Business
Medieval Times union efforts collapse as American Guild of Variety Artists pulls support
A beleaguered union effort among show performers and stable hands at Medieval Times’ Buena Park castle has met its end.
The American Guild of Variety Artists, the union backing workers who organized in Buena Park as well as at another location of the popular themed dinner theater in New Jersey, submitted paperwork pulling its support.
The move came after actors in both locations backed petitions asking the National Labor Relations Board to hold elections to remove the AGVA as their union representative. They filed their petitions to decertify the union with free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation, a conservative, anti-union group, which hailed the union’s withdrawal as a victory.
“AGVA union officials treated each Medieval Times castle as their own personal fiefdom, but their actions led to an uprising of the rank-and-file they purported to ‘represent,’” National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix said.
AGVA said in an emailed statement that over the course of contract negotiations, a large number of the Medieval Times personnel who had voted to be represented by the union left Medieval Times, making it difficult for the union to continue its role.
“Without the original support we started with, combined with circumstances beyond our control, it became impossible to continue,” the union said, noting that the effort began two years ago at the Lyndhurst, N.J., location and nearly two years ago in Buena Park. “It is with a heavy heart for those seeking industry standard working conditions and wages, that we have sent a letter of disinterest.”
The two Medieval Times dinner theaters were part of a wave of organizing in recent years at workplaces not traditionally represented by unions, such as strippers at a North Hollywood bar and baristas at Starbucks locations.
Workers involved in the union allege they were subject to intimidation and retaliation from managers during their nine-month strike last year, as well as in recent months, forcing many to decide to leave the company and shrinking the pool of workers supportive of the union.
Medieval Times did not respond to a request for comment.
Erin Zapcic, who plays a queen at the Buena Park castle and served as a union steward, said that in recent months, Medieval Times unlawfully switched workers’ shifts and subjected them to backbreaking menial work — for example, shoveling horse manure for hours at a time.
“Medieval Times has operated as a king lording over his kingdom for its entire 40 years of business. It has never been accountable to anyone, and used a lot of intimidation to make people fall in line,” Zapcic said.
Of some 27 employees who returned to work in November after the strike, fewer than five remain employed at Medieval Times, she said.
Zapcic said that during the strike, Medieval Times went on a hiring spree to replace striking workers and keep the shows going, and it is largely those new hires who supported the petitions to decertify the union.
“I’m heartbroken. I put every ounce of myself, every bit of passion and energy for the last two years into this fight,” she said. “We really just wanted to have a voice in the workplace.”
“The union is pretty much dead in the water at this point,” said William Hainsworth, 55, a former cast manager at the Buena Park castle, who was fired from Medieval Times about a year ago and alleges in a pending lawsuit that he was wrongfully terminated for being vocal in his support for the union.
“I regret nothing,” Hainsworth said. “There’s a lot of shady stuff going on there.”
Buena Park Medieval Times workers voted to unionize in November 2022, citing low wages and a desire to improve working conditions, including better treatment of animals involved in the show.
In February of last year, workers went on strike when negotiations over wages during contract talks were unsuccessful.
While on strike, workers said they experienced union-busting tactics by the company and violence on the picket line from patrons, and the workers filed multiple unfair labor practice complaints with the National Labor Relations Board.
Lawmakers called out Medieval Times for the alleged union busting, with New Jersey Democratic Sens. Bob Menendez and Cory Booker sending a letter last May urging the company’s chief executive, Perico Montaner, to cease union busting activities and negotiate in good faith with workers in California and New Jersey. But negotiations continued to stall.
In November, Buena Park castle workers returned to work, ending their nine-month strike without a contract agreement.
When they returned to work, Medieval Times refused to reinstate three of the striking workers, accusing them of “misconduct while on strike,” according to the union. Among those workers was Jake Bowman, a knight and vocal union activist who had leveled allegations of horse abuse at the castle.
The union at the time called the company’s decision “blatant, illegal retaliation.”
The Trump administration has been making headlines for taking steps to loosen restrictions around cannabis, including legalizing it for medical use. Now it is beginning an experiment that places cannabis even more squarely into mainstream health care: thousands of Medicare patients soon will be able to get CBD, a nonintoxicating component, for free.
“ONE in FIVE adults used it in the past year, and many say it improved their chronic pain enormously,” President Trump wrote on social media last month in a post cheering the program.
The aim is to gather real-life evidence showing whether CBD can improve patients’ quality of life and, by extension, reduce health care costs, administration officials say.
CBD products are already popular with some Medicare-age patients. A 2024 study in Clinical Gerontologist found that 14.3 percent of patients 65 and older had used them in the past year. Patients usually purchase over-the-counter gummies and tinctures to ease anxiety, insomnia and chemo-related nausea.
