Disney in talks of raising Empoyees’ minimum wage to 15$ per hour

Disney has recently offered to raise its minimum wage for Walt Disney World employees from ten dollars per hour to fifteen. Florida Service Trades Council Union representatives will discuss the company’s latest offer, which would impact about 34,000 workers starting Fall of 2021. It is a historic raise for the company and the highest they have done yet.

However, the proposition is not completely pleasing to the employee union, since it could affect their payment on holidays and the creation of their schedule. Despite being unwilling to comment on the union’s complaints and concerns, Disney will meet with them on June 8th. Eric Clinton, a union representative and executive, has publicly expressed the union’s belief that they will manage to form a fair deal with the company by the end of the month.

Alongside the wage raise, Disney would be giving its Florida employees 1000$ bonuses, which they had pointed towards in the past but never confirmed and that would be included if contracts were to be changed in the future implementing the new negotiations. The union has stated its will for, in the worst case scenario, at least getting those bonuses for its employees. They had filed a formal complaint for the company’s withholding of said bonuses to the National Labor Relations Board, yet they sided with Disney.

Some negotiations are also being done between Disney and their Disneyland workers in California, yet that union has not accepted the company’s propositions. These negotiations have been supported by Senator Bernie Sanders, who has constantly expressed its opposition to companies that fail to pay their workers a “living wage”. The company has shown its decision to raise its Anaheim workers’ wage to 15$ per hour by 2020, while Senator Sanders encourages to do it by January 2019. Disney released a statement responding to Sanders, saying that “While Mr. Sanders continues to criticize Disney to keep himself in the headlines, we continue to support our cast members through investments in wages and education.”

These new negotiations come after Disney recruiting new workers for its new park expansion in April, planning ahead for a busy summer season. They were seeking to fill 3,500 positions, either full-time, part-time or seasonal, in housekeeping, transportation, lifeguarding and food and beverage teams. This is part of the park’s usual push in hiring before the Summer season, where tourists usually go to the park and increase its movement. The park has also been expanding recently.  Two, 1$ billion Star Wars-themed projects are set to be done in Florida and California. On last year’s July 15th, the company revealed its plans for a dozen new projects for the future, such as a new cruise ship and a “Star Wars” hotel in Orlando. Those parks are set to be open in the Summer of 2019. It is speculated that the company is now willing to negotiate because of their expected revenue from the parks after its expansions.

Disneyland Resort President Josh D’Amaro said in a statement that the company’s offer “confirms that working at the Disneyland Resort is not only a good opportunity today, but a pathway to growth opportunities and career advancement tomorrow.”

Florida’s minimum wage is 8.25$ per hour, and the one for California being 11$ per hour. In recent years, several unions and syndicates have joined and fought for a 15$ per hour minimum across the nation.