The massive layoffs coming to Disney theme parks in the U.S. as a result of the coronavirus pandemic are expected to cost nearly 3,500 Disneyland restaurant and hotel union workers their jobs and put more than 400 Imagineers out of work.
The Disney Parks, Experiences and Products division announced this week that 28,000 employees would be laid off at Disneyland, Disney World, Walt Disney Imagineering and in the company’s cruise line, travel planning, retail, gaming and publishing divisions.
Disneyland and Disney California Adventure closed in mid-March and remain shuttered while they await guidelines for safely reopening from the state. Disney theme parks in China, France, Japan and Florida have reopened with attendance capacity limits following extended coronavirus closures.
SEE ALSO: California ‘very close’ to reopening Disneyland and other theme parks, state official says
“We initially hoped that this situation would be short-lived, and that we would recover quickly and return to normal,” Disney parks boss Josh D’Amaro said in a letter to employees. “Seven months later, we find that has not been the case.”
SEE ALSO: State legislators call on Newsom to reopen California theme parks
An exact count of layoffs at the Disneyland resort is not yet available, but an early estimate puts the number in excess of 5,000 employees, known as cast members in Disney parlance. That number is expected to rise.
Layoff notifications have started going out to non-union, salaried and executive Disneyland employees — including some who have worked at the park for decades.
SEE ALSO: Disney postpones D23 Expo at Anaheim Convention Center until 2022 due to coronavirus
Unions that represent a vast majority of Disneyland cast members are just beginning to assess the massive layoffs that will impact their members. Disneyland’s union employees make up at least 28,000 of the 32,000 cast members at the two Anaheim theme parks.
Workers United Local 50 expects 2,500 of its 7,850 Disneyland 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.”
Unite Here Local 11 expects 950 of the nearly 3,000 Disneyland cast members it represents to be laid off — many of them 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.
Layoffs of union members are expected to be effective Nov. 1. Unions for sound technicians, stagehands, shopkeepers and other jobs at Disneyland and DCA are in the process of setting up meetings with Disney officials to discuss how the layoffs will affect their members.
SEE ALSO: What happens to Disneyland’s Critter Country after Splash Mountain makeover?
Disney announced 2,765 non-union layoffs in California due to continuing business impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic as part of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, known as the WARN Act.
Disney made the WARN Act notifications in four separate filings on Tuesday, Sept. 30. It’s unknown if more notifications are to follow.
The WARN Act layoffs — mostly in Anaheim — include 2,050 employees of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, 129 who work for Disney Entertainment Productions, 95 at Disney Destinations and 74 at Walt Disney Travel Co.
The WARN Act filings also included 411 layoffs at Walt Disney Imagineering in Glendale.
SEE ALSO: Will Disneyland close on weekdays when theme parks reopen?
In Florida, 6,700 non-union Disney World employees are expected to be laid off in December, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
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October 01, 2020 at 04:16AM
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Disneyland layoffs include thousands of restaurant and hotel workers plus hundreds of Imagineers - OCRegister
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