At Noon Press Conference Unions Announced Furloughs With Health Insurance for 40,000 Disney Workers
This morning, we here at MickeyBlog told you that the largest union coalition representing Disney World employees had reached a furlough agreement with Disney the details of which we would find out about during a noon press conference. We wanted to come back to you with what we know now.
According to a piece in the Orlando Sentinel, about 40,000 unionized Disney World workers will be furloughed starting April 19. This makes it the largest wave of Disney employees at the resort to be furloughed during Walt Disney World’s Resort as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.
The Service Trades Council Union STCU is made up of six locals. During their LIVE Facebook conference at noon today (April 11, 2020.) they said that Disney agreed that it would provide free health care benefits for a year and extend other benefits including the Aspire program. In addition about 200 workers deemed essential to current operations will stay on the job during the theme park closure.
For a closure look at the agreement, check out this tweet from Greg Angel of MyNews13:
Here is the full furlough agreement between Walt Disney World and the group of six unions that represent 40,000+ Disney cast members (employees).
Job protections and full health benefits for a year are marquee points. @MyNews13 @bn9 pic.twitter.com/tK5hWTMVgN
— Greg Angel (@NewsGuyGreg) April 11, 2020
As we mentioned during our post this morning, Disney announced that non-union employees and members of other unions not in the coalition above will also be furloughed without pay starting on April 19th. These employees will continue to receive health insurance as well as enrollment in Disney’s Aspire education program for hourly employees.
The 40,000+ members represented by the STUC fill many different roles at Disney including resort employees, vacation planners, custodians and Disney characters. The coalition represents over half of the 77,000 employees working at Walt Disney World.
This is a story we’ll continue to follow closely so readers are encouraged to keep checking in with MickeyBlog for the latest news and updates!
Source: Orlando Sentinel
