Disney workers decry contract

MEDIA DISTRICT — Hotel and restaurant workers brought their fight from Orange County to the Walt Disney Co. headquarters in Burbank this week, staging a spirited rally and public hunger strikes to highlight a bitter two-year contract dispute over health care.

The demonstrations, which lasted nearly three days and involved five fasting workers, came after eight employees of Disneyland Hotel, Paradise Pier Hotel and Grand Californian Hotel & Spa held a weeklong hunger strike over a company proposal to require Unite Here Local 11 members to pay for their health-care premiums.

Union officials contend that some employees would eventually be slapped with $500 monthly payments under the plan proposed by Disney, a figure the company refutes.

Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, criticized the company over the disconnect between its family-friendly image and management’s treatment of workers’ families.

“Shame on Disney!” Durazo said at a Wednesday rally. “This is about people’s lives.”

The third-largest union at the Disneyland Resort, Unite Here Local 11 represents more than 2,100 hotel, food and housekeeping employees who are working on an expired contract.

Disney has sought to shift the workers to its Signature plan, providing them a choice of seven health-plan options, the premium for which the company covers roughly 75%. The employee share would be phased in over five years, according to Disney.

“We decided to come to Burbank and roll the fast as an escalation of our campaign and as a sign to Disney that they’re not getting the message,” said Leigh Shelton, Local 11 spokeswoman. “We will not accept these health-care proposals because they’re unaffordable for our members and will leave a lot of them without health benefits.”

All but one of the 31 unions represented at the resort participate in the Signature plan, and both sides have agreed to meet before an independent federal mediator. Disney spokeswoman Suzi Brown said the union agreed to mediation shortly before launching into its weeklong hunger strike, which “calls into question their commitment to the mediation process,” Brown said.

She refuted union charges that union housekeepers have seen their workload increase as the resorts pile on amenities.

“The workload of our housekeepers is on the low end of industry standards, and we monitor that closely,” she said. “What this is really about is Local 11 can’t get what they want at the negotiating table: free health care.”

The demonstration at West Alameda Avenue between South Brighton and South Lincoln streets began Tuesday night as employees dotted the sidewalk with tents, signs and banners exclaiming: “Shame on Walt Disney Co.” and “Work Shouldn’t Hurt.”

“We pray that Disney opens its heart, that is gives up its corporate greed and chooses instead to take on a new discipline, one that respects workers, one that respects families and one that makes a space for strong worker-leaders,” Pastor Bridie Roberts, program director for the Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, Los Angeles, told the five fasters in blessing.

John Hughes, a bell service captain at Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel, said he hoped to resolve differences with the company through meditation and prayer.

“We’ve given up a lot to be here,” Hughes said. “From our past contract experiences, we’ve always given up something in the wages in order to receive the free monthly premiums.”

Local 11 members are charged only co-pays for visits to doctors and prescriptions.

Whitney Rupp, a server and bartender at the Disneyland Hotel, identified herself as one of many hotel and restaurant workers whose work-related injuries have compounded over the years.

The chronic pain is “off and on,” she said, and highlights the need for affordable health insurance.

“One thing that I believe is the more people out there with health insurance, the cheaper it will be,” Rupp said. “There are a lot of people who could not do this hunger strike. The fact that we have taken the lead in this, we’re representing ourselves as well as more than 2,000 more workers.”