Disney recently announced that it was laying off 28,000 workers due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Today the Orange County Register is reporting that thousands of those employees are restaurant & hotel workers as well as Imagineers.
The massive layoffs cost nearly 3500 Disneyland restaurant and hotel union workers their jobs and put over 400 Imagineers out of work.
Josh D’Amaro, chairman of the Disney Parks, Experiences and Products division, sent a letter to cast members explaining the difficult decision regarding these layoffs. Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Walt Disney Imagineering Disney Cruise Line, and Disney’s travel planning, retail, gaming and publishing divisions were all affected.
“We initially hoped that this situation would be short-lived, and that we would recover quickly and return to normal,” D’Amaro said in the letter to employees. “Seven months later, we find that has not been the case.”
So far it is estimated that over 5,000 cast members have been laid off from Disneyland with that number expected to rise. 2765 of those are non-union layoffs.
Workers United Local 50, which represents 7850 Disneyland cast members, expects 2500 of its food and beverage workers to be laid off.
“There is a lot of information we don’t know now and we are scheduled to meet with Disney in the coming days to get more information and bargain over the effects,” Workers United Local 50 president Chris Duarte wrote on the union’s Facebook page. “Here is what we know now: Who will actually be subject to layoff is still to be determined. The contract and bargaining will determine this.”
Another local union, Unite Here Local 11, expects 950 of its 3000 Disneyland employees to be laid off. Most of them are hotel workers.
“The union will engage in bargaining with the company over issues including job security and healthcare coverage,” Unite Here said in a statement.
One can assume that many of the layoffs are from Disneyland due to the parks and hotels not being allowed to reopen. Here’s hoping they will reopen soon so more layoffs won’t happen!
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Filed Under: Disneyland, News, Parks & Resorts, Disney layoffs, Imagineers, restaurant and hotel workers, Unions
