Labor Situation at DLR

[MykeXero]

The Masters Services Union Contract expired yesterday. This covers Main Gate, Stores (i think), Custodial, Attractions (And a few others) in BOTH parks.

Negotiations last night broke off, and the unions are now working on a day to day contract. Both sides are now talking with a federal mediator to bring up a new contract.

The company in the near future will propose a few contracts for the union to vote up or down.

If the union vote them down a few times in a row, then they will have a vote to see if they want to strike.

So we are still a few weeks away from a strike IF it happens. I`ll post more about the company demands (and put them into laymans terms for you) in the near future.

[MiceSteak]

Thanks for explaining it to me in "laymans terms." Sometimes I get really caught up in all the legal words and cant understand half of it. Keep me posted

[sediment]

I don't know about labor's or management's demands, but the market demands a higher salary.

[TheDude]

don't tell that to TDA... they like living in their own little "dream world."

[Mortgageman]

Al's column today goes into great detail about the pending strike and certainly presents some strong evidence that management has the upper hand here.

[Mortgageman]

I don't know about labor's or management's demands, but the market demands a higher salary.

The labor dispute is not about wages but about benefits. You are correct in that the market appears to be demanding higher wages. Disney is holding off as long as they possibly can on increasing wages but when market conditions absolutely demand it (it becomes simply impossible to fill the needed positions at the wages being offerred) they will be forced to offer higher wages.

[sediment]

The younger CMs could not care less about benefits that only some CMs need.
That's a bit of a problem with union's diverse membership, though.

Of course, all these problems might go away if every guest paid their fair share to enter the park.

[Mortgageman]

[QUOTE]

The younger CMs could not care less about benefits that only some CMs need.

Right, as Lutz explains that's one of the reasons the union is bargaining from a very weak position. Disney knows this as well as the other union problem that Lutz talks about (lack of a physical location for effective picketing) so they are kind of playing hardball.

[Demigod]

Well when the average CM retention now is 8 months, and Casting is working at about half what they need, the unions aren't going to have a very captive audience as far as benefits or wages - or anything negotiable.

That's sad, because my wife has been working there for 3 years, and deserves more than she's getting paid.

[Burnt Toast]

Al hit it right on the nose, the union took the bait of fighting for a very weak position (making FUTURE employees work 5 more hours a week to maintain their benefits, that's if they are in a position which gets benefits at all) instead of the real issue that they should be making a fuss over, which was higher wages in general.

Wages have decreased dramatically over the last three contracts, the first of those three, when the unions allowed the time for you to reach top rate in your department to go from four years to six or eight. That means that your overall yearly payraise was smaller then before and on top of that the top rate itself was lowered slightly. The unions made NO fuss over this back then (like they are now for this "issue") and there hasn't been any effort on their part to get higher wages since then or now.

Now I know that higher wages isn't the cure-all that everyone thinks it is, it won't solve all of our problems, but hell... it's a start. Unfortunately, higher wages is very low on the priority list for the unions right now.

So right now they only seem to care about future employees not having to work an extra 5 hours a week (they would have to maintain a 30+ hour a week average per quarter, dropped from the original 40) if they are in a position to get benefits. That's their main issue. Gee, thanks a lot.

I would be VERY surprised if a vote occurs within the membership and they vote for a strike. The union decided to keep too many employees in the dark about what is really going on and what the major holdup is, because they want to play the scare card on Cast Members... and it's backfiring because employees now either don't care about the situation and won't strike and not get paid or could care less about the union that has kept them in the dark. They also offered to make no sort of worker's compensation (like the supermarket strike had) to at least compensate even a little for workers not being on the job.

Oh well, we'll all see though... won't we? 8:I

[Redsix]

According to the high turn over in CM's. Doesnt this hurt Disney's bottom line?
Having to hire and terminate CM's is a cost. In large company like Disney with training in various area's of the park, its all a cost. Then to turn around and having to terminate CM's for not showing up. This has got to put a huge dent in Disney's P&L.

Why not just pay CM's more and tighten the hiring factors? It is easier said then done I am sure. Over at TDA if the hiring plan is at 55% and they seem to have Traditions full almost every sunday. Traditions is the beginning of training for all CM's. IF you are ever at the park on a sunday you will see a group of people walk around the park, thats Traditions. Sometimes they look like a group of Cal-trans workers looking to pick up trash on I-5. It is sad, little do they know they will get almost less then 20 hours a week working in the park. I have a friend that works the main gate (class of 2006) she only gets 12 hours on sunday. She begs for more hours every week. At the rate the're paying CM's no wonder some are not showing up for work.

