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photo by McKenna Schueler
Joli Lindsay, a server at the nonunion Maria & Enzo’s at Disney Springs, wants the same rights and benefits afforded to Disney World employees. (Sept. 18, 2024)
Joli Lindsay, a 21-year-old server who works at the upscale Italian restaurant Maria & Enzo’s at Disney Springs, said she hears from guests all the time how lucky she must feel to work for Disney World. And she gets it. “Guests at Disney expect to get that Disney magic, that Disney experience from us,” she shared Wednesday. Still, when she hears those kinds of comments, she admits, “I’m quickly reminded that I’m a second-class worker.”
She’s not alone. A new survey released by hospitality labor union UNITE HERE Local 737 highlights what subcontracted workers like Lindsay describe as “second-class status” on Disney World property: a class of nonunion workers at subcontracted bars and eateries who earn less pay, and have fewer benefits and rights on the job, compared to their unionized counterparts employed by Disney World.
Lindsay, like nearly 1,000 other workers at 56 restaurants and bars at Disney Springs Marketplace, is not officially employed by Disney, despite working on the entertainment giant’s property. Her restaurant, and several others across the Disney Springs Marketplace, are owned and operated by a division of Delaware North, a multinational hospitality company that reported $4.3 billion in revenue last year, surpassing pre-pandemic revenues.
Other Disney Springs spots, like the Rainforest Cafe and Raglan Road Irish Pub, are operated by different subcontractors who have agreements with the Walt Disney Co. to operate on the Mouse’s property.
Chefs and servers who work at several of these subcontracted restaurants came together at Local 737’s union hall Wednesday to highlight this “second-class status” as they renew a call for their employers to allow them a fair process to organize a union.
Although upward of 40,000 Disney World employees have been unionized for decades, workers at these subcontracted bars and restaurants at Disney Springs are not.
For Sabrina Redditt, a full-time cook at Disney Springs’ Morimoto Asia, owned by Delaware North, this means her pay rate of $18 per hour is $5.10 less than what someone employed by Disney earns in her same role. That’s equal to a difference of roughly $10,000 a year — a difference that’s increasingly weighing on her.
“I am a single mom, and at this point, I can’t support my family on the wage that I’m making,” Redditt shared candidly, surrounded by a group of about two dozen others wearing red UNITE HERE union shirts.
Like many other renters in Orlando, the young mom said she’s facing a rent increase from her landlord that she can’t afford to pay, and her landlord has begun the process of evicting her and her family. “If I worked for Disney, I’d be able to keep a roof over my family,” she said.
Julissa Ruiz, a young server at Pizza Ponte — another Delaware North restaurant — said she similarly struggles to get by, earning just $16 an hour and bringing home less than $500 weekly, working part-time. Without access to a full-time job opportunity, she can’t afford her own place, doesn’t have a car, and is currently staying in the living room of a friend’s house. “I’m basically homeless,” said Ruiz.
But it’s not just a difference in pay that is uniting local workers. According to a new survey from the union of 69 workers employed at 18 of these subcontracted Disney Springs locations, 59 percent said they are part-time, meaning they don’t have access to benefits given to full-timers only. Forty-six percent of those surveyed said they have no health insurance, and only 19 percent reporting having health insurance through their employer.
The industry has been flooded with part-time positions that “are demanding full availability” without offering full-time benefits.
Kristen Mercer, an Orlando native who works as a server at Maria & Enzo’s, said back in April (when Disney Springs workers first announced their organizing efforts) that the industry’s been flooded with part-time jobs since the pandemic. Specifically, she said, they’re positions that “are demanding full availability” while failing to offer the benefits of a full-time job.
Jeremy Haicken, president of UNITE HERE Local 737 (which conducted the survey), said this stands in stark contrast to Disney World’s unionized workforce. Out of the 18,000-plus employees their union specifically represents at Disney World, only 31 percent work part-time, and 100 percent of workers receive paid sick time (regardless of part-time or full-time status). Sixty-nine percent of those who are full-time have access to union-negotiated health insurance.
