Walt Disney Co’s 38,000 union workers in Florida are seeking to reopen wage talks so resort employees can negotiate pay raises from the contract minimum of US$10 an hour.
Negotiations are scheduled to begin on Aug. 28, Service Trades Council Union president Ed Chambers said in a statement.
A committee of employees must give its final blessing at a meeting tomorrow.
A wage increase would raise costs for Disney at a time when the company’s largest business, television, is coping with a loss of viewers to online video options.
Disney is also in the midst of a building boom in its parks and resorts division. Attractions under construction include two US$1 billion Star Wars lands in Florida and California.
On July 15, the company unveiled plans for a dozen other projects such as a new cruise ship and a Star Wars hotel in Orlando.
The world’s largest theme park operator signed a five-and-a-half-year contract in 2014 that allowed workers to reopen wage talks this year.
The two sides have until October to reach an agreement on pay or the entire contract could be reopened, including pension and healthcare benefits, Chambers said in a statement.
“Our bargaining team is solid and experienced,” Chambers said. “I expect to get far more than the old 25 to 35 cent raises from the past.”
The Burbank, California-based company signed the contract, which raised worker pay to US$10 an hour from about US$8, at a time when then-US president Barack Obama was pushing for a national minimum wage increase.
“We plan to put forth an overall employment package that is fair and equitable for the cast and the company,” Disney spokeswoman Jacquee Wahler said in an e-mail.
The Walt Disney World resort is the largest theme park in the world, with four parks and 27 hotels on 10,117 hectacres. Disney is metropolitan Orlando’s largest employer with about 74,000 workers, or almost 40 percent of the firm’s total.
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