Disney Trims Staff : Hotel Engineer, Bartender Who Refuse to Shave Are Fired

Two Disneyland Hotel workers were fired Tuesday for defying orders to shave their mustaches and beards in compliance with a new grooming rule.

Mike Searles, an engineer at the hotel, and Mike Farrington, a bartender, were met by hotel officials and representatives of the Walt Disney Co.’s labor relations office at 4 p.m. as they arrived for work. After they told supervisors they did not intend to shave, they were fired, according to company officials.

“We had no choice but to follow through on this action,” Disney spokesman Bob Roth said. “We made clear for a long time what the standards were and that we intended to enforce them. It would have been unfair to the other employees if we hadn’t.”

Roth said Farrington and Searles were fired for violating the appearance code and for willful insubordination in disobeying orders to shave.

Both men said they would file grievances with their unions against the Disney appearance policy and would fight to get their jobs back.

“I feel it’s totally discriminatory and an invasion of my privacy,” said Farrington, a 10-year hotel employee.

Farrington, 40, whose mustache and beard are flecked with gray, said he has worn one or the other for 15 years. “I respect Disney, but not this policy. This is 1988, not 1972, when I was in the Marine Corps. In fact, they are trying to be more strict than the Marine Corps.”

The 1,300 hotel workers were told they would have to adhere to new grooming standards when the hotel was sold in January by the Wrather Corp. to Walt Disney Co. and Industrial Equity (Pacific) Ltd. of Hong Kong.

The Disney standards, in effect at the Magic Kingdom since 1957 as well as at other Disney-owned attractions, prohibit beards and mustaches, pants for women in most cases, long fingernails and heavy makeup. Disney officials say the standards are designed to project a wholesome image.

But the ban on beards and mustaches has provoked protests from some employees, who point to bearded Disney characters--and mustachioed Walt Disney himself--in support of their cause.

“I was hired with a mustache; I haven’t shaved it for 15 years and it’s just not right for them to all of a sudden say, ‘You’re operating under new rules now,’ ” said Searles, 40, who sports a handlebar mustache.

“Disney wants to be perceived as a totally modern, 1980s company with the movies they’re making now and everything. But they’re stuck in the past,” he said.

Leaders of the four unions representing Disneyland Hotel workers term the appearance code outdated and unreasonable, and say they will coordinate efforts to fight it.

Don Mear, a spokesman for Operating Engineers Local 501, said the unions will abide by terms of the union contracts that set out grievance and arbitration proceedings.

“I was hoping they would waver from this policy, but I never doubted for a moment they would fire these people,” Mear said. “I think our best plan is to follow legal channels. There is no indication we would walk out over this at this point; that might create more of a problem.”

Searles and Farrington were among six employees suspended last week for refusing to shave after a formal crackdown began March 21. Two others have since shaved and two more workers who were suspended a day later than Searles and Farrington face termination today if they have not shaved, Roth said.

Searles and Farrington originally were given a Monday deadline. But on Monday, that was extended a day so both men would have time, Roth said, to “fully understand the ramifications of their termination.”

Even if grievances against the policy are upheld in arbitration, Roth said that under Disney policy, their firings would stand because of the insubordination charge.

Meanwhile, Searles and Farrington, neither of whom would divulge his salary, said they are not worried about losing their long-held jobs. Farrington, a former Marine who served in Vietnam, has a 7-year-old daughter but is currently single. He said he already has three job offers and probably will accept another bartending job at a country club.

Searles, an Army veteran who is also single, said he would live on unemployment insurance for a while, if necessary.

“Nobody can afford to lose a job, but if I don’t stand up for what I feel is right, we’ll all get trounced,” he said. “I’ll fight to get my job back and I’m willing to push this issue as hard as it needs to be pushed.”