Earlier this week, workers for nonunion restaurants at Disney Springs in Orlando announced a historic campaign to organize with Unite Here Local 737, a labor union that represents thousands of employees at Walt Disney World theme parks and hotels.
While many of the employees at Disney World are already represented by a labor union, hundreds of others who work at subcontracted restaurants at Disney Springs, the theme park’s shopping and dining district, are not.
Some of these restaurant employees, who work just yards away from union Disney workers, say this makes them feel like “second-class citizens,” with fewer job benefits and less take-home pay.
“We’re expected to provide that Disney experience for our guests, but as employees, we are not getting that Disney experience that we deserve,” Kristen Mercer, a server at Maria & Enzo’s who has nearly 15 years in the restaurant industry, shared at a press conference this week. “I’m someone that’s going to stand up for myself and stand up for others.”
In an effort to address her concerns, Mercer and others who work at nonunion restaurants at Disney Springs say they’re in the process of organizing a union to change that.
Maria & Enzo’s, an upscale Italian restaurant modeled after a 1930s airline terminal, is one of five nonunion restaurants at Disney Springs owned by Delaware North, a multinational food service and hospitality company.
Unlike employees of the multi-billion dollar entertainment giant, who have been unionized for decades, the roughly 300 workers at Enzo’s Hideaway, Pizza Ponte, Morimoto Asia, Maria and Enzo’s and The Edison are technically employed by the Patina Restaurant Group, a company acquired by Delaware North in 2014.
Andrea Molineros, a mom who also works part-time at Maria & Enzo’s, has seen both sides. In addition to her job at Disney Springs, she also works part-time as a server at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort — a union-represented job. She’s seen the difference having a union can make.
“When I walk into my job at Disney, I know that if anything happens, I have a voice,” said Molineros, a Disney World employee of six years and a shop steward for her union at the Grand Floridian.
“When I walk into Delaware North, it’s unstructured and disorganized,” she explained, sharing how rules at her restaurant can be changed on a whim, creating a feeling of uncertainty and helplessness for servers like herself just trying to get by.
“I know that we’re far behind on wages compared to Disney, and everybody at Disney Springs deserves respect and to live their life to the fullest,” said Molineros. “We’re on Disney property, we should be given the same respect and be treated as equals.”
At Delaware North’s Morimoto Asia, full-time cook Sabrina Reddit said she makes just $18 an hour. She helps train international students on the job in the kitchens, which she admits is a “fun” experience.
As a single mom, however, her take-home pay isn’t enough for her to comfortably support herself and her two young girls. The oldest, she says, is turning 6 years old in August. “She is now looking for extracurriculars,” Redditt shared, her voice revealing a combination of pride and disappointment. “Unfortunately, that’s something I can’t provide.”
If she were working for Disney, under a union contract, Reddit says she’d be making $24 an hour in the same job, a meaningful difference from $18.
But it’s not just the pay that makes a difference at the multinational food service and hospitality company, which itself reported $3.93 billion in revenues in 2022.
According to Unite Here Local 737 president Jeremy Haicken, 70 percent of restaurant jobs for union-represented Disney employees are full-time, meaning workers have access to union-negotiated job benefits like insurance, paid sick leave, paid vacation, a company-paid pension plan and more job protections.
Mercer, the employee at Maria & Enzo’s, said full-time job opportunities are scarce, despite the company often requiring part-time workers like herself to be available full-time. Mercer doesn’t receive sick leave, nor does she have access to health benefits through her job.
The lack of health benefits in particular is a big deal for her. She was diagnosed with a chronic illness this past year and has struggled to find affordable health insurance. Since Delaware North only considers her “part-time,” Mercer had to turn to the Affordable Care Act marketplace (healthcare.gov) for a health plan. Today, she says her plan costs her $500 per month just in monthly premiums, making it difficult for her to put away any money toward savings.
Mercer said she considers herself an “outspoken” person in both her personal and professional lives. She “doesn’t put up with bullies” on the job or anywhere else, and will “stand up for the little person.”
Joli Lindsay, a 21-year-old server at Maria & Enzo’s, also isn’t afraid to speak up.
After suffering a foot injury, Lindsay worked for a time at Pizza Ponte, another Delaware North-owned restaurant at Disney Springs, where she says that she was sexually harassed by a supervisor who would make inappropriate comments about her appearance and question her about her personal life and her partner. She knew she wasn’t the only one who had experienced the same kind of treatment, so she reported him to management.
According to Lindsay, management questioned her and others as part of their “investigation” into the situation. And while the company did send the supervisor home early one day, Lindsay says he was back on the job the very next day.
“I felt as if my, our voice wasn’t heard,” Lindsay said. Julie Ruiz, another young server at Pizza Ponte who supports forming a union, also said she was sexually harassed by this supervisor.
Ruiz said the supervisor would ask her and others about birth control and once tried to pressure her into staying late, telling her he’d drive her home after her late-night shift and walk her up to her door. “That made me feel really unsafe,” she shared, taking moments to pause as she recalled the experience.
Ruiz makes just $16 an hour as a server at the pizza spot. Even though she works another part-time job to help cover basic living costs, she says she currently lives in the living room of a friend’s home, paying $450 each month in rent. She doesn’t have financial support from family, or anyone else, and can’t afford anything more.
Organizing with Unite Here, however, has made her feel more empowered on the job. “Organizing with the union, I feel stronger. I feel more safe,” said Ruiz, surrounded by other Delaware North employees and community allies. “Before, I didn’t have a voice. Now I can raise my voice,” she said.
