If you’ve been keeping up with the Disney news, you probably know that Disney is in an extensive process of negotiations with workers unions to furlough all non-essential employees at the Disney parks. Most recently, this culminated in an agreement on terms of furlough for more than 43,000 Disney World employees.
Walt Disney World
In response to the upcoming furlough, many Disney Cast Members are staging at-home protests. However, their protests aren’t directed at Disney; instead, they’re taking aim at the Florida unemployment system.
According to WKMG News in Orlando, Disney workers across metro Orlando have been putting signs in their windows and writing messages on their mailboxes directed at state officials. One Epcot server, Lacey Gamble, even chalked pictures of Lumiere and Sulley in her driveway with the poignant message, “SOS.”
Cast Members
Their fear and the reason for the protest is that the unemployment system in Florida “has been failing for years,” says Gamble. Florida’s unemployment system has been plagued by technical issues when it comes to filing an application. On top of that, the maximum compensation that unemployed applicants can receive is $275 a week, among the lowest in the nation.
Of course, due to the global health crisis, the system is completely overloaded. The peak usage has doubled, so the online system has trouble handling it. The unemployment agency received 3.8 million calls last week. Governor Ron DeSantis mentioned his plan to add 2,000 workers to help with the number of claims, but some Disney union members say it is not enough.
Main Street, U.S.A.
According to the president of Unite Here Local 737 (one of the affected unions), Jeremy Haicken, “The system is broken. We’re not going to stop until Gov. DeSantis fixes this unemployment system.”
Click here to learn more about the recent furlough agreements.
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What do you think of the at-home protests in Orlando? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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I don’t blame the former cast members for being upset with the logistical hardships of signing up for unemployment benefits and for the relatively low amounts of benefits. However, this situation is unprecedented and the systems have been in place for some time and not designed for this number of enrollees so blaming Gov. DeSantis seems unfair. Moreover since this article came out the Governor has set up a system to auto-enroll Disney’s furloughed former employees (and hopefully others). In terms of compensation amounts voters have for decades consistently been pushing for various means to disincentivize people from staying on unemployment, including providing only subsistence living amounts. I’m not taking a position but again the situation being protested is the result of multiple decisions over long periods of time, not one that was just taken by one Governor. But I do hope people keep in mind that the former Disney employees are just some of the tens of millions of unemployed and business owners around the country with no means of making money so I don’t recommend just focusing on the CM’s. Let’s think about everyone, including many who don’t get the benefits some former Disney employees get.
I thought this was a food blog not a gossip blog.
Ditto Kris R & Andrea
So, we’re going political now?
It’s same everywhere. Live in PA and going through same thing. Sorry-no worker is above another one. Keep trying til you get through. And as far. as $275-that’s why people are getting extra $600 a week and stimulus payment. Would expect better from Cast Members!
There has been no such system set up for auto enrollment. This is something that has been mentioned with zero action taken. Also this blog is about Disney so it’s about Disney CMs too. You don’t like it you can go read something else and get over it.
I think Disney cast members should take over the unemployment system in Florida. They could run it efficiently and smoothly and professionally which would benefit all the unemployed applying for benefits. These Disney cast members have great skills that are transferable to other professions.
$275.00 a week is more than I get in Social Security. They should be happy to get that amount.
They are getting an extra 600 on top of the 275 per week thanks to the CARES ACT that passed in congress . So they will actually get 875 per week.
As an unemployment professional in a state with a similar system I must stand with the unemployment staff. My state has an online system that can be used to file a claim. While I understand that using a system you are not familiar with can be daunting my advice would be to slowly proceed and read the screens. Slow is the key. I understand the stress everyone is going through, my husband is a self employed business owner with no options to file a claim. Unemployment professionals are working 7 days a week to assist. Agencies have also been establishing remote working for all the employees because we must comply with the social distancing rules too. This is not a situation anyone anticipated. As for benefit amounts, the maximum benefits are set by the previous years median wages for the state. Then individual benefit amounts are based on the previous years earnings.
