While working at Disneyland last summer, Cyn Carranza lived in her car with her dog and showered on resort property.
As recently as this spring, the 39-year-old custodian scrubbed, waxed and buffed floors inside the theme park from 11:45 p.m. to 7:55 a.m. before working a 9 a.m.-to-2 p.m. shift at a nearby Goodwill and struggling to stay awake on the freeway.
Carranza, who now resides with her boyfriend in Santa Ana, has been employed by Disney for nearly six years. She makes the minimum wage for hospitality workers in Anaheim, $19.90 an hour.
“It’s so expensive here,” Carranza said. “I was homeless because I had three jobs, and I still couldn’t afford any place to live.”
Carranza is among roughly 9,500 workers at Disneyland who are eligible to participate this week in a strike authorization vote as they continue to bargain with Disney for higher wages and improved working conditions. Results of the vote are expected to be announced Saturday.
Advertisement
If the authorization passes, union leaders will have the option to call a strike in the event that they are unable to negotiate a new contract deal with Disney.
“We’re not ungrateful,” Carranza said. “We just wish that they would make it easier for us to be there — that they would consider us. … The union is moving closer to striking because this is all we got. We gotta come together and let them know.”
The Master Services Council — an alliance of labor unions representing custodians, ride operators, candy makers, merchandise clerks and other employees at the Anaheim theme park — scheduled the strike vote last week.
Disneyland employees haven’t staged a major walkout since 1984. That work stoppage lasted 22 days. The Disneyland employee contract terminated June 16, while the California Adventure and Downtown Disney agreements are set to expire Sept. 30.
“It’s the first time in 40 years, and also it’s a coalition of unions, so it’s a potential for being a huge strike,” said Victor Narro, project director and labor studies professor at the UCLA Labor Center.
Advertisement
“Post-pandemic, [the tourism] industry has recuperated, is thriving in significant ways. But working conditions … have not improved at all.”
A strike authorization vote “is not unusual as part of the negotiations process and does not indicate a strike is imminent or underway,” company spokesperson Jessica Good said in a statement posted on the Disneyland website.
“We have a long-standing history of successful negotiations with the Master Services Council with our next meeting scheduled for July 22. We remain focused on reaching an agreement on a new contract that is fair and equitable for our cast members.”
The website also notes that all Disneyland Resort parks and hotels “will remain open and ready to welcome guests if any number” of employees walk off the job.
Disneyland Resort employees rally outside the main entrance to Disneyland in Anaheim.
Advertisement
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Tensions escalated in June when the unions filed unfair labor practice charges against the company with the National Labor Relations Board for allegedly threatening to discipline hundreds of employees who wore union buttons depicting Mickey Mouse’s raised fist to work.
The Master Services Council maintains that wearing the pins is a protected form of union activity and that Disney cannot legally take action against staffers for doing so. Disney contends that the buttons violate the employee dress code and that only “a handful” of repeat incidents have led to disciplinary action, starting with a verbal warning.
Disneyland Resort employees have affixed the buttons to their uniforms in a show of solidarity amid their contract negotiations with the company, which began in late April.
Advertisement
Some 14,000 workers at Disneyland, Disney California Adventure and Downtown Disney are seeking wage increases to keep up with the cost of living in Southern California and reward senior employees, as well as stronger safety measures and changes to Disney’s attendance policy.
On Wednesday, more than 400 Disneyland Resort staffers rallied outside the main entrance to Disneyland with picket signs bearing phrases such as, “Disney, don’t be the villain” and “Mickey would want fair pay.”
“With today’s rally, we continue to be focused on the wellbeing of our guests and cast members,” Good said in a statement posted on the Disneyland website.
“We remain committed to … reaching an agreement with Master Services that focuses on what matters most to cast members, positions Disneyland Resort for growth and job creation and enables us to continue delivering incredible guest experiences.”
Disneyland Resort employees rally outside the main entrance to Disneyland in Anaheim.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Advertisement
A key tactic in the unions’ playbook has been engaging with resort guests. This month, workers distributed the forbidden Mickey buttons to park patrons and encouraged them to sign a petition endorsing the unions’ campaign. The petition has amassed more than 10,000 signatures, according to the Master Services Council.
“In this industry …. tourists can be a major source of support for the union to put pressure on the employer,” Narro said. “I think that’s an excellent strategy.”
Ellie Gonzalez, a custodian at California Adventure, said she gets “a lot of compliments” on her union button from guests who approach her with “love and respect.”
“They love my button, and they know what it means,” Gonzalez said. “I’m so appreciative and thankful for that.”
Advertisement
Gonzalez and other workers have expressed frustration with Disneyland Resort management for moving forward with a $1.9-billion expansion while park staffers are seeking higher pay.
“I’m pregnant with twins, so finances is definitely a stressful point for me,” Gonzalez said.