“Millions of older adults are already integrating cannabinoid products into their health care routines, yet the health care system has almost no infrastructure to understand what they are spending, why they are using these products, or whether these expenditures reduce other health care costs,” said Sasha Kalcheff-Korn, the executive director of Realm of Caring, a nonprofit group that conducts research and promotes cannabinoid therapies.
Despite Mr. Trump’s ebullient endorsement, many doctors worry about encouraging the use of unapproved supplements to geriatric patients, who typically have multiple medical conditions and already take many medications, some of which could interact with CBD products to detrimental effect. Still, their concerns would be eased somewhat, they say, if patients collaborated with doctors on appropriate dosing, which is another goal of the government initiative.
”I believe that CBD should be available to all seniors as part of their health care, recommended by a provider with knowledge of cannabinoid medicine,” said Dr. Melanie Bone, the director of medical cannabinoid therapies at MorseLife, a senior residence in West Palm Beach, Fla. “It may help with a number of ailments of aging, and has almost no downside. But CBD is not a panacea. The only way to know if it works is to try.”
What does research show about CBD for older patients?
CBD, or cannabidiol, one of the most prominent compounds in the cannabis sativa plant, is nonintoxicating and known for its soothing effects on the central nervous system. Many CBD products are made from hemp, a legal strain of cannabis that is rich in CBD and has only small amounts of the intoxicating compound, THC. The Medicare program restricts the amount of THC that can be in hemp-derived CBD to 3 milligrams per serving.
In recent years, CBD has become increasingly attractive to older patients. Results from studies are mixed to positive. But many of the doses evaluated contained more THC than those allowed by the Medicare guidelines. Most researchers have noted the need for more rigorous gold-standard trials.
Mr. Trump’s assertion that one in five adults use CBD products, many for chronic pain, which was also included in supporting documents for an executive order announcing the program, appears to conflate self-reported surveys and polls that broadly address adult use of medical cannabis or CBD.
But a chief benefit of CBD that some studies do underscore is that many seniors use the products to replace opioids for pain and benzodiazepines for anxiety and insomnia, which can have troubling side effects.
The new Medicare program mandates that the CBD be given to patients only by doctors, who regularly review their medical history and reactions to the products.
How does the program work?
One of the main goals is to learn whether CBD can help older people feel better enough to get off, or avoid starting, prescriptions for pain, nausea, sleep and anxiety. The hope is that CBD could help prevent more expensive medical interventions that those drugs can lead to. Opioids, for example, can prompt dizziness, constipation, overdoses and trips to the emergency department.
Only a small subset of Medicare recipients — those who participate in a type of health care network called an Accountable Care Organization — will initially be eligible for the benefit. So far, just five large groups have been approved to offer CBD. By January, 2027, CBD will be offered to patients in all 74 ACO groups.
The participating organizations have providers across an array of states, including Oklahoma, Texas, Wisconsin, West Virginia and Arizona. Currently, only patients affiliated with programs in New York and Florida patients have begun receiving CBD products, according to a spokesperson for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Those doctors must buy the CBD products up front, spending up to $500 per patient a year. They must agree to screen patients and products carefully, and collect real-time data on how the CBD affects patients.
They will not be directly reimbursed for the CBD. In the incentive-based structure, these groups receive a budget from Medicare. Those that come in under budget by improving patient quality of life and reducing costs, now additionally equipped with CBD as a tool, will receive a percentage of those savings.
Are there any obstacles?
Yes.
Late last year, Congress passed a measure that could remove from the U.S. market most CBD products, including those that doctors suggest for patients.
That is because many CBD products contain far more THC and other synthetic, intoxicating compounds than Congress intended in 2018, when it created the legal definition of hemp, to distinguish it from marijuana. Many of those amped-up CBD items, packaged to look like candy, have led to calls to poison centers.
In reaction, Congress placed severe limits on hemp last year that are set to take place in November. Under those restrictions, Cornbread Hemp, a Kentucky-based company with a contract to supply CBD for the new program, will not be able to do so, because its products’ THC content is above the new limits. A patchwork of bills introduced in the Senate and the House are trying to slow or rewrite what amounts to a looming hemp ban.
In his social media post last month, Mr. Trump urged Congress to act.
“Please get it done, and SOON,” he wrote.
Michele Hanisee has been doing everything in her power to expedite the arduous process of rebuilding her Altadena home.
But after navigating permitting delays, insurance stalemates and design flaws, there’s still one big unresolved issue that’s complicating her progress: sewage.
