Teamsters, Disney at odds over labor deal

[Another Voice]

I have to disagree. In the past here in Orange County CA, a student job at Disneyland was considered extremely valuable - the pay was top rate, the job had lots of perks and it was great on the resume. Disney hired less than 1 in ten applicants.

Today the McDonald's at John Wayne Airport is paying $2.25 per hour more than Disneyland does - the local Starbucks is even higher and with far better benefits. Disneyland has become less flexible in their working conditions, and the overall public perception of the park has been greatly reduced. Instead of being a job for high-end college students, a Disneyland job is now low end immigrant labor or a supplement to a Social Security check. Disneyland has gone to ads on the radio to attract employees as well as "signing bonuses".

Disney refuses to keep the salaries in the parks in-line with with the market. They no longer attract high quality cast members and so they've lowered their standards, which in term lowers the quality of applicants they get. It's been a downward spiral for a while now; it's finally spun itself to the point where everyone is noticing the declines.

 

[EUROPACL]

I have to disagree. In the past here in Orange County CA, a student job at Disneyland was considered extremely valuable - the pay was top rate, the job had lots of perks and it was great on the resume. Disney hired less than 1 in ten applicants.

Today the McDonald's at John Wayne Airport is paying $2.25 per hour more than Disneyland does - the local Starbucks is even higher and with far better benefits. Disneyland has become less flexible in their working conditions, and the overall public perception of the park has been greatly reduced. Instead of being a job for high-end college students, a Disneyland job is now low end immigrant labor or a supplement to a Social Security check. Disneyland has gone to ads on the radio to attract employees as well as "signing bonuses".

Disney refuses to keep the salaries in the parks in-line with with the market. They no longer attract high quality cast members and so they've lowered their standards, which in term lowers the quality of applicants they get. It's been a downward spiral for a while now; it's finally spun itself to the point where everyone is noticing the declines.

This is sort of what I was getting at...America has changed. I have no doubt that others are paying more. I just don't agree that since Universal is paying more that they are getting better people and serving the customer better....and I have zero faith in the quality customer service found at Mcdonalds. I think there are fewer and fewer "quality" employees to be had and I'm sure they are taking jobs that pay more and offer more...Disney or any other theme park is not in the upperwardly mobile view of people that strive to do better later in life than maybe one day pushing the button that launches the POTC boat.

 

[G8RFAN]

Today the McDonald's at John Wayne Airport is paying $2.25 per hour more than Disneyland does - the local Starbucks is even higher and with far better benefits.

Your example reminded me of a McDonalds that was right in the middle of Boca Raton HS and FL Atlantic University here in South Florida. You would think that they would have an endless supply of minimum wage employees. The owner had to offer to pay for books for college students and also at the time $2.00 over the minimum wage with big signs posted right at the door and counter. Turns out, nobody from the HS wanted to be seen working at MickyD's and since FAU consisted mostly of international students with no work visa and the rest were locals of the same ilk as the HS kids, they could not draw any employees there either. Today, in its place stands a PF Changs. The economics then makes sense and the place is a "hip" place to work. One of the few McD franchises that I have ever seen to close not because of a lack of business. Now I don't know the reason why the McD's at JW Airport might be paying $2.25 more, but whether or not they compete for the same labor pool may not be the only factor. Starbucks stores have margins that have few rivals. They pay well and the good ones are offered to be on training teams. However, you still only have three basic level of pay there. The model can afford to pay well at the low end since it does not impact or roll up an enormous hiearchy of non-exempt hourly employees. Again not really apples to apples. Plus employees at Starbucks and McD's are not unionized (at least not in FL).

 

[tomerin]

No I'm saying that some jobs deserve to get more pay than others...some jobs deserve to be rewarded when the company does well. Does Disney lie to people when they hire them and tell them they are going to be paid more than they are for selling cokes from a cart?.

i dont know what disney tell its employees when they are hired but this i agree with

Most people that are concerned about pay will work for people that pay them more..

also in agreement with

No you are sending the message when they get hired "we are paying you this much to do this job"..

yes, if you accept a job at $7 an hour then there is not a problem.

if you want to attract a better employee to WDW or Seaworld you try to entice them by offering them more money then universal. you are sending them a message that they are worth more to this company then universal because we will offer to pay you more. money talks....

So I'm guessing that the money that Universal pays makes them a better service company than Disney is now?.

this i never said but i understand your point.

in a tight job market which the orlando area is now you need ways to entice good employees to your business. one of they ways besides how you pay potential employees is how you present youreslf. you want them to feel that they are working for the best company in the area.


allow me to quote myself "a healthy company can use their financial gain to obtain better and more qualified help if they want. " key words here if they want. if you want to attract better employees to choose from you have to offer more money. if you want better customer service you have to train them better. this takes money which disney now seems to have enough of to make customer service what it once was..the gold standard. you paid more to go to WDW not because it was required or you had money to throw away. you went there because you recieved a quality product for your hard earned money.

