Disney Hotel Workers OK Contract

The union representing about 1,300 hotel and restaurant workers at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim overwhelmingly ratified a four-year contract Thursday.

Ada Torres, president of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Union Local 681, said 95% of voting members approved the contract with the Walt Disney Co.

“I’m on a high,” Torres said. “I’m very, very excited. [Disney] met us in all our top demands. We made a lot of improvements in wages, minimum hours, workload, health insurance.”

Under the terms of the new contract, the employees -- mostly bartenders, bellmen, room attendants, housekeepers and dishwashers -- will receive a 40-cent-an-hour raise this year. For each of the next three years, they will receive a 45-cent hourly raise.

Employees at all the Disneyland hotels are now also eligible for free medical insurance under the union plan, saving them about $1,700 a year, Torres said.

Torres said the only major concession the union made was to allow new hotel employees to start at 80% of the salary of current employees.

The previous contract had been extended twice while union and Disney representatives negotiated. The new contract was reached at 4:15 a.m. Tuesday but did not become official until union members approved it Thursday.