Starting wages will jump from $13.25 to $15 per hour on Jan. 31, 2019

Disneyland workers continue to canvass for living wage measure: “We won’t leave anyone behind.”

Anaheim, California – After a year and a half of union negotiations, members of UNITE HERE Local 11 and Disneyland Hotels have reached a tentative contract agreement.

The agreement includes historic raises for current Cast Members, a new starting wage of more than $15 per hour, and an agreement to pay workers the company’s $1,000 bonus announced after the Republican tax cut bill passed late last year.

Glynndana Shevlin-Sanchez, a resort concierge who just celebrated her thirty-year anniversary working at Disneyland, said, “I’m proud that all of us Cast Members stuck together and stayed strong to win the money we deserve for the value we create.”

Earlier this year, Occidental College and the Economic Roundtable published an economic survey of Disneyland Cast Members that found more than one out of ten Disneyland employees reported not having a place of their own in the past two years, and more than two-thirds were food insecure. Last summer, workers held a town hall with Senator Bernie Sanders to call attention to the survey results and their campaign for higher wages. At the same time, they also collected 22,000 signatures to put a living wage ordinance on the ballot in Anaheim, focused on employers who receive subsidies from the city.

UNITE HERE Local 11, the Coalition of Resort Labor Unions, and community partners remain committed to passing the living wage ordinance, Measure L, this November. Measure L would bring thousands of workers, including members of Workers United Local 50, up to a minimum of $15 an hour. The measure would cover all employees at businesses in the Resort District that receive subsidies from the City of Anaheim, including Disneyland. Under this ordinance, wages for tipped and nontipped workers would reach $18 by 2022 and go up by the cost of living starting January 1, 2023. Also, tips would be the sole property of employees.

“We fought hard for our contract and the raises we need, and we’ll keep fighting to pass Measure L,” said Shevlin-Sanchez. “We won’t leave anyone behind. If you receive taxpayer money from the City of Anaheim, you should pay your employees a living wage.”

Along with historic raises, UNITE HERE Local 11 members at Disneyland also negotiated fair workloads for housekeepers and will now have a new, affordable health insurance option. The four-year agreement would cover 2,700 cooks, housekeepers, housemen, bellmen, valet, servers, in-room dining and other staff at the resort’s three hotels. These workers are set to vote on whether to accept the contract on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday September 21–23.

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UNITE HERE Local 11 is a labor union representing over 30,000 hospitality workers in Southern California and Arizona working in hotels, restaurants, universities, convention centers, and airports.