Does anyone kind of dislike Disney now?

JasonMa

Active member
It takes a lot to get bounced from Disney, especially EPCOT and Food & Wine time, which is essentially an invitation to buy a ticket and stumble your way around the lagoon buying drinks.
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
Joe Brody said:
Sucks to suck. First Legionnaires Disease and now this. . . .


Nice Journal rag there Joe Brody. Nevertheless 5 hours is a long time without power. I'm blocked out this week, but that certainly put a strain on the other areas of the park. I'm sure there's a fox acquisition joke in here somewhere. I just can't come up with it tonight.
 

Le Saboteur

Active member
Here's a potential reason: "Be Prepared" will not appear in The Lion King remake. Comicbook.com is repeating news reported in The Sun: only four of the original's songs will appear in the flick -- 'Can You Feel the Love Tonight"', "Hakuna Matata', 'Circle of Life', and 'I Just Can't Wait to Be King'.

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I've gone from tepid interest to flat out non-interest. This will be another remake that remains unseen.
 

Joe Brody

Well-known member
Confession: I'm not exactly a Bernie Bro but I am a supporter. . . .which means I'm on his e-mail list. Today, I got an e-mail from the good Senator from Vermont entitled Disney represents much of what is wrong with contemporary capitalism . . . and as you can see from his message, we can add Bernie to the list of folks who kinda dislike Disney now. . . .


Joe,

The Walt Disney Company is an enormously profitable corporation worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 billion. Last year, it made $9 billion in profits and rewarded its CEO, Bob Iger, with a compensation package worth up to $423 million over a four year period. And as a result of the Trump tax cuts, they were given an additional $1.6 billion.

At the same time — and this is a national disgrace — employees at the company’s theme park in Anaheim, California are paid so poorly that many of them are literally living in a tent city not far from the park.

According to one recent study, nearly 1 in 10 workers employed at the park reported being homeless in the past two years, more than 2 in 3 say they are food insecure, and 3 out of 4 employees say they do not make enough money for their basic needs.

This is not what Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck are supposed to be about. This does not sound like the “happiest place on Earth” to me.

Now, I could be wrong, but I don’t expect you will see the plight of these low-wage workers at Disney discussed tonight on ABC, which is owned by Disney. Nor do I think you will be hearing too much about income and wealth inequality in the mainstream media.

That is why I am heading to California this weekend to rally with these workers and union organizers fighting to demand that Disney pay all of its workers a living wage.

Notably, in the Solo thread I've been assessing Kennedy's chances of surviving as the head of Lucasfilm and oddly enough, I think this helps her chances of not getting axed in the coming days . . . but what do I know.
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
Living in Southern California, and in the shadow of the mouse ears, I can tell you that the minimum wage at the park has been moved up to $15 an hour, two years ahead of California's agenda. It's a curious email. I think it's designed to drum support for Bernie, but it doesn't represent the most accurate Financial picture, nor all the dynamics they go into Disney's profitability. I'm not saying it's wrong, but it is a coveted job, for high school and college kids trying to make it in that tough economic Market. The pay is solid, the work is steady, and the conditions are pretty good, compared to other opportunities.
 

JasonMa

Active member
I believe I've mentioned here before that my mother-in-law worked at WDW until she passed away 3 years ago from lymphoma. I (being on the more liberal side of the scale) have never been fond of Disney as a corporation due to some of the stances they've taken but I have to say, they way they supported my mother-in-law through her illness and my father-in-law after she passed was better than I would expect from most companies. Now my mother-in-law was with Disney for 16 years, making her eligible (after 15) for retirement benefits, which might have changed how they handled things. That also allowed my father-in-law to keep many of the benefits after my mother-in-law died. He stayed on Disney's health insurance until he was eligible for Medicare, he kept access to the Disney banks and such, he still has the Silver Pass allowing him and his family (us) free admission to Disney parks, and they handled it all with a minimum of bureaucracy while he was dealing with his loss.

Again, this was a WDW employee after 15 years, it may be different at Disneyland, and Disney has issues with employees (their H-1B stunt a few years ago was ridiculous) but they don't seem to be the best target for this, unless the goal is more press than it is real change.
 
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