Cynthia “Cyn” Carranza meticulously scavenged for a shady parking spot in the car she called home.
The overnight custodian at Disneyland has to sleep during the day - a difficulty for anyone, let alone when you’re living in your car with two dogs. Ms Carranza says she makes $20.65 an hour (about £15.99) at the park but last summer, she couldn’t afford rent in this Southern California city where the average apartment can run more than $2,000 (about £1,550) a month.
…
Ms Carranza, like others who work at the park, detailed to the BBC the financial hardships that come with working at what’s supposed to be the “Happiest Place on Earth”. About 10,000 union workers at Disneyland - the first of 12 parks created around the globe - are threatening to strike over the wages and what they say are retaliatory anti-union practices.
Hundreds of workers protested outside the park this week, with an array of signs and pins showing Mickey Mouse’s gloved fist in defiance.
“Mickey would want fair pay,” workers chanted outside Disneyland near the park’s gates.
They voted almost unanimously to authorise strike action on Friday, just days before union contract negotiations for workers are set to resume.
To show how bad $20/hour is (some people might think that is a lot due to local situation) someone paying $2000/month rent should have $6666/month gross income (using 30% rule). That equates to just under $40/hour at 40hours/week.
They are literally making half what they need to live.
Part of the problem is that the main anti-Disney political coalition doesn’t want to address the local housing crisis; they want the region to go back to being a suburban sprawl.
You could easily build dense housing in the area that meets the balloon test, but Disney doesn’t want to push it and the anti-coalition doesn’t want it either.
Disney could build affordable housing, too, as a perk.
You’d need some serious regulation and enforcement. Company towns have historically been, uh… not great.
For example, imagine Disney rents apartments cheap to their employees but still underpays them. Now they’re stuck working for Disney because they can’t afford the rent offsite and can’t save enough to quit.
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Oh dear. Education has really failed this country.
Even in cases where companies may have the workers’ best interests at heart, company towns ultimately lead to a lack of personal freedom. If churches are selected for residents at the company’s whim, that means that other denominations and entire religions are left out in the cold. Choices—whether bad or good—are taken out of the residents’ hands. Recreation is dictated by companies, and anything that may be perceived as uncouth or immoral is no longer an option. Personal exploration is thinned to none, and a utopia quickly becomes a force of oppression.
In the case of less well-intentioned towns, matters get only worse. In some locations, companies would compensate workers with a scrip—a monetary substitute that was valid only at stores owned by that same company. As there were no competitors for these monopolistic stores, buildings, and services, the price was fully at the discretion of the owner. Housing costs, groceries, and other necessities then became exorbitantly priced.
Since the company that owned the town knew that all the residents had steady, reliable jobs, some of them allowed shoppers who were financially strapped to simply charge goods and services to a tab as needed. Of course, this meant that workers quickly racked up large debts—debts they were obligated to settle before they ever even thought about leaving the town.
As for the actual living conditions in such towns, they were far from the idyllic neighborhoods many might have aspired to. Houses were built as close together as physically possible, so as to allow the greatest number of workers to reside there. Besides lacking privacy and being shabbily built, one could only hope a home in the neighborhood didn’t fall victim to a fire, or else the whole lot would go up in flames. Beyond that, company towns were also typically surrounded by fences or guards. This was allegedly for the workers’ protection. But in areas throughout the South, the truth was rather transparent: as free laborers and convict laborers were housed in the same areas, both groups fell victim to equally abhorrent treatment.
Please, go and read up on Company Towns. They were never a good thing, and often a very, very bad thing.
As there were no competitors for these monopolistic stores, buildings, and services, the price was fully at the discretion of the owner. Housing costs, groceries, and other necessities then became exorbitantly priced.
So you’re saying the entire country has been diminished into a company town? I guess this tracks considering the legalized bribery our corporate oligarchs leverage to control politicians and regulators.
They’re certainly working on it.
The one thing we still have going for us today vs in the past is that debts used to be inheritable. So if/when a Company worker died (and they often did, as most Company Towns were formed around very dangerous jobs) then their wife and children were on the hook.
That meant that if their surviving family had no job, or money to pay off the debt, the Company basically owned them at that point. And the Company could even sell the debt to a person who could pay it—and that got the payee a slave.
(Yes, technically, the person who bought the debt had to pay their newly acquired person a wage, so that person could pay them back to earn their freedom. But as there were no laws as to what wage to set, all they had to do was pay their new indentured servant such a pittance and charge them such high fees for room & board that they would be stuck working for their new owner forever—and even pass the debt on to their heirs, if they ever had any.)
Or, the family could simply be sent to debtor’s prison to rot.
