Originally Posted By deadmentellnotales I'm just curious, in reading several posts about hiring at DL of CM's and the low pay I also thought I saw union dues as being taken out of paychecks. So I'm assuming the CM's have a union and yet there's still relatively low paying jobs which are not comparable to other positions which have unions. So my question is what good is paying a union that doesn't seem to do much good? Also what are the monthly dues? Please don't think me a Disney hater. Rather, I just appreciate my stays at DL and think that they CM's there are by far some of the hardest working people I've met for their respective jobs, and I think that considering what DL charges to get into the park they should be provided for better. Of course I could be speaking out my hiney, and if so please feel free to correct me.
Originally Posted By imadisneygal Not all departments are in the unions, but many are. Foods, Merch, Attractions, all the trades, etc. are part of the unions. Management, Guest Relations, and clerical are a few of the departments that do not belong to unions. I wish I could speak as to what the unions do for the CM's, but I only saw the unions from the management side and frankly I didn't see much in the way of protection for the CM's.
Originally Posted By Westsider The "Union" doesn't do much of anything really, at least for Attractions. Every once in awhile someone who has been accused of sexual harassment or who gets caught doing something they shouldn't be doing gets a "Shop Steward" to come to the meeting with management with them. The Shop Steward tries to argue with management to get the punishment reduced, or tries to prevent them from losing their jobs. I can think of a couple of cases that got out through the CM grapevine where some guy did something inappropriate to some girl, the guy got in trouble, and the Shop Stewards argued in the guys defense and tried to prevent management from disciplining him for it. And I always think "Doesn't the girl pay just as much money in Union dues as the guy does? How come the Shop Stewards never take the side of the CM who was actually wronged?" Unions are weird, and some of our Shop Stewards in Attractions are not very bright, or they're just kind of dorks. We have two Shop Stewards on the Westside who are highly tenured who are cool though, but the younger ones (and a couple older ones) seem to have their priorities all screwed up. I'm not really sure what the Unions do for us. A few years ago some of us went to a Union meeting just because we heard they were really funny, and we wanted to know where our hundreds of dollars in Union dues we'd paid was going for. The meeting was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever seen, and it did have us laughing in the back of the hall. But now that I've paid a few hundred more dollars in Union dues over the years since, I don't find it that funny anymore.
Originally Posted By Stupid_american Many speak of how wages and conditions were better in the "old days". When did DL organize? Unions are a government in themselves. They gain strength by creating an atmosphere of discontent and fear. They take away individual rights and strengths and replace them with collective rights and weaknesses. The workplace often becomes an environment of miserable mediocrity, which will be blamed on management.
Originally Posted By iluvdisneyland Resort Food & Beverage (Foods Ops, Special Events, Resort Catering, Outdoor Vending/Ventures) Cast Member are members of UNITE/HERE Local 50 - a new local that was created in 2004. Until then, we were members of Local 681 of the same union. Interestingly, 681 still has control of the hotels. I'm discontent with my union in certain ways, but in other ways I'm glad they exist. I believe my dues are $30 a month - I could be wrong though.
Originally Posted By fkurucz ^^Do you guys have a pension plan? I don't, and I'm a Software Engineer.
Originally Posted By Karnever The union at least the one in attractions has been there from Day one... One of the Many Dave CMs
Originally Posted By John_CM Yes, there is a union pension, at least for stores, if you stay a certain number of years. I believe there's also a seperate pension/retirement plan from Disney itself, but I could be wrong.
Originally Posted By fkurucz ^^That is worth something... Of course, you have to stay around for awhile to get it.
