Disney Pledges Not to Discriminate on Sexual Preference

The Walt Disney Co. has drafted a new policy saying it will not discriminate on the basis of sexual preference as a part of a new three-year contract with about 1,200 food service workers at Disneyland that was ratified Wednesday night, union officials said.

Although the company has maintained that it has been its longstanding, unwritten policy not to discriminate in hiring, negotiators for the Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Union, Local 681, said they wanted it written into the contract.

Local 681 President Steve Beyer said that his negotiators felt it was important that Disney “memorialize” its policy into the contract. “A great number of our employees are gays and lesbians and there was a need to do it,” he said.

Walt Disney Co. officials said Wednesday afternoon that they could not comment on the agreement until after the ratification vote was tallied, but Beyer said he expects the anti-discrimination policy will apply companywide.

One local gay activist called the anti-discrimination policy a breakthrough.

“There are hundreds of gays and lesbians at Disneyland,” said John J. Horan, a partner in an Anaheim law firm that specializes in gay rights, who worked more than a decade ago on Disneyland’s Jungle Ride. “This is an incredible breakthrough. . . . It sends a very strong message to the business community.”

The contract was ratified by a vote of 240 to 42, with an additonal four votes being voided.

Most employees will receive 4% wage hikes for each of the three years. Waiters and waitresses, who presently earn $5.06 an hour, will receive smaller hikes--2% the first year, 1% the second and 2% the third. Beyer said the reason for agreeing to the smaller raises was because food prices are increasing at Disneyland and tips, from which waiters and waitresses derive most of their income, are expected to rise also.

Stewards, who do dishwashing and heavy cleaning of kitchen equipment and utensils, will receive an additional 10 cents an hour for each of the first two years, and 5 cents in the third year, in addition to the 4% raises. Beyer said that their work is so difficult and dirty that an extra pay raise was justified.

“It’s hard to go through that Disneyland University mentality and next you’re washing pots and pans. The magic wears off,” Beyer said.