(Los Angeles) California’s Disneyland park has avoided a strike, thanks to a deal with unions announced Wednesday that provides pay raises for its thousands of employees.
The unions have been waging a standoff with Disney since April to increase the pay of the 14,000 employees of this dream factory, in the face of the high inflation suffered by the United States in recent years.
On Friday, the candy vendors, cleaners and other actors who keep the park going had voted 99% in favor of a strike, before a final round of negotiations with management. A pressure that finally bore fruit.
“We are proud to announce that we have reached a tentative agreement with Disney,” the unions said in a statement Wednesday.
The agreement covers a three-year collective agreement that provides for “significant salary increases for all staff, increases linked to seniority and the maintenance of bonuses,” they detailed.
PHOTO MARK ABRAMSON, THE NEW YORK TIMES ARCHIVES
The unions have been waging a standoff with Disney since April to increase the pay of its 14,000 employees.
It still needs to be validated by a vote of employees, which will take place on Monday and should be a formality.
The crisis will therefore probably be avoided in the original Disney theme park.
After the strike by actors and writers that paralyzed Hollywood last year, a large-scale labor movement at Disney would have been historic. Workers at its California theme park have not gone on strike since 1984, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The tense talks were marred by accusations of anti-union practices, which prompted the opening of an investigation by the American labor inspectorate, the NLRB.
The unions claimed that more than 500 employees were reprimanded, monitored and threatened with discipline for wearing a union pin, which features a Mickey Mouse glove raised in the shape of a fist.
Last week, several hundred Disneyland employees demonstrated outside the Anaheim theme park in the Los Angeles suburbs.
Park management welcomed the agreement in a statement Wednesday.
“We are very committed to the well-being of our employees and we are pleased to have reached an agreement in principle […] that takes into account what matters most to our employees while allowing Disneyland Resort to grow and create jobs,” she commented.