DISNEY WORLD Union rejects pact, OKs a strike

Disney said future contract proposals won't include any more money.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) -- Members of Walt Disney World's largest union group rejected a contract proposal Thursday for a third time and authorized union leaders to call a strike if necessary.
Union members cheered when the vote was announced: 3,686 against and 2,827 for the contract. A strike is unlikely soon, because union officials first plan to request a federal mediator.
Opponents of the contract said the proposed wage increase was too small to offset the increases in what they would pay for health care insurance.
The contract proposal from the Walt Disney Co. was offered to six unions that cover 40 percent of the theme park's 52,000-person work force. It has divided the Service Trades Council Union, the six-union group that represents laundry workers, costumed characters, bus drivers, hotel and concessions workers and others.
Two of the member unions, the Teamsters Local 385 and the Unite HERE! Local 362, advised their members to reject the contract proposal. The two unions cover about 6,000 workers. The other four unions recommended approval.
"They're for family values," Mike Stapleton, president of Teamster Local 385, said of Disney. "I think family values are putting food on the table and getting medicine for your children."
Reaction
Earlier in the day, Disney spokeswoman Jacquee Polak called the proposal "fair and competitive." After it was rejected, she said company negotiators wouldn't be able to offer more money, instead able only to reshuffle dollars in any future proposal, she said.
"I guess it's sending a message that both teams didn't do the job," Polak said of the vote.
Union members have rejected two previous contract proposals since talks began in May. To show their dissatisfaction with previous proposals, union leaders picketed outside a Disney Store in New York and passed out leaflets to tourists at Orlando International Airport.
The vote was being closely watched because Disney World sets the standards for wages and benefits in Orlando's tourism-driven job market.
Overtime concern
Disney bus driver Mike Luff, who earns $13.52 an hour, worried that the new contract would have allowed Disney to use more part-time workers, who aren't paid benefits, to save money. That could have cut into the eight to 13 hours of overtime he earns each week. He voted against the proposal.
"They want to eliminate most of the overtime," said Luff, who is a Teamster.
Under the contract proposal, nontipped workers who currently earn top scale would have received an hourly raise of 20 cents and a lump-sum bonus of between $1,500 and $1,700 during the contract's first year. In the second year, they would have received another lump sum, and in the third year they would get a quarter-per-hour wage increase.
The starting minimum wage of $6.70 an hour would have increased by 10 cents an hour for each year of the contract. Other workers in between the minimum and top scale wages would have received a 4 percent annual increase.