I expect to see these old laws make a comeback at some point, especially if they get Project 2025 rolling.
They do in Florida because, until a few years ago, they had complete control over the municipal government they operated in.
Disney has never had such control over the land around Disneyland.
30% rule is long dead.
As a former Disney cast member, I wholly support this protest and I truly hope they strike.
In worked from 2008-2016 and started at $9.05/hr. We got 2% a year in raises, but in that time new hires would start at higher wages and they wouldn’t match the employees who had been there to the new employees wage. Brand new employees would make more than those that had been there years.
When Anaheim had a ballet measure to raise the minimum wage they raised a ton of cast members wages to $3 less than the measure in hopes they could discourage people to vote for it. Fortunately, the measure passed. However, during this period they didn’t retain the yearly raises, everyone was raised to the exact same wage. Those who had been there 30 years (no exaggeration) made exactly the same as new hires.
They’ve gotten hostile to their employees and the “perks” that employees for have been slowly stripped away. Each year getting slightly worse. Which is a problem because new hires don’t know how much better it used to be so they don’t know what to demand anymore.
I knew cast members that used to live 6 or 8 people to a two bedroom apartment. Most worked multiple jobs. Many of the entertainers who play as the characters ended up injured from wearing the Mickey and other character costumes. Multiple who had to have surgery to treat those injuries.
They have let standards fall, hard. The parks aren’t what they used to be and literally the only thing keeping them together is the cast. They try so fucking hard to bring the magic to guests each and every day. They have been kneecapped by management though. IMO, of all “attractions” at the parks, the cast are the best. And the one that management should be investing in the most. They are the differentiator between Disney and Knott’s Berry Farm, Universal Studios, and Six Flags. However leadership has constantly worked to move interactions from Cast Members to their half baked app.
Understand that all these cast members do it because they love bringing the magic to the guests. They endure shitty pay, shitty management, and injury for the guests. They care so much about making the public and tourists happy. They deserve so much more.
I need to know more about “the Mickey” and the surgeries it caused… was it too top heavy or something?
That’s part of it, and the way it would sit on the shoulders. Lots of neck and spine issues. Then the hands would lead to repetitive stress injuries for some of their motions.
What a bunch of naive idiots LOL look at me I’m bringing joy to some stuck up rich kids but my life is a dumpster fire, yay!!! 🤣🤣🤣
Not everyone who goes is rich. And yes, they like making people happy regardless of the audiences social status. Many are simply entertainers and they like putting a show on.
Why make fun of people who are trying to bring a little joy to the world?
Because it’s entertaining to think how comically dumb someone would be to choose to be homeless so they can wear furry suits and play with kids…
The problem here is two-fold, I think. Disneyland can 100% afford to pay a lot more, for one, but also the rent in California is insanely inflated and needs to come down.
It’s like these people are getting fucked at both ends
Repeal Prop 13
Ms Carranza says she makes $20.65 an hour
Makes sense. They couldn’t afford to pay her more.
Disney Parks has just released its fourth quarter and full-year earnings, posting a record $32.5 billion in revenue for fiscal 2023, which ended September 30, 2023.
https://blogmickey.com/2023/11/disney-parks-posts-record-32-5-billion-revenue-in-2023/
Disney has a market cap or net worth of $174.83 billion as of July 19, 2024. Its market cap has increased by 5.72% in one year.
You don’t understand. If they paid her and the rest of the employees what would be a living wage, they would make only $32.4 billion. See? It can’t be done.
I ran the numbers and it’s actually $31.46 billion. But you’re not far off.
We really need to eat the greedy. They’re human fucking waste.
I saw something recently about composting them instead. I like that idea.
Pushing daises would be so much more useful.
I thought you pulled that number out your ass.
Then I did the math. I really am hungry for some rich right about now.
Why would their revenue be lower…?
True, the revenue wouldn’t be lower. But profit would be about a billion dollars lower. We don’t know what else their expenditures are, but salaries are usually the highest cost in a corporation. In this case, raising pay eats into profits by about 2.8%.
OK, but people are talking about revenue numbers, which sounds stupid.
Because people don’t understand the difference
That does not sound like the greatest place on earth to work.
They call it The Happiest Place on Earth. Having been there as a non-employee, it was not even the happiest place in Southern California. In fact, there are a very large number of extremely overstimulated and entirely not happy children.
And they wish you a magical day as you are dropped off at your car where you get to have a very non-magical drive down a freeway in Anaheim.
And that’s for the people who pay them.
2 dogs? Living in a car? How??? Why???
For protection.
“I don’t have enough money to pay rent… I’ve got an idea! I would get a dog!”
