On Tuesday, United Service Workers West lined up outside Walt Disney Studios protesting the recent firing of 68 employees. The workers also voted to authorize a strike if Disney failed to rehire the laid off employees.
Gabriel Gonzalez, a former Disney janitor who worked with the company for 25 years, said:
Walt Disney Studios is a place where movie magic is created to bring families closer together. Firing all of us without helping us secure a place in the new company is wrong. We will not be silent.
Although Disney does not guarantee that the current workers will keep their jobs or benefits when a cleaning company takes over next week, they did say that “the 68 impacted workers have been offered comparable positions to their current jobs with Able Service, the largest privately held buiding services provider in the United States. Able, which currently services other Disney locations, has a collective bargaining agreement with SEIU United Service Workers West.”