After months of negotiations, Walt Disney World and leaders of its largest union group agreed on Thursday to a tentative contract that will likely avert a strike at the theme park resort.
Most leaders of the Service Trades Council, a six-union coalition that represents 40 percent of the company's 53,000-person work force, will recommend that its members approve the three-year contract on Thursday.
Earlier this week, union leaders advised members to reject the latest proposal and authorize union leaders to call a strike if further negotiations and mediation failed. But both sides found common ground during talks that lasted into Thursday evening.
"Neither side was totally pleased with the package," said Ed Chambers, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, Local 1625. "In my experience, when neither side is really happy, you got the best deal for everybody."
The contract covers hotel workers, costumed characters, bus drivers, ticket takers, ride operators and concession workers. Union members have rejected two previous proposals.
Disney backed down from what union leaders considered a deal-breaker: raising the number of hours that part-timers can work. Union leaders said the company was trying to reduce its need for full-time workers to save money on benefits.
Earlier in the day, Disney spokeswoman Jacquee Polak called the contract proposal "fair and competitive."
Chambers said under the latest proposal, top-scale workers who currently earn US$11.12 an hour will get a US$0.20-an-hour increase and a lump sum bonus of between US$1,500 and US$1,700 during the contract's first year. In the second year, they will get another lump sum, and in the third year they will get a US$0.25-an-hour increase.
The starting minimum wage, currently US$6.70 an hour, will increase US$0.10 an hour for each year of the contract.
Walt Disney World is part of The Walt Disney Co, the theme park and media conglomerate that also owns the ABC and ESPN cable television networks. The theme park's last strike was by some musicians in the early 1980s.
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer began talks with high-ranking Chinese officials in Switzerland yesterday aiming to de-escalate a dispute that threatens to cut off trade between the world’s two biggest economies and damage the global economy. The US delegation has begun meetings in Geneva with a Chinese delegation led by Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰), Xinhua News Agency said. Diplomats from both sides also confirmed that the talks have begun, but spoke anonymously and the exact location of the talks was not made public. Prospects for a major breakthrough appear dim, but there is
The number of births in Taiwan fell to an all-time monthly low last month, while the population declined for the 16th consecutive month, Ministry of the Interior data released on Friday showed. The number of newborns totaled 8,684, which is 704 births fewer than in March and the lowest monthly figure on record, the ministry said. That is equivalent to roughly one baby born every five minutes and an annual crude birthrate of 4.52 per 1,000 people, the ministry added. Meanwhile, 17,205 deaths were recorded, resulting in a natural population decrease of 8,521, the data showed. More people are also leaving Taiwan, with net
RSS