Or… “I work hard and live modestly in a small apartment with two dogs that I love. Oops, the landlord just jacked up my rent and I can no longer afford it, and the multi-billion dollar company I work for refuses to allow pay increases to help their low-paid employees deal with inflating prices. Now, I have to live in my car briefly while I figure this situation out.”
“briefly”
Two years
Reading the other comments, apparently its a human right to keep a dog no matter what your living situation and suggesting they give it up is evil.
We get it, you have no empathy, neither for homeless people nor even for dogs.
Do the dogs sit in the car all day? In orlando florida? Doesnt that normally kill the dogs? How is it possible for 2 dogs to live in a car while their owner is at work?
Disneyland is in Anaheim, California. It is a dry heat.
Oh I missed that. Its fine then.
Oh yeah, it’s dry heat so it doesn’t affect car interiors, how stupid of us!
Do you think those dogs have appropriate living conditions? Seems to me like you’re the one that has no empathy for them.
Very possibly, better than the alternative in most cities…
Two fucking years living in a car? No, that’s not appropriate conditions.
And going to a kill shelter is?
There it is
Being homeless might be the reason she got the dogs.
Homeless women are vulnerable and dogs provide protection.
Cat people, really.
big corporation under-pays workers, absolute shocker.
There are so many seasonal tourist businesses in the US. Many of these places are either very remote or extremely popular. These businesses need seasonal workers for 3-8 months. The vast majority require housing.
Many of these businesses provide. The smaller ones may have a room or cabin. Larger ones may have salvage travel trailers and shanty apartments. In remote places the only store nearby is the company store. If a worker’s vehicle breaks they’re effectively trapped.
Back to the 1800s, I guess.
Disneyland is definitely not a seasonal tourist business. It is packed 365 days a year.
Just like Vail, extremely popular, where workers are housed.
Don’t worry front line workers. The C-Suite and the shareholders appreciate your sacrifice to allow them to make more money.
This is was workers need to strike and form unions.
“Mickey would want fair pay,”
Are we sure about that?
One of his best friends is related to a billionaire.
Seriously, I’m all for labor action (solidarity forever!), but that is one lame-ass chant lol.
Even while being bent over a barrel by them, Disney adults will be Disney adults I guess. Especially the ones who work there.
Last time I checked motels are definitely more expensive… More than 8-9 days a month and you have enough money for $1000 a month in rent. Who in the fuck wants to work at Disney Land anyway
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Tldr sounds like you need to get out the city big dawg
Homeless people normally take very good care of their dogs. Dogs are very adaptable. For anyone questioning this, please do some research and check your privilege. You might be surprised at what you learn.
this is becoming normal for most in the US
hardly anyone here makes over $20 an hour and it shows that people are unable to afford to go to work due to subpar pay
know a plumbing business in our area that pays its employees less than $15 an hour and that is considered good pay in this area with housing and food as high as the rest of the country
and the US has not had a proworker president ever
Biden threatened the last workers to protest for better with the threat of losing their livelihoods
cost of vehicle ownership is astronomical these days how could anyone in the US afford both housing and a vehicle with average US pay
know people skipping insurance and registration fees due to low pay and high cost
all this has to come to a head at some point
going to a grocery store that is not fully stocked and only the self-checkouts are open because the pay is so low no one can afford to work is more than normal now in the US
thanks Trump and Biden for making the US a better place for the elites
going to a grocery store that is not fully stocked and only the self-checkouts are open because the pay is so low no one can afford to work is more than normal now in the US
Look at the upside - easier to shoplift.
On a more serious note though, this is all a feature, not a bug. As the meme goes - everything they threatened would eventually happen under communism is already happening under capitalism. At it will never get better until capitalism is abolished and a hierarchy free, horizontal society is built on its ashes.
Yes, this is about Trump and Biden and not the Walt Disney Company. We can’t possibly use this thread to talk about how awful the Walt Disney Company is and how they are to blame for this because they could afford to pay their workers more if they wanted to. That might be too relevant.
The Walt Disney Company is awful, true, but do not make the mistake of thinking they are uniquely awful. This is every company. This is the world we live in. The whole damn system is rotten to the core, and the people with the power to fix it either do nothing to do so or deliberately make it worse for their own benefit.
This is a story uniquely about them. Biden and Trump do not need to be brought into it. The person I replied to tries to make everything about this election and especially Biden.
This is not a story uniquely about them, is my point. This story could be about any employer in Anaheim, or in many parts of the country. This particular one just happens to be about Disney.
You would have us ignore the context this story exists in, which is perilous. Even if Disney doubled everybody’s salary overnight, that wouldn’t fix any of the issues that brought us to this point; there would still be millions of workers who can’t afford to live, just a few less. But that’s the mistake everybody makes - “Look at these awful people! Aren’t they awful?!” without looking at the broader issues that enrich awful people and encourage people to be awful.
