Disneyland’s Craft Workers to Vote on 3% Wage-Hike Pact

ANAHEIM — Disneyland has reached a tentative agreement with craft unions representing more than 700 maintenance workers at the park, according to sources close to the negotiations.

The one-year deal calls for a 3% across-the-board raise and some givebacks from workers regarding future medical benefits for retirees.

The deal is nearly identical to one that members of the Craft Maintenance Council rejected last month after their contract expired Feb. 28. The new agreement would prevent changes in retiree medical benefits from kicking in until January 1998, to give eligible employees time to consider retirement, the source said.

Members will put the tentative agreement to a vote April 23. The Craft Maintenance Council, whose members include electricians, plumbers, machinists, plasterers and other craft tradespeople, rejected the previous contract by more than a 2-to-1 ratio. The unions are working under a day-to-day extension of the old contract.