Glad to hear that you're doing so well scanning cat food. You had better hope that you're not replaced by a self-checkout stand soon. Sorry that I don't hold your view that jobs that can be done by 15 year olds and high school dropouts deserve to be paid well.

i read this part of your reply and was hesitant to reply to this part of it because it was not called for. the sarcasm dealing with doing so well scanning cat food was unecessary. i am not worried about being replaced by a scanner because i am in management.

i guess i could have been more specific when i mentioned paid well for doing a job. i was not suggesting that monumental raises be doled out to everyone. what i meant by the pay issue is that if you offer a better wage then universal etec then you may not have to hire the dropouts and the 15 year olds.

 

[EUROPACL]

i

allow me to quote myself "a healthy company can use their financial gain to obtain better and more qualified help if they want. " key words here if they want. if you want to attract better employees to choose from you have to offer more money. if you want better customer service you have to train them better. this takes money which disney now seems to have enough of to make customer service what it once was..the gold standard. you paid more to go to WDW not because it was required or you had money to throw away. you went there because you recieved a quality product for your hard earned money.

I'm not sure that today more money means better employee. Real Customer service is almost dead at this point. No amount of money is going to bring it back.

i read this part of your reply and was hesitant to reply to this part of it because it was not called for. the sarcasm dealing with doing so well scanning cat food was unecessary. i am not worried about being replaced by a scanner because i am in management.

i guess i could have been more specific when i mentioned paid well for doing a job. i was not suggesting that monumental raises be doled out to everyone. what i meant by the pay issue is that if you offer a better wage then universal etec then you may not have to hire the dropouts and the 15 year olds.

My humor coming out...sorry.

...and again my point is now that Universal is offering higher wages are they a better service company? My experience says NO.

 

[tomerin]

I'm not sure that today more money means better employee. Real Customer service is almost dead at this point. No amount of money is going to bring it back..

the almost dead statement means that somewhere in your thinking is that it isnt totally lost correct. you still see some hope. i still think that for WDW to keep expanding and continuing to offer great customer service you somehow have to try and entice quality.

My humor coming out...sorry.

...and again my point is now that Universal is offering higher wages are they a better service company? My experience says NO.

if you combine that with the training that WDW used to give its employees, sorry i meant castmembers, they very well could.

 

[YoHo]

Unless there's just a lot more college internships out there, I don't think that a dirth of quality people is there, I think Disney simply hasn't maintained their prestige. I mean, obviously, we're not talking about PHDs here.

And, to be fair to McDs, Disney trained their employees to a certain level of service which is what made having Disney on the resume an important thing. It wasn't just about the money.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

Let's look at it from another perspective. I semi-retired to Florida, went to work for WDW, was lured back into the Real World. I had a great time at WDW, enjoyed it immensely, and still love it.

1) I am, again, a President & CEO.
2) When I came on board, I demanded adequate pay for our employees
3) We have no union and no union activities, so this was not forced
4) Currently
. . . we pay $16.31/hr to start (more than 160% of the county average)
. . . we pay 80% of employee/family health insurance premiums
. . . we pay 100% of dental, life, AD&D, Short and Long Term Disability
. . . insurance starts 30-days after the employee start-date
. . . we have the same profit sharing program for hourly and management
5) We get GREAT productivity from our folks.
6) You can still pay well and make a few bucks profit
7) In fact, we are in the process of building three more plants (OH-LA-FL).

NOTE: As my other posts have shown, I think that WDW employees deserve more pay, and with record Disney profits, they can afford it. It is tough to live on $7.54/hr. It used to take about 7-years to reach the top of the pay grade, now it takes about 15-years. At the proposed contract rate inceases, many CM's would make about $1.00 more than Minimum Wage in two years.

 

[tomerin]

Let's look at it from another perspective. I semi-retired to Florida, went to work for WDW, was lured back into the Real World. I had a great time at WDW, enjoyed it immensely, and still love it.

1) I am, again, a President & CEO.
2) When I came on board, I demanded adequate pay for our employees
3) We have no union and no union activities, so this was not forced
4) Currently
. . . we pay $16.31/hr to start (more than 160% of the county average)
. . . we pay 80% of employee/family health insurance premiums
. . . we pay 100% of dental, life, AD&D, Short and Long Term Disability
. . . insurance starts 30-days after the employee start-date
. . . we have the same profit sharing program for hourly and management
5) We get GREAT productivity from our folks.
6) You can still pay well and make a few bucks profit
7) In fact, we are in the process of building three more plants (OH-LA-FL).

NOTE: As my other posts have shown, I think that WDW employees deserve more pay, and with record Disney profits, they can afford it. It is tough to live on $7.54/hr. It used to take about 7-years to reach the top of the pay grade, now it takes about 15-years. At the proposed contract rate inceases, many CM's would make about $1.00 more than Minimum Wage in two years.

what you say is very true. content employees are more productive. speaking as a person who has strong union ties, a workplace like you have created for your employees makes it almost nearly impossible to organize, which i honestly feels is great for your employees. not that they are not unionized its just that you had the foresight to realize what gives the engine of a company its gas, its employees.

 

[ChrisFL]

Florida's minimum wage is NOT $5.15 an hour currently but $6.67 an hour:

http://www.floridajobs.org/resources/fl_min_wage.html

So many Disney employees are making a mere 33 cents higher than anyone else.

 

[OrlandoMike]

The contract was approved last night.

We can put this story to bed for another three years!