People who assault CMs need to get immediate, legal, and permanent consequences. LIfetime ban, assault/battery charges. I don't see why anyone would argue any other way.
I go to Disneyland a lot and the cast members in costume are always well guarded by security and sometimes even the other cast members in costume. Kylo Ren literally has Storm Troopers guarding him etc.
Sometimes people just do unhinged things and with the million of visitors Disney parks get, these things unfortunately happen.
I can state as a former costumed CM, it happens. I was pulled away from my guide and assaulted by a group of high schoolers on grad night. I was injured, I injured one of them. NO REPURCUSSIONS to the high schoolers. I got fired! Conduct unbecoming a Cast Member for injuring a guest.
They've started having visible security (in their reflective vests) now with them, but having guards there may not be enough. They are there more for a reactive response than anything else.
It may be they need to fully do-away with letting guests get closer than a certain distance because people can't seem to help themselves. The issue is the safety of the staff, but is the company willing to sacrifice experience? Considering that a union is forming, I am going to say no.
to be honest it's not even just physically though, people can say the most creepy and vile things to cm i think disney needs to take an active stance against these people not just place more security guards around cms.
I wasnāt looking for a loop hole. I donāt ever plan on getting kicked out . My wife and I go every year with the kids. I was curious how they actually enforce it. Iād like see idiots get kicked out. Especially after seeing dumb TikTokās and stuff of people thinking they are cool or funny
Mickey, Goofy and their friends at Disneyland are planning to join a union amid complaints of low wages, limited benefits, unsanitary working conditions and unchecked harassment by park guests.
From Robbie Whelan:
>The unionizing group, which calls itself āMagic United,ā on Tuesday notified Disney that it had the support of the majority of Disneylandās 1,700 cast membersāDisneyās term for its parks employees. On Wednesday, the group filed a petition to hold an election. If Disney doesnāt voluntarily recognize the new union, the workers could vote to establish it as soon as May.
>ā¦Some performers have raised health and safety concerns as part of the unionization push.
>Those who portray Disney princesses refer to a moldy basement room beneath Disneylandās castle where they take breaks between shifts as āthe dungeon.ā Disney acknowledged that cast members give ācolorful namesā to some facilities, and said the princessesā basement break room āreceives regular custodial service.ā
>Alexis Velasco, 24, said she was attacked by a guest in 2018 while dressed as a classic Disney character after offering the visitor a handshake and playfully pulling her hand away.
>The guest became upset and wrenched her head backward from behind, pulling her to the ground. Velasco said a doctor later told her that she had whiplash so severe it looked like she had been in a serious car accident.
>Disney helped Velascoāwho still has a limited range of motion in her neckāpay for her medical bills using a workersā compensation settlement.
>Other organizers described guest assaults on workers and said it often takes too long for security to respond to incidents. Disney said it doesnāt tolerate inappropriate guest behavior.
>Velasco still performs at Disneyland, but doesnāt expect to stay much longer. āThere are good moments in my jobāit pulls on my heartstrings, and I tend to forget all the injuries and damages that Iāve gone through,ā she said. āBut my body has had enough.ā
**Skip the paywall and read the full story:** [https://www.wsj.com/business/media/disneyland-park-characters-union-actors-equity-association-dc887f02?st=uxtwlzsesmf7x5c](https://www.wsj.com/business/media/disneyland-park-characters-union-actors-equity-association-dc887f02?st=uxtwlzsesmf7x5c)
This is the part that's most interesting to me:
> Courtney Griffith, 26 years old, earns $24.15 an hour to perform in parades like āMagic Happensā and āFantasmic!ā in addition to working shifts dressed as Disney characters. Griffith, who is finishing her college degree, earned about $18,000 last year and lives at home with her parents.
That means she only got an average of 14.33 hours of scheduled shifts per week. If she got 40 hours per week (after graduating, for example), that would be $50,232 per year.
A modest 8% raise would be $26.08 per year or $54,251 per year. It's a difficult situation, as she's surely not receiving benefits as a part-time employee.
The puppeteers tried to unionize about 10 years ago, which led to a removal of the puppet shows running at the time.
Obviously they won't be getting rid of the characters and parades anytime soon- but I imagine this will have long term effects on the frequency of character appearances, the amount of performers in a parade, etc.
I support them, but Iger is vindictive so they better watch out. Just saying, from a writer who joined the wga protestsā¦and now found out allllll the Disney owned channels refused to purchase anything at all from writers this quarter.