If you truly want things to change, you should welcome this talk, not push back against it.
Squid is right. VB is a bOtH siDeS account trying to get people to not vote. You should check out their post history. Have had them tagged as a troll for a couple months.
Ah, OK. Fuck that then.
Vote. Vote like your life depends on it. It does.
Biden sucks, but he can at least be convinced to do the right thing sometimes (and even if he can’t, another election is four years away). Trump is a straight up fascist autocrat.
You would have us ignore the context this story exists in
No, I would have the person I responded to not twist this into their election agenda.
Please don’t tell me what I would have people do. You are not psychic.
No, but I can read.
We absolutely should be talking about this story in the broader context of our society, including, yes, the election. I don’t know what conversations you’ve had with that user in the past, but the election and our leaders should absolutely be brought up here. They are the people with the power to fix things, after all.
What, specifically, could a president do to fix this? They aren’t a dictator (unless Trump gets in). The president can’t raise minimum wage. He can’t force a corporation to pay people more. It has nothing to do with Trump and Biden.
Now if you want to talk about congress, fine. They’re the ones who have to fix this.
thanks Trump and Biden for making the US a better place for the elites
Just to clarify. These two are not the same.
If I had to live in a car, I wouldn’t have two dogs.
She probably had the dogs before she ended up in the car. And yes, expecting her to give them up is asking way too much of her before anyone suggests it.
In other words you think it’s reasonable to criticise homeless people for not giving up and abandoning their companions and dependants, who provide comfort and love in the bleakest of times, as soon as times got hard… Classy.
I would criticize anyone wasting money on an animal while living so close to their means that homelessness could conceivably be in their near future. Sometimes you have to make choices you don’t want to; she probably never had the means to support those animals. The argument isn’t that she should get rid of them, it’s that she never should have had them in the first place. Animals are expensive, and I also wonder what she could do now if she had all the money she spent on them over the years of ownership.
To be clear, I’m not advocating for $20/hr being considered a livable wage. Disney should be ashamed. Anyone working a full time job should be able to afford a pet if they want one. I just also believe in personal accountability.
she probably never had the means to support those animals
Speculation, and baseless at that.
she never should have had them in the first place
Things change, bud. I have a stable job now, have had it for over five years, but I might not in a month or a year. Dogs live for longer than that.
I think a pretty good rule of thumb is that if you find yourself speculating about someone else’s life or the future, there’s probably a lot you don’t know, so dial down the judgement.
I’m just operating on the information I was given. In a vacuum, all other things being equal, animals are a net cost, one she clearly cannot afford. I’m not speculating any more than that.
One she clearly cannot afford now, but that doesn’t mean she couldn’t afford them when she got them.
I’m not speculating any more than that
It is this exact speculation I’m telling you is the problem. You don’t know so you default to saying she’s irresponsible, despite having no evidence other than she fell on hard times while dogs were under her care. You don’t even know what you’re blaming her for, just the result, which is fucked up yo.
You’re just operating on your assumptions and confirmation bias.
Do better.
Show me better data and I’d be glad to.
Show us why you believe they got the dogs after they were homeless.
I think everyone deserves a chance at having a loving companion, even poor people.
I never said I disagreed, just that reality isn’t always congruent with equity and fairness.
Then there’s something seriously wrong with our society’s reality.
Even if they treat those companions badly?
I just also believe in personal accountability.
Something something bootstraps!
Jfc… 🤦♀️
You could have saved yourself a little typing and just said you’re a wilfully ignorant classist bootlicker… 🙄
Careful though, just like the majority of the population, you’re barely a missed pay check or two, or one big accident/disaster, away from being homeless yourself… That despicable attitude of yours may very well come back to bite you in your self cantered unempathetic ass sooner than you think…
You think it’s ok to leave two dogs in a car all day in the weather they have over there?
You’re making a lot of assumptions about my choices. I choose to live well below my means because I don’t want this to happen to me. I don’t have pets, despite wanting them. I didn’t buy a nice house on an expensive loan; I rent a small crappy place in a decently safe area. I don’t buy cars on loans, I fix them myself until I need to buy a new one in cash… I live as if I make half as much as I do, and have done so since working my way through school.
She should be making 40+/HR for what she does. Hard work out in the sun all day is brutal and should be adequately compensated. But until society figures it’s shit out, people have to be willing to make hard choices. It can be done, it’s just hard and people generally don’t like making hard choices.
As usual, all nuance is lost on some people who insist on a world of blacks and whites
