The Service Trades Council Union (STCU) – an umbrella organisation representing 36,000 Disney World Resort employees in Florida – is planning to hold talks with the company to discuss increasing their wages.
"23,000 cast members in the union make less than US$12 (€10.20, £9.10) an hour, and out of those, 8,000 earn US$10 (€8.50, £7.60) an hour,” said the STCU in a statement, explaining its decision.
"When you couple that with increasing rent, housing and child care costs, this is something that we find unacceptable," said Eric Clinton, president of one of the Unions under the STCU umbrella.
Aims of the upcoming talks will focus on three main priorities – accelerating the process towards providing a living wage of US$15 (€12.80, £11.50) an hour for all workers, a cost of living raise for veteran employees and the simplifying of employee pay scales.
The last time wages were discussed was in 2014 when the minimum wage at Disney increased from US$8 (€6.80, £6.10) to where it stands today, at US$10 (€8.50, £7.60) per hour. This agreement set a precedent across the Florida attractions and hospitality sectors, with both Universal Orlando and SeaWorld raising their minimum wages to US$9 (€7.60, £6.80) an hour.
The talks follow a dispute earlier in the year,
when Disney agreed to pay US$3.8m (€3.5m, £3m) in back wages, after officials found violations from the company regarding minimum wages, overtime pay, payroll records and unlawful staff wage deductions from uniform or ‘costume’ expenses.
Union officials are confident as these talks come at a time when Florida has its lowest unemployment rate in a decade and Disney is becoming more reliant on its parks due to online streaming services eating into the company's TV profits.
Talks are scheduled to begin on 28 August and could last until 24 October.
