18,000 Walt Disney World employees are losing their jobs as part of mass layoffs

[TomCADem]

Just because you have a Republican governor who is pushing for business as usual while a pandemic is raging, this does not mean that the economy will not suffer.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/os-bz-disney-world-layoffs-20201030-huw4gsuz3vbhnmqe7dewuuoup4-story.html

Last month, the Walt Disney Co. revealed it was laying off 28,000 employees across its U.S. theme parks division, but the company wouldn’t break down exactly where the cuts were coming: Disneyland or Disney World?

New federally required government filings give more insight: Orlando’s numbers are much higher than California, where Disneyland remains closed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Nearly 18,000 people are getting laid off in Florida, according to the report, or nearly a quarter of the resort’s Orlando workforce of 77,000 a year ago.
Disney filed a new notice of mass layoffs this week that revealed 11,350 Disney World Parks and Resorts union employees being laid off as of Dec. 31. Late last month, the company filed a notice that 6,390 non-union Disney World Parks and Resorts employees would be out of work starting Dec. 4.

[exboyfil]

1. They are getting rid of all (most) of their performers

for the live shows. The folks are unionized. It looks a lot like a death spiral. What makes them different than Great America or Magic Mountain if they don't have the phenomenal live shows.

[Klaralven]

2. Think of the CO2 emissions avoided by idiots not going to Disney World

The largest collection of primary colored plastic anywhere in the US.

[trackfan]

3. I'm not employed by Disney, but am consulting/temping for them. Job ends in two weeks.

It's been a good run. I started there in July 2019, on a six month contract, which was extended, in January, for another six months.
Then Covid-19 hit, and in March we were all set up to work at home. In May they called me, and said that, due to the furloughing of thousands of regular employees, they had to let contractors go at the end of May. So, I was off in June and July, then they called me back in in mid-August. A few weeks ago they let me know the job was ending, not because of Covid, but due to internal restructuring.

So in the end, I'll have worked a total of 13 months on this job. That's not too bad, since 18 months is the maximum a big company can keep you on contract in CA without hiring you. (That law was passed some years ago, pretty much because Disney was seen to be abusing the system - keeping people as temps forever, as it were).

I must say, I'm 100% in favor of working at home.

[TheBlackAdder]

4. Let me guess, Disney: All of the H-1B Visa workers will get to stay on though, right?

[Hortensis]

5. And then there will be the mass effects rolling through the local economy. nt