Disneyland Workers OK Contract

Disneyland maintenance workers this week approved a new contract proposal, averting a potential labor strife as Walt Disney Co. gets ready to open its California Adventure theme park in Anaheim.

The proposal, which establishes working conditions at the new park slated to open in February, affects more than 800 painters, electricians, carpenters, machinists and others who perform routine maintenance and building jobs at Disneyland.

In April, those maintenance and craft workers had overwhelmingly rejected an earlier contract proposal, concerned about Disney subcontracting out work, union members losing seniority rights if transferred to the new park and having to launder their own uniforms.

In the latest contract proposal, approved 341 to 289, the union prevailed on seniority rights and the uniform issue. Disneyland maintenance workers also will not be forced to transfer permanently to the new park. However, the new proposal will allow Disney to subcontract, although the company added language that it does not intend to do so.

Ballots were tallied Monday--the deadline Disney had imposed on its latest offer. The proposal extends the current five-year contract, scheduled to expire in 2003, for an additional two years. The contract calls for a 3% pay raise in each of the last two years, 2004 and 2005.

The contract unionizes all maintenance workers hired at California Adventure. The new park is expected to employ about 5,000 people.

The Disney craft maintenance council, which consists of 15 unions representing the workers, had endorsed the latest proposal as well as the earlier one that was rejected. The council declined Wednesday to comment on the vote.

Disneyland spokeswoman Chela Castano-Lenahan said the park was “pleased to have reached a mutually satisfactory agreement.” She declined to comment further.

Although the latest proposal had passed with a bit of cushion, not all members were happy with the new contract. At the International Assn. of Machinists Local 311 in Santa Fe, only seven of its 140 members who cast ballots voted in favor of the offer.

Lyn McClure, a Disneyland machinist who is chief steward for Local 311, said workers felt rushed in meeting Disney’s July 17 deadline for taking action on the proposal.

“I feel it would have been more beneficial for all the members to have been given the opportunity to review the contract language prior to the vote,” McClure said.

John Lawson, business agent for International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 923, which represents theatrical employees and whose members approved a separate agreement with Disney last month, said, “This was probably the best offer that Disney was going to make without entering some kind of protracted battle.”.