The Disneyland Resort, located in Anaheim, California, has finally reached a contract agreement with the workers of the Unite Here Local 11 labor union. This dispute has been going on for four years, and is mostly about health insurance.
Health insurance is extremely important. Without it, an individual, or a family, risks going into massive debt due to medical bills. In the past, people looked for jobs that offered employer sponsored health insurance, because it was one of the only ways to find affordable health insurance.
Today, employers, and large corporations and businesses, are trying to cut down on the amount of money they spend on their worker’s health insurance plans. Some businesses are limiting the amount of employees who will be eligible for the plan.
Others have eliminated the health insurance plans of retired workers. The newest trend seems to be for employers to charge workers “per participant” for their health insurance premiums. That way, the business can avoid having to spend additional money on health care when an employee adds their college-aged child to the parent’s health plan.
Issues regarding the availability, and the price, of employer sponsored health insurance are important enough for workers to go on strike over. A grocery workers strike very nearly happened in California earlier this year, due to issues involving proposed changes to employee health insurance.
For the past four years, there has been a dispute between the Disneyland Resort, (located in Anaheim, California), and 2,100 hotel workers, (who are represented by the Unite Here Local 11 labor union). This dispute was directly due to the increases that Disney wanted to impose on workers who were getting health insurance through this employer.
I understand that health care is expensive. But, I question whether a corporation as large as Disney would truly have financial difficulties of the sort that would require it to raise the cost of its worker’s health insurance premiums.
It makes sense to me that the workers would be very upset by the raise in the cost of their health plans from what has got to be one of the largest corporations in the United States. It seems incredibly unlikely that Disneyland would suddenly have to file for bankruptcy as a result of offering affordable, employer sponsored health insurance plans to its workers.
The labor dispute has now been settled. A contract, that will last for five years, has been accepted by both sides. The contract covers workers who are housekeepers, food and beverage workers, front desk staff, and other hourly workers. It covers employees who work at the Disneyland Hotel, the Grand Californian Hotel, and the Paradise Pier Hotel.
The contract includes wage increases, and a decreased workload for housekeepers. It allows workers to have a choice between two different health plans. They can continue to use the union healthcare plan (which requires employee contributions of $7.00 to $10.00 a week), or switch to one of Disney’s healthcare programs, (which would make them eligible for a one time bonus).
Image by Sean MacEntee on Flickr