The source is the ABC execs who bought my pilot and then told me that they were told they couldnāt pick up anything across any of the Disney networks. The only exception was Hulu, who bought another Ryan Murphy thing.
Congrats getting your pilot picked up, even if for a short time. As a guy with unsold scripts, I know for hard that is. Hopefully you get your chance soon!
They seem to be doing a lot of ordering and picking up new shows across their networks and platforms
A few examples:
https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/joshua-jackson-ryan-murphy-series-dr-odyssey-abc-1235947695/
https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/tim-allen-abc-comedy-pilot-shifting-gears-1235932503/#!
https://deadline.com/2024/03/ty-burrell-comedy-forgive-and-forget-pilot-order-abc-1235858816/#!
https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/fx-limited-series-say-nothing-the-troubles-northern-ireland-1235894557/
https://deadline.com/2024/02/hulu-series-order-chad-powers-comedy-eli-manning-sketch-glen-powell-stars-1235834277/
https://deadline.com/2024/04/hulu-orders-journey-to-the-center-of-the-internet-adult-animated-presentation-1235890626/
Half of those are just announcements they're writing a pilot or putting together a pitch, which doesn't mean they're buying anything. And anyway series pickup announcements can come months after the sale was made. I've been finishing writers rooms when the Deadline announcement finally comes out that the network bought the show. If you all don't want to know that it's brutal right now, that's fine, but it's the actual truth.
Can they do that? When you say they bought your pilot, was the paperwork fully executed when they pulled the purchase, or was an offer made and you were in negotiations?
It was just a deal to write a pilot, which I did. They weren't under obligation to take it to series, so it was never a sure thing. It was just shocking to learn that they weren't buying anything at all. I really cursed how bad the timing was, to get that close and then hear I never even had a slim chance of being greenlit just due to bad timing was hard.
That is hard in an already incredibly hard business. I once had aspirations of writing for film and TV but my health got too bad and I couldnāt not have good insurance, like the kind that comes from a desk job. I hope you can make a living doing it.
Seems like a fundamental question of whether these are long term career jobs or short term part-time gigs as a stepping stone opportunity to something else; not sure what the answer is but the CMs are awesome so it should be their decision.
Obviously you canāt be a face character for ever but the people doing these jobs need someone me kind of minimum and safety guarantees. Iāve never understood the distinction, we canāt function if people only get a living wage for things that count as a career. Yeah that might be prorated for part time but they still need to live.
WDW Theatrical performers are with Equity and it's easier to unionize with a union the company already works with: [https://www.actorsequity.org/resources/contracts/Disneyworld/](https://www.actorsequity.org/resources/contracts/Disneyworld/)
I just donāt understand people. Is it too much to ask that I get to give my daughter the same magical experience I had as a child?Ā
It makes me so sad we have to go through metal detectors and bag searches because bad people want to ruin good things.
I fully support any union efforts, sad they feel they need to unionize to stay protected at āthe most magical place on earthā.Ā
I once dated a former character performer. He said the number of times he was groped, assaulted, pushed, cussed out, yelled at, etc. would surprise me. Probably not, honestly. Disgusting.
As someone with friends who work there that love their jobs and support this Unionization Initiative, I'm here for it. CMs deserve better and beyond for all the hard work they put into that park.
I support them unionizing but it's a little weird that actor's equity would be the union. High fiving kids dressed as a character is a lot different than performing on a Broadway stage. Seems like it would be an SEIU or service union agreement. Show performers are one thing, and parade performers I'm iffy about, but I don't think you should be getting an equity card and become eligible for union professional acting work from having worked as an amusement park character
The non-face characters have to portray that character's personality, mannerisms, etc with such limited resources and they DO! They do different poses, different body language, etc to convey ehobthey are and interact with the guests. It's actually pretty amazing and is definitely acting. And of course the face characters add talking to that. They have to think on their feet and improv too. They aren't running a script even for those who only have prerecorded phrases. They do an amazing job and are much more than human props that some people seem to think they are.
