Walt Disney Co. cuts 1,400 jobs in Florida, 1,900 total

job placement?

How about they cut the job of the spokesman and see how he feels. I wonder if he would continue to say, "These decisions were not made lightly" It is all about the bottom line and to heck about everyone else. Good ol corporate America. Nice thing about family owned business is they usually find ways to keep things going but corporate businesses they will step on anybody and anyone as long as they can save their own rear ends.

Thank god I have my UNION!

I am looking forward to Disney's next movie......Snow White and the Four Dwarfs...Grumpy, Doopey, Doc (never cut healthcare) and Happy...the rest are collecting Unemployment

This is just the beginning folks. Central Florida's economic foundation of discretionary travel spending and second home and retirement building is now at an end. The air has been let out of the bubble and now you're stuck with an undereducated service worker/construction trade economy that is NOT coming back. Not now ever. The days of the U.S. dollar denominated fiat currency bubble are OVER.

Along with Las Vegas your days as a thriving place of frivolous spending is now only to be found in the history books.

I find it ironic that the opening of Disney World in 1971 also coincided with Nixon taking the dollar off the gold standard. The wild and irresponsible ride had to finally come to a halt.

Good luck reinventing yourself.

Now where on the economic pyramid is Disney? Are their layoffs an indicator that things are getting worse and they don't see an end to this downturn anytime soon or their layoffs indicate that the economy is getting better since it was only 1400 or so jobs out of 62000? I am surprised that a real estate didn't chime in to indicate this is why it is a good time to buy. Central Florida is in for more bad news when all these ugly strip malls begin rolling up the sidewalks and going under. The stupidity of Allen Greenspan and the greed mongers,(e.g. democrats, republicans, real estate agents, bankers, brokers, house flippers, builders and many others) is going take a long time fix.

Eric Clinton, president of Unite Here! Local 362, which represents about 5,000 attraction workers, janitors and ticket takers, among others, said his union would fight any effort to impose across-the-board cuts in people's hours.

"People who make $8.50 an hour or less in some cases, on 32 hours, can't make ends meet," Clinton said.

$8.50/hr -- why bother belonging to a union. This one clearly doesn't do anything for its members.

Interesting that Disney World says it's layoffs "involved multiple sites and subsidiaries" so they didn't trip the 500-person threshold but when it comes to scheduling of most of its employees they are considered global as well it's salaried leaders work all over. And I also hear that some of it's leaders are having to now work 6 days a week after the layoffs. Honestly, I wouldn't think Disney woul dhave taken advantage of a situation by pulling that but they sure did prove me wrong. Shame on you Disney for abusing the economic hardship of this country & recent layoffs of employees by forcing those left to work more. Layoffs are hard on everyone, not just those that have been let go but even those that are left behind & Disney has proven that you should just be grateful to be there & have work...so say bye bye to your family, work more & we will not compensate you anymore than we already do. Luckily, I work with a company that cares even though I believed Disney did before hearing all of this crap.

I don't know where the Slantenil comes up with their numbers. Unfilled jobs are not job cuts. Buyouts are not job cuts in that they were voluntary. Add all of these up and it appears that actual job cuts were less than 500 out of a work force of over 60,000. For that number of employees that is not even seasonal variation. Then add the normal coming and going of employees.
Another example of the Slantenil being out of touch with reality.

If you look up hotels on Disney properties you can see that they are as high as they have always been. This upcoming week even there moderate hotels are over $100 a night. Most businesses have lowered prices or created some type of special or discount to combat the economy. What does Disney do? There prices stay the same (perhaps even have gone up) and they let go employees. This week is my family's spring break and this year we are NOT going to Disney. Why? Because we "travel shopped" and discovered we could visit Washington DC, Los Angeles, or Las Vegas for LESS than the cost of Disney which is in our backyard. I bet many families have "travel shopped" and have discovered the same thing. No wonder Disney is losing money and employees. Best wishes and good luck to those who lost their jobs.

Floridadude wrote:

How about they cut the job of the spokesman and see how he feels. I wonder if he would continue to say, "These decisions were not made lightly" It is all about the bottom line and to heck about everyone else. Good ol corporate America. Nice thing about family owned business is they usually find ways to keep things going but corporate businesses they will step on anybody and anyone as long as they can save their own rear ends.

Uh, in the adult world, most if not all decisions are made based on the bottom line. As for family-owned businesses, there's a reason most of them stay small - and when they get larger, they make the same decisions Disney does.1544

resident wrote:

If you look up hotels on Disney properties you can see that they are as high as they have always been. This upcoming week even there moderate hotels are over $100 a night. Most businesses have lowered prices or created some type of special or discount to combat the economy. What does Disney do? There prices stay the same (perhaps even have gone up) and they let go employees. This week is my family's spring break and this year we are NOT going to Disney. Why? Because we "travel shopped" and discovered we could visit Washington DC, Los Angeles, or Las Vegas for LESS than the cost of Disney which is in our backyard. I bet many families have "travel shopped" and have discovered the same thing.

