hortly after rallying together to reject their employer’s so-called “best offer” (estimates are that the offer was rejected by 96%) Disney workers have won big in a new tentative agreement, marking a victory for the labor movement in an anti-union state (Florida).
McKenna Schueler, Florida-based freelance journalist and reporter for Orlando Weekly joined Jacob on The Valley Labor Report last week to talk about this victory, which will give over 40,000 workers long overdue benefits.
“Even between [the initial offer and this new tentative agreement] there was another offer that Disney came back with after the 96% rejection, and that ended up actually being a worse offer,” Schueler explained, describing the events that led up to this current victory. “So the first offer was a $1 pay raise in the first year for many workers, and that was overwhelmingly rejected — that would have raised the minimum wage, for instance, from $15 to $16 — then Disney came back and said, ‘Okay, we’ll do $17 this year,’ but they reduced the retroactive pay for workers.”
This second offer was described as essentially just “moving around the furniture,” and would have meant no real sacrifice on Disney’s part, and was ultimately worse than the original offer.
“The difference is, with this new tentative agreement, as far as wages, it was what the unions have been fighting for, is my understanding,” Schueler continued. “So a $3 minimum pay raise across the board, that will go into effect [by the end of the year]; and then some immediate raises right away. And then over the course of the contract it’ll go up to $20.50 by October 2026, which is more than double what it was a decade ago — two contract cycles ago — when the minimum wage at Disney was just $10.”
Shortly after this interview with Schueler, the tentative agreement was officially ratified yesterday (Wednesday, March 29) when 97% out of 12,500 voting workers approved the agreement.
Today, thousands of Disney World workers voted to approve a new contract, delivering an $18 min wage this year (and raises across the board) plus 8 weeks of paid family leave.
Out of over 12,500 workers who participated in the vote, 97% voted YES @OrlandoWeekly pic.twitter.com/hWfqN5DK24
— McKenna Schueler (@SheCarriesOn) March 30, 2023
In later conversations, Schueler told us, “this 100% wouldn’t have happened without hundreds and sometimes thousands of workers going out, rallying, showing Disney they wouldn’t accept less than what they were fighting for, in addition to the committee that would go into bargaining and tell Disney reps as much. So much work went into organizing [the 96% vote to reject the first offer] alone.”
In addition to long overdue raises, Schueler also reported that the agreement included “8 weeks of child-bonding leave.”
Watch the full discussion with McKenna Schueler for more information on what this tentative agreement included on YouTube: