Disneyland Union Workers OK Pact
Union employees at Disneyland approved a contract Saturday granting them a 10% pay increase over the next 3 1/2 years.
The labor agreement emerged after nearly three weeks of heated bargaining between the Walt Disney Co. and unions representing an estimated 3,400 ride operators, ticket takers, store clerks, janitors and other workers.
An earlier proposal, offering a 10% raise over five years, was rejected last week by union officials. But a federal mediator persuaded the two sides to keep negotiating and a tentative agreement was reached Friday, Disney spokesman Ray Gomez said.
The new contract provides a 3% raise annually for the first two years, followed by a 4% increase for the last 18 months of the agreement, said Andrea Zinder, chief negotiator for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 324. The other main unions bound by the contract are Teamsters and Service Employees International Union locals.
An estimated 80% of union members who voted approved the labor pact at a meeting Saturday evening.
Disney officials could not be reached for comment.
The first 3% raise will be retroactive to Tuesday, when the last contract expired, Zinder said.
Among those backing the new contract are Don Dopson, a part-time worker in Disneyland’s Castle Bros. Men’s Shop.
“The union recommended it,” he said. “Everybody seemed to think it was good, so I voted for it.”
Zinder said the March 2002 expiration date of the contract was popular with union members, who hope they will have more sway returning to the bargaining table before the all-important summer season at Disneyland, rather than at the end of it.
“Getting the March expiration date was a nice addition--it was something we didn’t think we’d be able to achieve,” Zinder said.
Absent from the contract is a 401(k) retirement savings plan. The company offered the perk for the first time in its earlier proposal, but the unions objected to some of its conditions.
Disney also dropped a demand that seniority be ignored in making promotions, Zinder said.
