Here is the info....They CANNOT strike until December at the earliest...and most think a strike will be averted with a meadator.
Disney World's Largest Union Will Ask Members to Authorize Strike
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Leaders of Walt Disney World's largest union group said Thursday they will ask members to reject the company's latest contract proposal and authorize them to call a strike if further negotiations or mediation fail.
Members of the Service Trades Council, a coalition of six unions that represents 40 percent of the company's 53,000-person work force, will vote on the latest contract proposal next Thursday. The ballot will likely ask members to approve the proposal or vote 'no' and authorize a strike.
A vote by Disney workers to authorize the strike doesn't mean one is inevitable; it only gives union leaders the authority to call one. Union leaders first plan to ask for a mediator to help reach a contract agreement, said Joe Condo, head of the union group which represents costumed characters, ticket-takers, bus drivers and hotel maids.
Union leaders and company negotiators continued their discussions on Thursday. The Service Trades Council and the company have been negotiating a contract since May. Union members have twice voted down versions of the contract proposal.
Disney spokeswoman Jacquee Polak called the latest contract offer "fair and competitive."
"We're focused right now on finding common ground," Polak said.
Starting minimum wage in the first year of the three-year contract would increase 10 cents to $6.80 with 10 cent increases in each of the next two years. Union officials say between 20 percent and 25 percent of its members earn less than $7 an hour.
A major sticking point is the company's desire to raise the percentage of job hours that are allowed to be worked by part-time employees. Right now, 35 percent of the total hours worked at the parks and resorts are allowed to be given to part-timers, although in 2003 only about a fifth of the hours were worked by part-timers. The company wants to raise the part-time limit to 40 percent to save on health care costs and other benefits given to full-time workers, Condo said.
"That just shows you what they want to do here," Condo said. "They want 40 percent of the work force to be part-timers. That's going to cut back on the cost of insurance."
If a strike is authorized, the earliest members could walk out would be December since the contract, which prohibits strikes, was extended through the first week in December.
Walt Disney World's last strike was by some musicians in the early 1980s.
Union leaders have picketed outside a
Disney store in New York and passed out leaflets at the Orlando International Airport to protest the company's offer on wages and health care and pension benefits.
... makes me madder than I can express on these boards. I understand that this is YOUR vacation that you paid a LOT of money for, but you must have a little sympathy. Walt Disney himself said, "You can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful place in the world...but it requires people to make the dream a reality." Working with the public is not an easy job. Disney is beginning to treat it's Cast like they should enjoy the privilege of working at WDW, and the money is not the important part - it's making magic for our Guests. Well, the Guests are paying A LOT of money for this "magic" that goes to this company. While I understand, the Disney pay scale will never match what these Cast Members TRULY provide for the Guests, it would be nice to see the pay keep up with the rising cost of living. And I personally believe that if Disney would have made a serious offer the first time around (instead of that insulting offer of a 1% raise or something like that) that this would have been over with by now. The company has seriously offended these Cast Members, not only with the offer, but with some comments that Eisner made to the cast in informal meetings after the hurricanes.
Considering the emphasis put on characters these days, can you imagine telling your kid "Honey, Mickey and Donald and Pluto and Stitch and Cinderella and Snow White and Belle and Woody and Pooh and the little Martians and that little candlestick guy...they're all on vacation for a while."
