NotUrsula
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2002
- Messages
- 20,059
I will give WDW credit for trying, they are doing more than most of the hospitality industry. (The one additional thing that I think they could do that wouldn't cost them too much is to regularize their shift structure to make working hours a bit more predictable for baseline employees. I've spoken to CM's about their work, and although they are usually very careful to put a positive spin on things, the one thing that comes up every time as being very difficult for part-timers is that it is almost impossible to get a second job elsewhere or work WDW as a second job, because they usually get very short notice of what the week's shifts will be. Most of the workers I have spoken to say that they are more than willing to work a second job, but that they cannot without breaking WDW's availability rules.)
However, the root of this problem lies not so much with the employers, but with the local and state governments. They are too much in bed with developers, and unwilling to keep them out of areas where the working-class need to be in order to fuel the economy properly. It's not just unskilled laborers, either; it's teachers, and social workers, and bus drivers, and safety inspectors, etc. My DS went to school in Tampa, and he looked into entry-level professional jobs in Orlando. I worked with him to look at how that might work out with paying housing costs and his student loan debt. It took VERY little time to determine that there was really no point at all in looking for a job in the Orlando metro area, because the salaries being offered were inadequate to cover the cost of living, which is ridiculously inflated because so much of the local housing stock is either really high-end, or given over to short-term rental use. The closest affordable places we could find were well over an hour's commute each way, and that would have eaten up everything he made. He stayed in the Tampa area, where in spite of the proximity of the ocean and the number of 55+ restricted communities, there is more affordable housing stock for folks who make working-class money.
If they want to keep the tourism engine running smoothly and help job creation, legislators and county officials in inland central Florida MUST put a curb on development and institute very strict restrictions on where the short-term rental market is allowed to be. Because of all the lakes and cachement ponds that keep Orange, northern Osceola, and eastern Polk counties above water, there is not much usable land left near-into Orlando, and what used to be small postwar homes that once were lived in by agricultural workers and railroad workers and sherriff's deputies is now a forest of HomeAway rentals. There are more than enough hotels and rentals to hold the tourists now; it is time to make a place for the locals. There is a truly dire need for subsizided low-to-middle income housing, and the major employers in the area really need to work with government to get it provided within 45 minutes of those employers' property, and with regular direct bus service provided. As it is now, the plan seems to be to rely on the theme parks hiring only retirees or kids who still live with their parents -- people who don't need to carry market-rate housing costs out of their paychecks.
PS: One of the things that regularizing at least some of the part-time work shifts could do is to make it possible for WDW (and other theme parks if they wish) to offer bus shuttles to outlying lower-cost communities where a lot of their workers live. WDW, for instance, could run shuttles from Lakeland &/or Plant City to the south, Four Corners to the west, the UCF area to the NE, and St. Cloud to the east. Here is an interesting article I read about a similar program undertaken by FedEx in the Mississippi Delta; they bring workers in by bus to work night shift at their hub at the Memphis, TN airport: https://www.wsj.com/articles/fedex-goes-deep-into-mississippi-delta-to-find-workers-11575714601 For low-wage workers who have a long commute, not having to pay for gas or tolls to get to work, and being able to sleep during the drive, makes a HUGE difference in how far a paycheck goes. It's not like Disney doesn't have busses at their disposal. Another possibility, though it would not be as generous, is to set up their fuel contracts to be able to re-sell gasoline to CM's at cost in backstage locations, or to arrange with the fuel companies that lease the on-property gas stations to give CM's a hefty discount on gasoline.
However, the root of this problem lies not so much with the employers, but with the local and state governments. They are too much in bed with developers, and unwilling to keep them out of areas where the working-class need to be in order to fuel the economy properly. It's not just unskilled laborers, either; it's teachers, and social workers, and bus drivers, and safety inspectors, etc. My DS went to school in Tampa, and he looked into entry-level professional jobs in Orlando. I worked with him to look at how that might work out with paying housing costs and his student loan debt. It took VERY little time to determine that there was really no point at all in looking for a job in the Orlando metro area, because the salaries being offered were inadequate to cover the cost of living, which is ridiculously inflated because so much of the local housing stock is either really high-end, or given over to short-term rental use. The closest affordable places we could find were well over an hour's commute each way, and that would have eaten up everything he made. He stayed in the Tampa area, where in spite of the proximity of the ocean and the number of 55+ restricted communities, there is more affordable housing stock for folks who make working-class money.
If they want to keep the tourism engine running smoothly and help job creation, legislators and county officials in inland central Florida MUST put a curb on development and institute very strict restrictions on where the short-term rental market is allowed to be. Because of all the lakes and cachement ponds that keep Orange, northern Osceola, and eastern Polk counties above water, there is not much usable land left near-into Orlando, and what used to be small postwar homes that once were lived in by agricultural workers and railroad workers and sherriff's deputies is now a forest of HomeAway rentals. There are more than enough hotels and rentals to hold the tourists now; it is time to make a place for the locals. There is a truly dire need for subsizided low-to-middle income housing, and the major employers in the area really need to work with government to get it provided within 45 minutes of those employers' property, and with regular direct bus service provided. As it is now, the plan seems to be to rely on the theme parks hiring only retirees or kids who still live with their parents -- people who don't need to carry market-rate housing costs out of their paychecks.
PS: One of the things that regularizing at least some of the part-time work shifts could do is to make it possible for WDW (and other theme parks if they wish) to offer bus shuttles to outlying lower-cost communities where a lot of their workers live. WDW, for instance, could run shuttles from Lakeland &/or Plant City to the south, Four Corners to the west, the UCF area to the NE, and St. Cloud to the east. Here is an interesting article I read about a similar program undertaken by FedEx in the Mississippi Delta; they bring workers in by bus to work night shift at their hub at the Memphis, TN airport: https://www.wsj.com/articles/fedex-goes-deep-into-mississippi-delta-to-find-workers-11575714601 For low-wage workers who have a long commute, not having to pay for gas or tolls to get to work, and being able to sleep during the drive, makes a HUGE difference in how far a paycheck goes. It's not like Disney doesn't have busses at their disposal. Another possibility, though it would not be as generous, is to set up their fuel contracts to be able to re-sell gasoline to CM's at cost in backstage locations, or to arrange with the fuel companies that lease the on-property gas stations to give CM's a hefty discount on gasoline.
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