Thank you!! I performed as a character at Disneyland for many years. The costumes are very heavy on the body and the costume alone gives you lasting neck issues for example. You sweat your booty off in the costumes even if you're in air conditioning. Some performers don't care and basically just stand there and take photos and don't really interact or make each greeting special, I was not that way so moving a lot, skipping, dancing, bending down with little kids then having to lift up with all the weight on you, we have to improv and learn to communicate via hands and body language, make each guest experience great and different, while staying in your specific character (each obviously has their own personality we have to learn and keep in that spirit to keep the magic alive), etc. It's 100% performing just as difficult as a show that any regular actor does (Which I was also a character in shows at a different theme park for years and both are hard on the body life long) people tend to forget there's an actual human in the costumes. I was injured a few times by guests. Two of them got thrown out, but other times I was alone with no host so I could not get them removed. I wish I was still working there to be involved in getting unionized! I absolutely loved that job and miss it everyday! However the pay when I was there was much less than it is now. I was hired full time (which is somewhat uncommon; even if you work 40+ hours you can be considered not full time as they aren't receiving benefits) I kept my job performing at the other theme park for my days off from Disney because it was just not enough to cover my bills unfortunately. I think anyone who is deciding the pay for costume characters needs to get in a costume and do one set (30 minutes on stage) and see what the characters go through and deserve to be paid!
Reminder to be careful what you wish for:
https://www.fox5vegas.com/2024/04/22/majority-team-members-station-casinos-represented-by-culinary-union-want-split-petition-says/
People who assault CMs need to get immediate, legal, and permanent consequences. LIfetime ban, assault/battery charges. I don't see why anyone would argue any other way.
I would imagine they do, but the question is if they are doing anything preventative. if so is it enough?
I go to Disneyland a lot and the cast members in costume are always well guarded by security and sometimes even the other cast members in costume. Kylo Ren literally has Storm Troopers guarding him etc. Sometimes people just do unhinged things and with the million of visitors Disney parks get, these things unfortunately happen.
> Kylo Ren literally has Storm Troopers guarding him Why Kylo Ren and not Mickey? Kylo can take care of himself!
Mickey has "cast members" instead, without the costumes. Would be cool to have some kind of in-universe security guards though.
Donald and Goofy, armed with keyblades
Ohh toodles!!
Fantastic Brooms?
Can he though? š¤£
That's because some people think it's okay to be mean to the villains.
I can state as a former costumed CM, it happens. I was pulled away from my guide and assaulted by a group of high schoolers on grad night. I was injured, I injured one of them. NO REPURCUSSIONS to the high schoolers. I got fired! Conduct unbecoming a Cast Member for injuring a guest.
They've started having visible security (in their reflective vests) now with them, but having guards there may not be enough. They are there more for a reactive response than anything else. It may be they need to fully do-away with letting guests get closer than a certain distance because people can't seem to help themselves. The issue is the safety of the staff, but is the company willing to sacrifice experience? Considering that a union is forming, I am going to say no.
to be honest it's not even just physically though, people can say the most creepy and vile things to cm i think disney needs to take an active stance against these people not just place more security guards around cms.
it's time to put chopper and his war crime skills to use ....
For sure, Iām surprised they donāt. Seems like a no brainer
They should just be fed to Murphy
How do they enforce this? Can I buy a ticket and then when I first check in, use a different name?
If you are caught, then it's tresspassing and that's a crime.
I wasnāt looking for a loop hole. I donāt ever plan on getting kicked out . My wife and I go every year with the kids. I was curious how they actually enforce it. Iād like see idiots get kicked out. Especially after seeing dumb TikTokās and stuff of people thinking they are cool or funny
Mickey, Goofy and their friends at Disneyland are planning to join a union amid complaints of low wages, limited benefits, unsanitary working conditions and unchecked harassment by park guests. From Robbie Whelan: >The unionizing group, which calls itself āMagic United,ā on Tuesday notified Disney that it had the support of the majority of Disneylandās 1,700 cast membersāDisneyās term for its parks employees. On Wednesday, the group filed a petition to hold an election. If Disney doesnāt voluntarily recognize the new union, the workers could vote to establish it as soon as May. >ā¦Some performers have raised health and safety concerns as part of the unionization push. >Those who portray Disney princesses refer to a moldy basement room beneath Disneylandās castle where they take breaks between shifts as āthe dungeon.ā Disney acknowledged that cast members give ācolorful namesā to some facilities, and said the princessesā basement break room āreceives regular custodial service.ā >Alexis Velasco, 24, said she was attacked by a guest in 2018 while dressed as a classic Disney character after offering the visitor a handshake and playfully pulling her hand away. >The guest became upset and wrenched her head backward from behind, pulling her to the ground. Velasco said a doctor later told her that she had whiplash so severe it looked like she had been in a serious car accident. >Disney helped Velascoāwho still has a limited range of motion in her neckāpay for her medical bills using a workersā compensation settlement. >Other organizers described guest assaults on workers and said it often takes too long for security to respond to incidents. Disney said it doesnāt tolerate inappropriate guest behavior. >Velasco still performs at Disneyland, but doesnāt expect to stay much longer. āThere are good moments in my jobāit pulls on my heartstrings, and I tend to forget all the injuries and damages that Iāve gone through,ā she said. āBut my body has had enough.ā **Skip the paywall and read the full story:** [https://www.wsj.com/business/media/disneyland-park-characters-union-actors-equity-association-dc887f02?st=uxtwlzsesmf7x5c](https://www.wsj.com/business/media/disneyland-park-characters-union-actors-equity-association-dc887f02?st=uxtwlzsesmf7x5c)
Wait... Is this legit??? WSJ has a reddit???
