About 800 Disney hotel workers, union organizers, outside demonstrators and members of the Episcopal clergy marched from the Convention Center, shutting down Harbor Boulevard to the Disneyland entrance Tuesday afternoon — another protest rally in the labor dispute between Disney and workers at the three Disneyland hotels that has simmered at a stalemate for a year-and-a-half.
Since the old contract expired Feb. 1, 2008, negotiations have stalled over health care issues, and the Orange County branch of the Unite Here hotel union representing the workers has fortified itself for a strike by merging with the Los Angeles chapter -- that branch has a strike fund to pull money from if workers vote to stop work and picket the self-described "happiest place on Earth."
Union spokeswoman Ada Briceño would say only that the union may hold a strike vote soon.
The fight is over health care for workers. Disney wants to force the roughly 3,000 members of Unite Here 11 into the Disney Signature health care plan, a collection of seven different HMOs and PPOs which require monthly contributions. The union negotiating committee demands that Disney continue contributing to the union trust, which provides health care to all its members.
"It is hard to fathom, particularly during these uncertain economic times, that union leaders would deny their membership the opportunity to vote on a fair and comprehensive offer, which includes yearly wage increases,vaffordable and secure health care for members and their families, and paid sick leave," said Disney spokeswoman Suzi Brown.
Disney has put pressure on the rank-and-file, Briceño said, offering the workers $1,000 bonuses if they signed on to Disney's last, best offer before the end of June.
Briceño said that Disney pulled money back from contributions to the union health care trust, which she said forced Unite Here to dip into the money Disney administers for sick pay.
Brown, however, said that Disney has contributed $9 million to the health care fund, even in the absence of a contract.
Briceño said, "I don't know where they got that $9 million number."
Disney has continued to operate under the terms of the expired contract, but was able to pull back the contribution because the contract is expired, she said.
Juan Ruiz, 33, of Anaheim is a Unite Here 11 member and on the negotiating committee. He said that he makes $8 per hour, plus tips, as a server at the Grand Californian. He said he'd have to fall back on the public health system if the Disney Signature plan was phased in over the next five years, as Disney's offer calls for.
"Talking to coworkers, they're saying 'When are we going to do a work stoppage? When are we going to do something bigger,'" Ruiz said. "Our union is doing this progressively and when we do a boycott or we do a strike, these are our rights and we're going to exercise them."
Meanwhile, a branch of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles has thrown its support behind the hotel workers. The clergymen and women are in Anaheim this week for a convention at the Anaheim Convention center. Several Episcopal bishops and about 1,200 of the 6,000 conventioneers signed on in support of the union's demands -- even pledging a boycott if those demands are not met.
About 800 Disney hotel workers, union organizers, outside demonstrators and members of the Episcopal clergy marched from the Convention Center, shutting down Harbor Boulevard to the Disneyland entrance Tuesday afternoon — another protest rally in the labor dispute between Disney and workers at the three Disneyland hotels that has simmered at a stalemate for a year-and-a-half.
Since the old contract expired Feb. 1, 2008, negotiations have stalled over health care issues, and the Orange County branch of the Unite Here hotel union representing the workers has fortified itself for a strike by merging with the Los Angeles chapter -- that branch has a strike fund to pull money from if workers vote to stop work and picket the self-described "happiest place on Earth."