Hanisee owns one of nearly 700 properties in Altadena that’s never had sewer lines, instead operating for decades on now-outdated septic tanks or even more archaic and environmentally hazardous cesspools.
L.A. County officials — and many residents, included Hanisee — would like to connect these pockets of Altadena to the county sewage system.
But the cash-strapped county government said it simply cannot afford the estimated $70 million the new lines would cost. And although officials hope the county can eventually acquire state and federal funding for the project, the lack of certainty on the issue has left hundreds of fire survivors in a stalemate.
“Do I build [with] septic or wait for a sewer line?” said Hanisee, 59. She said this issue has been particularly frustrating as the county promised expedited rebuilding permits; “It doesn’t help much if they don’t expedite the infrastructure work,” she said.
It’s also a major financial concern. Several fire survivors in this situation told The Times that they feel torn between planning for an upgrade to county-run sewers, or just moving ahead with rebuilding and improving their onsite wastewater systems. Either option could bring hefty costs, particularly if the county doesn’t end up paying for the sewer line upgrade and it falls on residents. The worst-case scenario, many said, would be fixing up their septic system to meet current requirements, and subsequently having to pay for the sewer line installation and connection later on.
“How do you move forward when you don’t know how much money you have to spend on the build?” Hanisee said.
On Alpine Villa Drive, shown May 1, 2026, homes have mostly operated on now-outdated cesspool systems for sewage.
County officials say they are aware of the quagmire facing these residents, yet they have no timeline for — or guarantee of — a resolution on the issue.
“Everything comes back to money,” said Anish Saraiya, the Altadena recovery director for L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger. “We have more than $2.5 billion worth of public infrastructure we have to rebuild, including these sewers.”
He said the county remains hopeful that Congress will come through with $16 billion requested in federal aid for the region’s recovery from the Eaton and Palisades fires, which could be used on the sewer project — but that hasn’t yet been allocated or even promised. His team also is exploring potential state funding or other outside money, he said.
But even if the cash were available tomorrow, Saraiya noted that the engineering and construction could be lengthy, and the project could be completed after homes that need it are otherwise ready to be occupied.
“There are a lot of uncertainties,” Saraiya said. “We feel confident we can secure the funding necessary to make sure that it’s not an obligation on homeowners, but that is a bit of a timing challenge.”
Michele Hanisee is trying to rebuild her home on Gaywood Drive as fast as possible. But she said it’s hard to move forward with looming uncertainty around her home’s sewage system.
Timing, however, is of the essence for fire survivors. Many say they can’t afford to lose momentum on their rebuild, concerned about losing contractors, rising construction costs or how additional delays could further shrink their already-dwindling insurance payouts for temporary housing.
Others feel completely stymied by this latest headache, which only builds on other unexpected costs and hurdles in an already complicated process.
“Will we be forced to go onto the sewer?” said Patricia Anderson, Hanisee’s neighbor, who still hasn’t decided whether she can or will rebuild. “And will we have a big expense for that? Those kind of issues are a concern.”
Patricia Anderson, 83, would love to rebuild her Altadena lot on Gaywood Drive, but the lack of clarity around potential sewage upgrades for her street has exacerbated the already overwhelming process.
About half of the 682 lots with on-site sewage systems — most of which are septic tanks — experienced fire damage or total destruction, according to county records. These systems, scattered across Altadena, “pose significant risks of groundwater contamination, surface water pollution and potential public health hazards,” according to a statement from the L.A. County Department of Public Works. But the department noted that replacing all of them at once is a large-scale project that “requires a level of cross-departmental integration that has historically been difficult to achieve in disaster recovery settings.”
So far, the county has funded technical planning for the sewer expansion, but environmental reviews, feasibility studies and securing resident permissions — as many of the affected streets are private — have not been completed.
Even though county officials hope to find a way to pay for a widespread sewer upgrade, they’ve also presented residents with an option to form small community improvement districts, or property tax assessment groups, to finance small portions of municipal sewer lines. About a dozen neighborhood groups are considering that option, but many fire survivors worry it only adds to their already-squeezed budgets; estimates of up to $70,000 per lot have been circling neighborhood group chats, if not more. The county’s estimate of the cost by parcel is actually higher: between $85,000 and $134,000, depending on a property’s location and topography.
But the idea of a fragmented sewer installation and residents footing the bill misses the context of this moment, said Morgan Whirledge, a new representative on the Altadena Town Council, which can pass along concerns or recommendations to Los Angeles County leaders, but holds no real governing power or spending authority. He is a fire survivor whose home previously ran on a cesspool system.