Disney has offered all kinds of package discounts. If you don't know that, you are willfully ignoring any information which conflicts with your assumption...which might explain how you convinced yourself that family vacations out of state are cheaper than a vacation at Disney.

Blake wrote:

Luckily, I work with a company that cares even though I believed Disney did before hearing all of this crap.

Q: Which company is unique - Disney, or yours?
a. Disney
b. yours
c. neither

If you picked 'a' or 'b', try again.

DRap wrote:

Eric Clinton, president of Unite Here! Local 362, which represents about 5,000 attraction workers, janitors and ticket takers, among others, said his union would fight any effort to impose across-the-board cuts in people's hours.
"People who make $8.50 an hour or less in some cases, on 32 hours, can't make ends meet," Clinton said.
$8.50/hr -- why bother belonging to a union. This one clearly doesn't do anything for its members.

Did you ever think that maybe those making $8.50 are newer workers with less seniority and that they would be the first to be cut then?

I've been at Disney for 13 years and make $12.12.... and we are getting a .45 cent raise in October... I guess that's what my Union has done for me.(Oh, and my hours won't be cut because I have seniority):)

DRap wrote:

Eric Clinton, president of Unite Here! Local 362, which represents about 5,000 attraction workers, janitors and ticket takers, among others, said his union would fight any effort to impose across-the-board cuts in people's hours.
"People who make $8.50 an hour or less in some cases, on 32 hours, can't make ends meet," Clinton said.
$8.50/hr -- why bother belonging to a union. This one clearly doesn't do anything for its members.

Union or not, how much do you think janitors and ticket-takers can demand? Even unions, as unholy as they are, can't do magic.

happy wrote:

The stupidity of Allen Greenspan and the greed mongers,(e.g. democrats, republicans, real estate agents, bankers, brokers, house flippers, builders and many others) is going take a long time fix.

Maybe not. A good chunk of the population has already drunk the KoolAid and now believe that profit is bad and capitalism is evil. That's the fix Obama had in mind, and America is well on the way.

Beamis wrote:

This is just the beginning folks. Central Florida's economic foundation of discretionary travel spending and second home and retirement building is now at an end. The air has been let out of the bubble and now you're stuck with an undereducated service worker/construction trade economy that is NOT coming back. Not now ever. The days of the U.S. dollar denominated fiat currency bubble are OVER.

Did you edit out the paragraphs about the plagues of locusts and rivers running as blood?

DriveBy Poster wrote:

<quoted text>
Disney has offered all kinds of package discounts. If you don't know that, you are willfully ignoring any information which conflicts with your assumption...which might explain how you convinced yourself that family vacations out of state are cheaper than a vacation at Disney.

That's right. The latest involves getting the Dining Plan for free, which cuts a HUGE chunk of what you spend at the parks once you get in.

And speaking of getting in, Florida residents can credit the free ticket on your birthday towards the purchase or renewal of annual passes or multi-day tickets. My brother renewed his "Epcot after 4 PM" annual pass for about $50.

And Universal is also mailing special offers for the renewal of annual passes, which you can even upgrade for a few dollars more.

Looks like these companies are finally figuring that it is better to get 50% of something than 100% of NOTHING!

Let's first start with where all of this mess began: the voting booth. We elected so-called leaders who put forth to us the property tax cut. We get a tax break and now the state doesn't have any money to pay for services. This same philosophy has happened all over the country. Every state is going through this same mentality of depending upon anticipated revenues. People have stopped travelling to Florida which leaves us with less money so Disney has to do what it had to do.

With that said, Tom: It's nice to know you're getting a $0.45 per hour raise. You also get time and a half whenever you want to work overtime. My husband is a manager who has worked there longer than you have and has to work 9 hour days five days a week and is now being scheduled for a sixth day. He doesn't get the option of working extra hours like you do nor is he compensated extra for that! On top of that, his raise turns out to be much less than your hourly raise. You're protected by your cushy union. The people let get go were not done so based upon a seniority system.

DriveBy Poster wrote:

<quoted text>
Did you edit out the paragraphs about the plagues of locusts and rivers running as blood?

Just calling it like I see it DriveBy. The troubles of Central Florida is symptomatic of the overall American economy just larger and more glaringly excessive.

We now will have to start saving and producing again, like our forefathers did before the onslaught of easy credit and a phony service sector economy spawned by an over zealous Federal Reserve system bent on inflating us into the stratosphere.

Borrowing and spending for a "Gotta Have It!" at the Cold Stone Creamery or another silly trip to the magic Kingdom is not going to stimulate us back to where we to be as a nation.

The party is over. No time for a hangover. It's time to get back to work.