Forget the “video game movie” curse;The Mortuary Assistantis a bone-chilling triumph that stands entirely on its own two feet. Starring Willa Holland (Arrow) as Rebecca Owens, the film follows a newly certified mortician whose “overtime shift” quickly devolves into a grueling battle for her soul.
What Makes It Work
The film expertly balances the stomach-churning procedural work of embalming with a spiraling demonic nightmare. Alongside a mysterious mentor played by Paul Sparks (Boardwalk Empire), Rebecca is forced to confront both ancient evils and her own buried traumas. And boy, does she have a lot of them.
Thanks to a full-scale, practical River Fields Mortuary set, the film drips with realism, like you can almost smell the rot and bloat of the bodies through the screen.
The skin effects are hauntingly accurate. The way the flesh moves during surgical scenes is so visceral. I’ve seen a lot of flesh wounds in horror films and in real life, and the bodies, skin, and organs. The Mortuary Assistant (especially in the opening scene) looks so real that I skipped supper after watching it. And that’s saying something. Your girl likes to eat.
Co-written by the game’s creator, Brian Clarke, the movie dives deeper into the demonic mythology. Whether you’ve seen every ending or don’t know a scalpel from a trocar, the story is perfectly self-contained. If you’ve never played the game, or played it a hundred times, the film works equally well, which is hard to do when it comes to game adaptations.
Advertisement
Nailed It
This film does a lot of things right, but the isolation of the night shift is suffocating. Between the darkness of the hallways and the “residents” that refuse to stay still, the film delivers a relentlessly immersive experience. And thankfully, although this movie is filled with dark rooms and shadows, it’s easy to see every little thing. Don’t you hate it when a movie is so dark that you can’t see what’s happening? It’s one of my pet peeves.
The oh-so-awesome Jeremiah Kipp directs the film and has made something absolutely nightmare-inducing. Kipp recently joined us for an interview, took us inside the film, discussed its details and the game’s lore, and so much more. I urge you to check out our interview. He’s awesome!
The Verdict
This isn’t just a cash-grab; it’s a high-effort adaptation that respects the source material while elevating the horror genre. With incredible special effects and a powerhouse cast, it’s the kind of movie that will make you rethink working late ever again. Dropping on Friday the 13th, this is a must-watch for horror fans. It’s grisly, intelligent, and genuinely terrifying.
A former executive at Live Nation, the world’s largest live entertainment company, is suing the company, alleging that he was wrongfully terminated after he raised concerns about alleged financial misconduct and improper accounting practices.
Nicholas Rumanes alleges he was “fraudulently induced” in 2022 to leave a lucrative position as head of strategic development at a real estate investment trust to create a new role as executive vice president of development and business practice at Beverly Hills-based Live Nation.
In his new position, Rumanes said, he raised “serious and legitimate alarm” over the the company’s business practices.
As a result, he says, he was “unlawfully terminated,” according to the lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
“Rumanes was, simply put, promised one job and forced to accept another. And then he was cut loose for insisting on doing that lesser job with integrity and honesty,” according to the lawsuit.
Advertisement
He is seeking $35 million in damages.
Representatives for Live Nation were not immediately available for comment.
The lawsuit comes a week after a federal jury in Manhattan found that Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary had operated a monopoly over major concert venues, controlling 86% of the concert market.
Rumanes’ lawsuit describes a “culture of deception” at Live Nation, saying its “basic business model was to misstate and exaggerate financial figures in efforts to solicit and secure business.”
Such practices “spanned a wide spectrum of projects in what appeared to be a company-wide pattern of financial misrepresentation and misleading disclosures,” the lawsuit states.
Advertisement
Rumanes says he received materials and documents that showed that the company inflated projected revenues across multiple venue development projects.
Additionally, Rumanes contends that the company violated a federal law that requires independent financial auditing and transparency and instead ran Live Nation “through a centralized, opaque structure” that enables it to “bypass oversight and internal checks and balances.”
In 2010, as a condition of the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger, the newly formed company agreed to a consent decree with the government that prohibited the firm from threatening venues to use Ticketmaster. In 2019 the Justice Department found that the company had repeatedly breached the agreement, and it extended the decree.
Rumanes contends that he brought his concerns to the attention of the company’s management, but his warnings were “repeatedly ignored.”
At the centre of Madhuvidhu directed by Vishnu Aravind is a house where only men reside, three generations of them living in harmony. Unlike the Anjooran household in Godfather, this is not a house where entry is banned to women, but just that women don’t choose to come here. For Amrithraj alias Ammu (Sharafudheen), the protagonist, 28 marriage proposals have already fallen through although he was not lacking in interest.
When a not-so-cordial first meeting with Sneha (Kalyani Panicker) inevitably turns into mutual attraction, things appear about to change. But some unexpected hiccups are waiting for them, their different religions being one of them. Writers Jai Vishnu and Bipin Mohan do not seem to have any major ambitions with Madhuvidhu, but they seem rather content to aim for the middle space of a feel-good entertainer. Only that they end up hitting further lower.