“This work presents an opportunity to coordinate,” Whirledge said, noting ongoing undergrounding of power lines by Southern California Edison and other widescale construction. “You don’t want to come rip a street up twice.”
The county’s Department of Public Works has said that residents rebuilding like-for-like, without major changes to the size or setup of their home, can continue to use on-site septic systems, if they’re in good condition. But any other rebuild requires additional testing and potential upgrades or expansions.
Morgan Whirledge surveys the initial stages of rebuilding at his Altadena lot on May 1, 2026, including where his outdated cesspool system still sits underground.
If residents are willing to take a gamble on the unfunded sewer expansion project, rebuilds can be approved “with the intent to connect later, even if the sewer installation isn’t yet scheduled,” the Public Works Department statement said.
Barger, Altadena’s most direct governmental representative, said she understands this is an issue “that can slow recovery if we don’t get it right.”
“My focus is on finding a path forward that gives residents clarity, avoids unnecessary costs, and ensures we’re rebuilding Altadena in a way that is sustainable for decades to come — not just patching together short-term fixes,” Barger said in a statement.
Some worry that 16 months after the fire, it’s already too late for that.
Hanisee is still waiting on her permits, which if approved, include plans to connect to a new county-run sewer, which she hopes isn’t too optimistic.
“There’s this huge unknown liability for people whose streets didn’t have a sewer line,” Hanisee said. “We just want to go home and also not be forced to sell and leave because of all these issues that are creating obstacles to rebuilding.”
Because she’s not building like-for-like, if she ends up needing to rely on her old septic tank, it will require additional testing and possibly an expansion or update, both of which would add more costs to her rebuild. She also worries that she’ll end up having to pay for the new sewage lines.
What once felt like quirks of their Altadena neighborhood — helping upkeep the road, running on a cesspool — “all these things … have turned into nightmares,” Whirledge said. “It’s this cumulative effect of these incremental cost increases and complicating factors. That can be a huge blow at a time when you’re already really vulnerable.”
He and his family transitioned from the cesspool to septic for their rebuild, while also building for the possibility of a future sewer line connection — a plan he realizes is cost-prohibitive for many fire survivors, especially when there’s still a real chance that residents have to fund the new sewer line.
Decommissioning his old cesspool and buying the new septic tank already cost almost $10,000, he said, and installation and testing could easily triple that. His insurance policy does provide some reimbursement for code upgrades, but he said it won’t come close to the costs the family is facing.
“It’s a lot of money,” Whirledge said, “especially for something you want to never have to think about.”
A worker pumps sewage from a portable toilet on the property of Morgan Whirledge, who is in the initial stages of rebuilding at his Altadena lot.
When Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s chief executive, joined the group of American business leaders traveling with President Trump to Beijing at the last minute this week, many took it as a sign that progress was in store for the company’s long-stalled sales in China.
But as the summit between Mr. Trump and Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, wrapped up on Friday, the fate of Nvidia’s artificial intelligence chips in China was no clearer than it had been before.
Even Jamieson Greer, the U.S. trade representative, seemed uncertain about Nvidia’s future in China, saying in an interview with Bloomberg News on Friday that it was up to Beijing whether Chinese companies would make more purchases from the American chip giant.
Last December, President Trump approved Nvidia, the world’s leading chip maker, to sell one of its most powerful A.I. chips, the H200, to China. But since then, the Chinese government has yet to greenlight any purchases, and no H200s have been sold.
Instead, Beijing has pushed Chinese companies to rely on homegrown technology from chipmakers such as Huawei.
Just before Mr. Trump met with Mr. Xi, China reached a milestone in its long-running quest for technological self-sufficiency. The Chinese start-up DeepSeek said for the first time that its latest artificial intelligence model had been optimized to run on Huawei chips.
Mr. Huang had long warned that this shift was coming. Soon, China’s A.I. companies will rely on Chinese hardware rather than American technology, eroding U.S. influence over A.I. development in China, he has predicted.
U.S. officials did not seem to push the issue during their trip to China this week.
The decision on whether to buy the H200 “is going to be a sovereign decision for China,” Mr. Greer said in the interview. “Obviously we think it could be helpful to them in the long run, but they’ll just have to make their decision on that.”
For years, Washington has used export controls to slow China’s progress in advanced technologies like A.I., and analysts had expected Chinese officials to air their frustration with those restrictions this week.
Despite Mr. Huang’s presence in Beijing, Mr. Greer said, the two sides had not discussed chip export controls at the meeting.
China was firmly committed to producing advanced chips at home and views the U.S. tech industry as a threat to that effort, he said.
“If we are ahead of the game, like we are on A.I. chips, sometimes they feel that can stop their own growth,” he said.
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