest iphone. Don't get all the streaming services. Don't spend a bunch of money on the latest Disney merch. Eat out less.

If a single person living in Florida making $35,000 a year is unable to manage their expenses without breaking the bank, I look to that person to fix it...rather than the company who pays them $35,000.

And stop buying $6.00 lattes twice a day at Starbucks…our parents survived on a Mr. Coffee maker at home just fine.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I'm sure your tune will change in 10+ years when you start looking at it yourself.

Everyone pays sticker price - the amount of students on scholorship is very low, with most only getting a few grand a year here and there. When tuition was 4k a semester that meant something. Now it's just a sales discount, not an enabler. Don't conflate the discussion with schools with huge endowments. You're talking a tiny fraction of a percent of students and not the center of mass.

The financial aid system doesn't care about your expenses, it only cares about your income, assets, and how many kids you have in school at a time. Are you already paying 50k in loans off? Doesn't matter! The system is completely blind to your actual disposable income and actually punishes you for saving for your future. "hey, I see you got that nice 401k you've been saving, and that 6month emergency cash reserve so you don't collapse if you lose your job... Guess that means you don't actually need any financial aid"

No one is paying their way from scratch. You're either the top percentage that get meaningful scholarships, you have someone paying for you, you're taking massive debt, or you're staying at home and trying to take a handful of classes at CC or the local school.

My father had no assistance and was married with kid and worked his way through school working at a grocery store. It's a nice story, but nothing like my school experience (tho I did work at grocery stores too!), and nothing like my three kids school experience. But I'm also dealing with colleges in the last 6+ years.. so it's not like my experiences are limited to the 1970s and 90s.

There's just a lot of factual inaccuracy in here but I'm bored of debating it so I'll leave it be.

FAFSA does not consider retirement savings whatsoever, for example.

 

[Comped]

Disney loosened the grooming guidelines in allowing cast and incoming cast to openly show their tattoos , allowed males to grow mustaches and beards, allowed cast to wear open jewelry - perhaps to satisfy cast and attract new ones?

I've herd from CMs I know personally, that the tattoo guidance in particular has been walked back, depending on the area they work in. Otherwise - yeah, that's exactly why Disney did that in the first place.

 

[kingdead]

What do college costs have to do with it? It's nice that you and your children are all getting an education, but be serious, do you need a four-year degree to work in customer-facing jobs at Disney World?

 

[RobWDW1971]

In general, I'd say that you're not going to get white glove service without white glove money or at least some sort of sense of exclusivity to the job. Somebody who's motivated and isn't just doing the job because that's the only thing they can do will know that. If I know that when I eventually want to move on from a Disney job I can make more money somewhere else because of the name, I'll be more willing to stay and get some experience, if it has exactly the same cachet as working Universal and Universal pays more...

You are proceeding from a false assumption. Disney has no interest in white glove service.

Their current strategy is “slopping the hogs” and providing the absolute minimal level of service possible needed to process the millions of annual park and hotel guests.

If the guests were to reject this level of service and stop going to the parks or paying the above market hotel rates, they would be forced to change this strategy.

However, the market continues to reward this strategy and Disney will continue to work to lower the service standards (and therefore what they need to pay to attract the related staff) until that changes.

 

[MrPromey]

Did you spend even an iota of time looking over the numbers I posted or did you stare at the links like a child stares at peas?
...

I'm stealing that line for my own future use.

My memory isn't always the best so I'm admitting this up front in case I reuse it on this forum.

 

[peter11435]

I've herd from CMs I know personally, that the tattoo guidance in particular has been walked back, depending on the area they work in. Otherwise - yeah, that's exactly why Disney did that in the first place.

Nothing has changed or been walked back regarding tattoo guidelines

 

[Lilofan]

What do college costs have to do with it? It's nice that you and your children are all getting an education, but be serious, do you need a four-year degree to work in customer-facing jobs at Disney World?

I knew a VIP tour guide new to the company with a 4 year college degree.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

I've herd from CMs I know personally, that the tattoo guidance in particular has been walked back, depending on the area they work in. Otherwise - yeah, that's exactly why Disney did that in the first place.

The problem is that it was loosely enforced. I have 6 visible tattoos that were all okay while I was on my CP. The problem is that the rule is vague in a way, it basically says they have to be smaller than your hand, and can’t be offensive.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

What do college costs have to do with it? It's nice that you and your children are all getting an education, but be serious, do you need a four-year degree to work in customer-facing jobs at Disney World?

Managers are still employees who do customer-facing jobs.