Two Disney World hotels picketed
By Mike Scheider
Associated Press
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Dozens of workers picketed two hotels at Walt Disney World yesterday in a rare labor dispute for the Orlando area's tourism industry.
Associated Press
The union representing housekeepers, laundry workers, seamstresses and public area attendants at Walt Disney World's Swan and Dolphin hotels declared a strike.
Workers picketed in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., yesterday. The Teamsters-affiliated housekeepers, laundry workers, seamstresses and public area attendants want guaranteed work hours.
But Treva Marshall, a spokeswoman for the hotels, said all employees scheduled to work had crossed the picket line and showed up for their shifts, and that service was not disrupted.
Last week, the workers rejected for a second time a three-year contract covering 400 of the hotels' 2,000 workers. Management said it would put the contract into effect unilaterally.
Although the hotels are on Disney property, they are owned by Tishman Hotel Corp. and managed by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.
Union leaders said they understood many workers could not afford to walk out and would not hold it against them for crossing the picket lines.
Workers want a guaranteed 40-hour work week and job assignments based on seniority.
Strikes in Orlando's tourism industry are rare. Labor leaders could recall only two in the past decade: a musicians' strike at Walt Disney World and one by hotel workers at the Grosvenor Resort nearby.
Hundreds of hotel workers were laid off last year during the tourism slowdown that was blamed in large part on Sept. 11.