To bad the union is so weak. How are you spose to motivate CM's when this is going on? Just give the CM's something to look forward to then a 20% off merchandise, free entry to the park and to let 16 of your friends in to the park with your blue card over a year. Pay increase would be nice and a chance to reach your goals in the WALT DISNEY COMPANY. If your happy with your part time Job and are just trying to get thru College then wouldnt you like to still get a paid more a hour and get to be able to work more hours? Apart from food service and other overtime roles at DLR, it you get hired out of TDA and are sent to a Job that doesnt have a lot of hours you are stuck for 6 months before a talk of a transfer could happen. I agree everyone has to pay their dues, but to a union that has no pull?? Getting paid a wage that CM's could get at Mickey D's, but I will tell you Disney expects a lot more out of you than at any fast food chain out there.

So as the strike still looms (yeah right) I feel bad for the CM's they are in for some rough waters ahead. Maybe they could get what they want and Disney in the end would haved saved money and got a better CM. I just hope Disney doesnt feel they have to do nothing.

Just my 98cents.

[speederscout]

I'm unclear about something here. Could someone actually in-the-know explain about the concept of new hires not being able to advance under the proposed contract? What are the details of this?

[Burnt Toast]

Got this from Mousepad... but this is what was sent out to Cast Members from two of the unions.

After 10 full negotiating sessions, bargaining broke off late evening on March 15, 2006 with the parties agreeing to extend the contract on a day to day basis and call in a federal mediator to assist in trying to bring the negotiations to a peaceful conclusion. During this time, all terms and conditions of your contract are in full force and effect.

Major issues remain unresolved. These include: fair and adequate wage increases for current employees and the company’s insistence on undermining current employees’ job security by hiring a new low paid worker with no opportunity for advancement.

Your union bargaining committee is strong and united on these issues. Disney cast members work hard, have created record profits for the company and deserve to be recognized with proper wage increases. Future cast members must be paid fairly and have the same opportunities as current cast members in order to maintain the high standards Disney cast members are currently held to.

We will keep you informed of our progress. In the meantime, remain strong and united. Only through your solidarity will we prevail.

Sincerely and fraternally,

MASTER SERVICES JOINT COUNCIL

Weird... why wouldn't they mention the real reason why they are striking and say that it's for "fair and adequate wage increases"? Why would they boldface lie like that?

They go from one press release sent to the PUBLIC right before the stockholder's meeting about their issue being that FUTURE employees having to work an extra five hours a week to maintain their benefits (going from 40 hours to a 30+ a week average over a quarter), if they are in a position to get benefits, even getting two Anaheim council members to "protest" with them to now privately telling Cast Members nothing of this and trying to lie to them about their "fight" for wages for FUTURE Cast Members (what about the current ones?!)? This strike threat had nothing to do with higher wages, that's from day one... unless their priorities suddenly changed since the stockholder's meeting, which honestly it might have.

It's no question that when anyone finds out what the real issue is and works a regular job on the outside where you have to work 40 hours to maintain your benefits and they here that there's absolutely no talk about higher wages and the whole drama is over five hours to thirty, there has been VERY little outside sympathy. Maybe this is a backtrack on the union's part to save face? Who knows.

Hrmn... ew, I just noticed who the note was from. SEIU 1877 is the union that stabbed the DLH Front Desk in the back when I worked there! Yuck. Totally lied to the entire membership of that department that they'll make the transfer to a more suitable hotel-based union easy and drama free, because overall we felt that SEIU 1877 wasn't capable of providing representation when they knew nothing of the issues or how to handle them in a hotel front desk environment when a good majority of their membership was custodial-based. They agreed and told us that they'll make the transfer happen, because they wanted us to have adequate representation. Well, lets just say that the DLH Front Desk's transfer didn't go easy because Dave Stilwell (the vice president of that local) stabbed them all in the back and dropped the department from their membership with no warning and then lied to the head of the HERE local that we wanted to join and told her that we didn't, this was after meeting with a group of DLH Front Desk Cast Members (myself included) who spoke with him about the transfer and got assurances from him (asked by FOUR different Cast Members to make sure that it was clear) that he would work on making the transfer to HERE. Now the DLH Front Desk is no longer part of ANY union, because of what they did. I wouldn't trust anything that anyone from the leadership of SEIU 1877 says, especially since last I heard two other departments had voted to decert (Main Entrance and Custodial, I think Custodial's vote actually passed) that union after we had gotten dropped on our butts.

[speederscout]

I swear, if this union fails its membership this time then the CMs will have NOTHING to lose by voting to decert. At least they'd finally get a raise in the form of not having to shell out to the union for services not rendered.