Orlando Weekly reached out to Delaware North for comment on the organizing campaign and the allegations of sexual harassment. Company spokesperson Charles Roberts confirmed over email that they had “received communication” about the union’s organizing activity. However, he did not answer our inquiry about the sexual harassment allegations.
Not everyone’s on board
According to the union, a majority of the more than 300 workers at the five Delaware North restaurants in Disney Springs have signed cards confirming their support for forming a union.
But, as is generally common during organizing drives, not everyone is on board. Anthony Wuorio, a bartender and server at The Edison, told Orlando Weekly on Friday he was personally against the organizing effort, and felt frustrated seeing positive coverage of it.
A former Disney employee, Wuorio began working at The Edison when it first opened seven years ago. He feels that management has been open to employee feedback on issues that arise, and that negotiating better working conditions through a union is unnecessary. He admits he doesn’t know if this is the same at other Delaware North restaurants.
Wuorio is originally from New York, and worked two union jobs in the past: first, a job at a unionized deli up in his home state, and then a brief stint as a Disney employee in Orlando, which he didn’t recall fondly.
Even so, during the early days of organizing efforts at The Edison, Wuorio said he was open-minded to the idea. He’s moving early next year, anyway, to live closer to his aging mother.
But he feels like union reps who've approached him have been "manipulative" in the information they’ve provided to him and fellow staff, and that they haven’t been transparent about what they’re actually likely to achieve through contract talks with their employer.
“Some people, like, I get it. They’re just not happy with the company, you know?” he said.
But to him, the idea that he and fellow staff can’t address issues in the workplace without a formal union is insulting. “This union wants to come in and manipulate them [his co-workers] into believing that their voice doesn’t matter,” he said, evidently frustrated.
“What kind of union is that?” he asked.
Wuorio claims that more than two-thirds of staff at The Edison are against unionizing with Unite Here. He says they have been “on edge” over the uncertainty of whether they would have to join the union if a majority of workers at the other Delaware North restaurants are in favor.
Under Florida's right-to-work law, union membership (and paying union dues) is completely voluntary, even when your job or workplace has union representation.
When reached by Orlando Weekly for comment, staff for Unite Here Local 737 politely declined to respond to Wuorio's remarks at this time.
Local electeds show up in support
A number of other locals nonetheless expressed solidarity with the pro-union workers Monday at a press conference organized by the union.
Samuel Vilchez Santiago, chair of the Orange County Democratic Party, said it’s important to support the workers who serve as the backbone of Central Florida’s tourism economy. “They deserve better pay, and they deserve better benefits,” Santiago said.
Democratic State Rep. Anna Eskamani, whose father once worked at Disney Springs (then known as Downtown Disney), expressed pride for the workers of Central Florida who are standing up to demand better.
As the Florida Legislature passes legislation designed to undermine labor unions, Eskamani said, “I take so much pride that here on the ground in Central Florida, we are building unions.”
Local faith leader Rev. Charles T. Myers, Central Florida Jobs With Justice, and a couple of candidates running for elected office this year — including Democratic State Senate candidate Carlos Guillermo Smith and Orange County Commission District 5 candidate Kelly Semrad — also showed up to support the organizing workers at Disney Springs.
At the very least, workers are hoping for a fair process. Those in favor of unionizing have asked Delaware North to commit to remain neutral, and to allow for a process that is free from unlawful intimidation or other coercive tactics that are illegal under the National Labor Relations Act.
The union, Unite Here Local 737, has already filed two unfair labor practice complaints with the National Labor Relations Board against the Patina Restaurant Group, alleging that company management has made unlawful threats over their organizing activity and has unlawfully surveilled them on the job.
Joli Lindsay, one of the servers at Maria & Enzo’s, said management warned her personally against joining the union, allegedly telling her that doing so would have “negative effects” for herself and her co-workers.
“I didn’t let any of that stop me. So we’re calling — all of us, the majority, for a fair process,” said Lindsay.
Under the National Labor Relations Act, there are two ways to form an official union in the private sector: First, you can gather a majority of signed cards in support of forming a union, present them to your employer and request voluntary union recognition. If the employer denies a request for voluntary recognition, then the union can submit those signed cards to the federal labor board and petition for a union election. Or, the employer can file a petition for an election.
Haicken, the union president, politely declined on Monday to share more details about whether Unite Here plans to request voluntary recognition, or whether they plan to file a petition for a union election.
Unite Here Local 737 already represents employees at Tutto Italia and Via Napoli, two subcontracted restaurants at Disney’s Epcot that are also operated by Delaware North. So, they’re already in fairly regular communication.
The announcement of the organizing drive at Disney Springs comes less than a month after Disneyland performers in Anaheim, California, officially filed their own petition to unionize with Actors Equity. This historic move itself follows in the footsteps of their counterparts in Orlando’s Disney World, where character performers first organized with the Teamsters in the 1980s.
Altogether, a group of six labor unions, collectively known as the Service Trades Council Union, represent over 40,000 Disney World theme park workers in Orlando, ranging from Disney’s character performers to ride operators, food service workers, housekeepers, lifeguards and more.
The STCU — made up of the Teamsters, two Unite Here locals, the Transport Workers Union, the United Food and Commercial Workers and the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees — negotiated a new contract for Disney World employees last year, delivering an $18 minimum wage for the lowest-paid employees — along with raises for those who earn more — plus other benefits like paid family leave.
That eventual contract came after Disney offered a worse contract deal that workers rejected by an overwhelming margin. That rejection led to, get this, an even worse offer from the Walt Disney Co. before the company eventually agreed to the agreement ratified by a majority of union members last March.
If you work at one of these nonunion Disney Springs restaurants and have thoughts on the organizing drive, we want to hear from you. Contact reporter McKenna Schueler at [email protected].
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