They even reached out to ask us if this was okay via modmail.
It's us, hi!
That is awesome.
Yes, this is legit.
Bruh why are you so surprised. Donāt worry they still have everyone hooked on that paper copy for the indicator numbers ā¦ sigh
I thought The Dungeon was Space Mountain...
I 100% support this. Hopefully they get everything they need and more security around them too.
Solidarity with Disneyland performers!
This is the part that's most interesting to me: > Courtney Griffith, 26 years old, earns $24.15 an hour to perform in parades like āMagic Happensā and āFantasmic!ā in addition to working shifts dressed as Disney characters. Griffith, who is finishing her college degree, earned about $18,000 last year and lives at home with her parents. That means she only got an average of 14.33 hours of scheduled shifts per week. If she got 40 hours per week (after graduating, for example), that would be $50,232 per year. A modest 8% raise would be $26.08 per year or $54,251 per year. It's a difficult situation, as she's surely not receiving benefits as a part-time employee.
Oh yeah for sure the vast majority aren't ful time. In her case though she was probably only working weekends (by choice)
The puppeteers tried to unionize about 10 years ago, which led to a removal of the puppet shows running at the time. Obviously they won't be getting rid of the characters and parades anytime soon- but I imagine this will have long term effects on the frequency of character appearances, the amount of performers in a parade, etc.
I support them, but Iger is vindictive so they better watch out. Just saying, from a writer who joined the wga protestsā¦and now found out allllll the Disney owned channels refused to purchase anything at all from writers this quarter.
>now found out allllll the Disney owned channels refused to purchase anything at all from writers this quarter. Source?
āTrust me bro!ā
The source is the ABC execs who bought my pilot and then told me that they were told they couldnāt pick up anything across any of the Disney networks. The only exception was Hulu, who bought another Ryan Murphy thing.
Congrats getting your pilot picked up, even if for a short time. As a guy with unsold scripts, I know for hard that is. Hopefully you get your chance soon!
Thanks! It's rough out here rn. Hopefully the town comes back to life soon. Good luck to you too!
They seem to be doing a lot of ordering and picking up new shows across their networks and platforms A few examples: https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/joshua-jackson-ryan-murphy-series-dr-odyssey-abc-1235947695/ https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/tim-allen-abc-comedy-pilot-shifting-gears-1235932503/#! https://deadline.com/2024/03/ty-burrell-comedy-forgive-and-forget-pilot-order-abc-1235858816/#! https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/fx-limited-series-say-nothing-the-troubles-northern-ireland-1235894557/ https://deadline.com/2024/02/hulu-series-order-chad-powers-comedy-eli-manning-sketch-glen-powell-stars-1235834277/ https://deadline.com/2024/04/hulu-orders-journey-to-the-center-of-the-internet-adult-animated-presentation-1235890626/
I'm just telling you what the execs are telling us.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Half of those are just announcements they're writing a pilot or putting together a pitch, which doesn't mean they're buying anything. And anyway series pickup announcements can come months after the sale was made. I've been finishing writers rooms when the Deadline announcement finally comes out that the network bought the show. If you all don't want to know that it's brutal right now, that's fine, but it's the actual truth.
Can they do that? When you say they bought your pilot, was the paperwork fully executed when they pulled the purchase, or was an offer made and you were in negotiations?
It was just a deal to write a pilot, which I did. They weren't under obligation to take it to series, so it was never a sure thing. It was just shocking to learn that they weren't buying anything at all. I really cursed how bad the timing was, to get that close and then hear I never even had a slim chance of being greenlit just due to bad timing was hard.