Mercer said she can’t afford to go without health insurance due to a chronic health condition, but isn’t offered health benefits through her job. This has forced her to buy insurance through the federal Health Insurance Marketplace, costing her roughly $500 per month.
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photo by McKenna Schueler
Kristen Mercer (left) and Joli Lindsay at UNITE HERE Local 737’s union hall. (Sept. 18, 2024)
“If you work for Disney, it’s a good job,” said Haicken, the union president. “You have benefits, you have negotiated union raises, and you have all of the rights and protections that come from having a union contract.”
While Disney World employees have over the years highlighted their own struggles to afford Orlando’s steep housing costs and overall cost of living, the union’s had to fight for raises and benefits.
Jean Cammy, a sous-chef at the Neighborhood Bakery at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, said that because of his union’s contract with Disney, “I have a good job,” earning $25.60 per hour. Originally from Haiti, Cammy told Orlando Weekly he’s been able to climb his way up the ladder of his decade-plus culinary career at Disney thanks to opportunities afforded to him through the union. He’s been more actively involved with the union over the last couple of years because he sees value in supporting and fighting “for all the people, not just me
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photo by McKenna Schueler
Disney chef Jean Cammy speaks in support of nonunion workers at Disney Springs who are organizing to form a union. (Sept. 18, 2024)
“I believe every worker at Disney Springs deserves a first-class job, too,” Cammy said.
According to Mercer, the server at Maria & Enzo’s, the process of organizing at her restaurant has been slow, in part because, she says, “People are scared.” She feels comfortable enough to speak to the media, but others are worried about becoming a target for retaliation.
For her, having organizing conversations ultimately comes from “a place of compassion” and a drive to fight for better for herself, her co-workers, and those who will come after them.
At least one person employed by the the Edison (also owned by Delaware North) contacted Orlando Weekly back when workers first announced the organizing drive to say he’s strongly against unionization, and he felt union leaders had been manipulative in conversations with workers, making grand promises they can’t fulfill.
Haicken, the union president, told Orlando Weekly that union staff “respect everyone’s view,” and pointed out it’s not uncommon during union drives for there to be people who are just not on-board with having a union. He’s not wrong — while it does occur sometimes, union elections are rarely unanimous, especially among larger groups of people.
In addition, because Florida is a right-to-work state, no worker can be compelled to join a union or pay union dues, even if a majority of workers at their job choose to formally unionize. And if a workplace does unionize, non-members will enjoy the same benefits as their union co-workers. Mercer, who’s worked in the hospitality industry for over a decade, said that while it can be “disheartening” to come across a co-worker ardently opposed to unionization, she feels it’s often coming from a place of “Well, this just doesn’t affect me,” without recognizing that, one day, it might. And in the meantime, others who are afforded less are struggling to get by.
At this point, their organizing is still in the early stages, but workers have spoken up publicly to call for a “fair” and “free” process to organize, alleging intimidation tactics coming from management. Organizing a union can either materialize as a decision by the subcontractors to voluntarily recognize the union (provided a majority of workers have demonstrated their desire to unionize), or the union petitioning the National Labor Relations Board for a union election.
“We need a way for workers to join the union free of intimidation, so that their democratic wish is respected,” said Haicken, who declined to specify any intimidation tactics workers are currently facing. “And we’re going to fight until we get that.”
Charlie Roberts, director of public relations for Delaware North, told Orlando Weekly in April that his company “respect[s] our employees’ rights to consideration union representation.”
“Should any union gain sufficient backing to petition for a vote at any of our locations, we are committed to adhering to all relevant regulations and procedures throughout the process,” Roberts added.
UNITE HERE Local 737 already represents workers at two Delaware North restaurants at Disney’s Epcot (Tutto Italia and Via Napoli), certain hotels (including Disney resorts), and food service workers at the Orange County Convention Center.
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