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Contents | tHe | contents the County county | feature feature | CAlendAR calendar | food food | filM film |CultuRe culture |MusiC music |ClAssifieds classifieds |
By Gabriel San Román • Photos by Javier Castellanos
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BUCK KEEPS CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE CLEAN
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Custodial Worker, Disney California Adventure Park, SEIU-USWW Sporting a heavy, Disneyland-embroidered jacket and matching blue beanie
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Christopher Buck
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P
eople waiting to zoom around Autopia’s enclosed track in gasoline-powered mini Hondas were fidgeting as the line crawled to a stop one evening at Disneyland. A lone Latino custodian whisked through the queue, sweeping up any scraps of trash into a dustpan. Before the next row of loudly chugging two-seaters departed, he vanished, leaving behind an immaculately kept Tomorrowland attraction while being a bother to no one. Parkgoers may have paid the “cast member” (as Disney calls its employees) little mind that evening, but a newly formed nine-member Coalition of Resort Labor Unions, representing 17,000 out of nearly 30,000 Disneyland Resort workers, wanted to know all about his well-being, as well as that of thousands just like him, inside and outside of the House of the Mouse. “You are not alone,” a coalition flier declared in September. “Every day, Disney cast members stress over bills. The choices Disney makes—in determining pay, insurance and other benefits—affects you and thousands more cast members. But how many people know the truth?” The Disneyland Resort Worker survey promised complete anonymity online, and 5,000 workers participated. Occidental College and the Economic Roundtable gathered the data. The co-authors of “Working for the Mouse: A Survey of Disneyland Employees” presented their findings to 1,000 cast members gathered for a Feb. 28 town hall at the Anaheim Sheraton. Among the troublesome reveals, the study found that more than 85 percent of Disneyland Resort workers make less than $15 per hour, a wage that makes for a host of economic hardships in an increasingly expensive county. The report also found 11 percent of workers who participated reported being “homeless—or not having a place of their own to sleep—in the past two years.” Another 36 percent on the resort’s health-insurance plan forgo necessities to pay monthly premiums. All of this is happening while the “Happiest Place On Earth” increases its profitability. Park attendance is up, as are ticket sales. According to the report, Disneyland raked in $3 billion in 2016 alone. Meanwhile, wages for Disney workers are declining when adjusted for inflation. With all of the survey’s findings, the coalition is thinking beyond the next round of negotiations. They’re taking Disney’s poverty pay to Anaheim voters this November with a $15-per-hour living-wage ordinance—something that would cost Disney 5.7 percent of its projected park revenue for this year. Applying to all resort-area businesses that Anaheim has subsidized with taxpayer funds, the measure seeks to lift wages to $18 per hour by 2022. But beyond the statistics is the human face of the Disneyland Resort: the musician who sings Disney classics on Main Street, the baker who dips apples in caramel under the gaze of hungry eyes, landscapers who toil after dark and custodians who sweep away any trace of debris. They’re proud to do this work to make our visits magical.
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Caste Members
Disneyland Resort workers are the true magic-makers, but a survey shows many toil in poverty
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