Jennifer Johnston, I completely agree with you that there are so many talented (sadly former) CM’s who in all too many unfortunate cases will not be going back to work at WDW, DL, cruises, etc.. Their skills are very transferable (I’ve had the pleasure of working with several former CM’s), whether they come from guest facing or non guest facing roles. Once the dust settles I’m sure that most will be just fine and bringing their Disney skills and lessons with them to benefit other organizations and customers.
The big distinction is that Disney is a for-profit business while public administration isn’t. I’m not trying to insult public employees (I’m proud to have been a Federal employee for 10 years), but all sorts of other considerations, including public politics, come into play and with terminating public employees being relatively hard, it’s not easy to keep the Disney value of “efficiency” at all times in many cases. Moreover, considering current wait times to get a CM on the telephone to change a reservation, inquire about reservations for personal events being what they are right now at WDW, even Disney itself is not being what we would usually expect of it due to the current crisis.
I’m totally with the Cast Members. The FL unemployment compensation system has been broken for a long time thanks to the legislature under former Governor Rick Scott, the present legislature and large corporations in FL. Yes, Disney stepped up to the plate and probably in the long run has done better by their employees than any other in Central FL, but you need to understand the wages are horrible in Central FL given the cost of living in this area. No affordable housing and the public transportation system is in need of a boat load of funding to bring it up to speed. Just read the article in today’s Sentinel on the front page and you will better understand the unique situation theme park, housekeeping, bar and restaurant employees face living in the Orlando area.
Candice, thanks for the recommendation on the Sentinel article. Ever since the Seventies, even before they started construction of WDW, there have been loud concerns voiced about the focus on the service/tourism sectors in Central Florida. Many have blamed Disney and others in the area for creating mostly lower wage jobs (I’ll steer clear of my opinions) and keeping the executive/highest paying jobs elsewhere (in Disney’s case Southern California and NY). In many ways Central FL is like a giant beach town/ski town, except over the past decade or so there isn’t too much of a “downtime” like there was when I was a kid. With the shutdown now/recession starting, areas like Central Florida that are so dependent on tourism and other purely discretionary spending will be disproportionately affected. Sadly it is the workers (like the CM’s) and small business owners who will suffer the most. I like to stay off property and I keep thinking of all the small stores and restaurants on I-Drive, 192, LBV area, etc. that I like to go to and were barely making it before all this. I know businesses and people in my own neighborhood and everyone else’s are also suffering, but I just fear that so many areas there that I liked to visit will end up looking like the dead strip malls you can see on parts of 192 and I-Drive.
I’ve been waiting for Two Weeks for the unemployment site and I did the paper form to and so get use to it and it’s not the Governor’s fault.
Isn’t it $275 plus $600 for a total of $875 per week?
I’m a Disney cast member, and right now, I’m scare. My husband was layoff 1 month ago. He applied for unemployment, and 1 month after he hasn’t received any money even though he claimed his first check. The system is broken, and every other week you have to login to claim payment, but it is almost impossible, since the system crash or is out for maintenance. Please lets do something all together to fix the unemployment system. I think everything that is happening is to discourage people. One moment is maintenance and another is crashing the system. Something is going here. They don’t want to pay us what is rightfully our.
They’re not former cast members. They’re still cast members who will get their jobs back when the dust settles. They keep all the benefits and the company pays their insurance premiums while furloughed. They’re just on unpaid leave….which still sucks, BTW.
J Mary, thanks for your service, I’m sure you and your colleagues must be super stressed and overworked these days. I appreciate you providing that information. Again, I have nothing but sympathy for what all the unemployed in America are going through. But it is wrong to blame all the current delays and logistical mishaps on any particular politician, agency staff, etc. Florida is not unique in unemployment applications and benefits delays now. Who could have possibly planned for the number of unemployed exploding like this so quickly? Again, even better resourced for profit very large corporations (like Disney) are having logistical challenges now. It’s a stressful situation and people are suffering. But it will have to come to an end. Hopefully we can all go back to work safely and soon.