ORLANDO, Fla. – The 38,000 members of Disney World Resort's union met in Kissimmee around 5 p.m. Monday, after the first day at the bargaining table with the Mouse. Union leaders described day one as a start.
"These negations, as we described in July, are aimed at raising the standard of living," Jeremy Haicken, President of UNITE HERE Local 737, which represents Disney's six unions, said.
The union proposed a $15 per hour starting wage to Disney, but Disney countered the proposal with one of their own: Employees making $10 per hour would have their pay raised to $10.25 per hour.
"Our starting cast members currently earn nearly $2 an hour more than Florida minimum wage," Andrea Finger, a Walt Disney World Resort spokesperson, said.
But cast members said they didn't think that was good enough as they pointed to the building boom at Disney theme parks. There are plans to build a dozen projects, including a $1 billion Star Wars Land both in Florida and one in California. Disney union members believe that as the company invests more in its products, it should also be investing more in its employees.
"The employees are the ones who come here and make it happen every day. Improvements are great, but keeping employees happy should be your primary concern," R.J. Greene, who works in food and beverages, said.
Economists argue that raising the starting wage so dramatically could result in less overtime pay, layoffs and other unintended consequences.
"You think just wave your wand and everyone gets $15 and working the same number of hours and the same number of people have jobs, but it's not what happens," Sean Snaith, the director of the Institute for Economic Competitiveness at the University of Central Florida, said. "What we have seen happen is acceleration of touch-screen ordering in fast-food restaurants."
Snaith defines most of the work performed by Disney cast members as "low-skilled labor," and said he thinks that, as an economy, "we're just not quite there yet" when it comes to the idea of paying the employees $15 per hour.