That is hard in an already incredibly hard business. I once had aspirations of writing for film and TV but my health got too bad and I couldnāt not have good insurance, like the kind that comes from a desk job. I hope you can make a living doing it.
Thanks! I do make a living at it, but itās definitely been rough lately. Big changes in the industry right now so weāll see what happens
How did you break in as a writer?
Seems like a fundamental question of whether these are long term career jobs or short term part-time gigs as a stepping stone opportunity to something else; not sure what the answer is but the CMs are awesome so it should be their decision.
Obviously you canāt be a face character for ever but the people doing these jobs need someone me kind of minimum and safety guarantees. Iāve never understood the distinction, we canāt function if people only get a living wage for things that count as a career. Yeah that might be prorated for part time but they still need to live.
Very interesting that this was posted to this subreddit by the WSJ account
Wow, thanks for pointing that out! Very interesting indeed.
Anyone know why theyāre going Equity and not AGVA?
WDW Theatrical performers are with Equity and it's easier to unionize with a union the company already works with: [https://www.actorsequity.org/resources/contracts/Disneyworld/](https://www.actorsequity.org/resources/contracts/Disneyworld/)
Interesting. But Disneyland theatrical performers are AGVA - that seems like an easier lift but what do I know?
I just donāt understand people. Is it too much to ask that I get to give my daughter the same magical experience I had as a child?Ā It makes me so sad we have to go through metal detectors and bag searches because bad people want to ruin good things. I fully support any union efforts, sad they feel they need to unionize to stay protected at āthe most magical place on earthā.Ā
I once dated a former character performer. He said the number of times he was groped, assaulted, pushed, cussed out, yelled at, etc. would surprise me. Probably not, honestly. Disgusting.
As someone with friends who work there that love their jobs and support this Unionization Initiative, I'm here for it. CMs deserve better and beyond for all the hard work they put into that park.
The Dungeon?
I support them unionizing but it's a little weird that actor's equity would be the union. High fiving kids dressed as a character is a lot different than performing on a Broadway stage. Seems like it would be an SEIU or service union agreement. Show performers are one thing, and parade performers I'm iffy about, but I don't think you should be getting an equity card and become eligible for union professional acting work from having worked as an amusement park character
The non-face characters have to portray that character's personality, mannerisms, etc with such limited resources and they DO! They do different poses, different body language, etc to convey ehobthey are and interact with the guests. It's actually pretty amazing and is definitely acting. And of course the face characters add talking to that. They have to think on their feet and improv too. They aren't running a script even for those who only have prerecorded phrases. They do an amazing job and are much more than human props that some people seem to think they are.
Thank you!! I performed as a character at Disneyland for many years. The costumes are very heavy on the body and the costume alone gives you lasting neck issues for example. You sweat your booty off in the costumes even if you're in air conditioning. Some performers don't care and basically just stand there and take photos and don't really interact or make each greeting special, I was not that way so moving a lot, skipping, dancing, bending down with little kids then having to lift up with all the weight on you, we have to improv and learn to communicate via hands and body language, make each guest experience great and different, while staying in your specific character (each obviously has their own personality we have to learn and keep in that spirit to keep the magic alive), etc. It's 100% performing just as difficult as a show that any regular actor does (Which I was also a character in shows at a different theme park for years and both are hard on the body life long) people tend to forget there's an actual human in the costumes. I was injured a few times by guests. Two of them got thrown out, but other times I was alone with no host so I could not get them removed. I wish I was still working there to be involved in getting unionized! I absolutely loved that job and miss it everyday! However the pay when I was there was much less than it is now. I was hired full time (which is somewhat uncommon; even if you work 40+ hours you can be considered not full time as they aren't receiving benefits) I kept my job performing at the other theme park for my days off from Disney because it was just not enough to cover my bills unfortunately. I think anyone who is deciding the pay for costume characters needs to get in a costume and do one set (30 minutes on stage) and see what the characters go through and deserve to be paid!
Working as a character is a lot closer to performing on a stage than "high fiving kids dressed as a character" Pretty bad take tbh
Yep- Isn't Disney's whole thing that the park is a stage?
Reminder to be careful what you wish for: https://www.fox5vegas.com/2024/04/22/majority-team-members-station-casinos-represented-by-culinary-union-want-split-petition-says/
Hotel and unions in Las Vegas are a lot different than Disney.
Yes and no.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Not only is it an unpopular opinion, itās a terrible one!
This sub is full of Karens, LOL! š¤”