Abigail Disney on Wednesday again went after the company her grandfather helped found, saying The Walt Disney Co. was acting irresponsibly by reopening its theme parks while the novel coronavirus pandemic runs rampant.
Noting she has no involvement in the conglomerate, the granddaughter of Roy Oliver Disney said she feared for both guests and the parks’ staff during an appearance on Yahoo Finance’s The First Trade.
“It’s strange to me that they would step into this situation by opening up this massive enterprise for which people fly from everywhere in the world to go,” said Disney, referring specifically to Walt Disney World in Florida, which fully reopened Wednesday as the state surpassed 300,000 confirmed virus cases.
The activist and Emmy-award winning filmmaker said she was “incredibly concerned” about the possible floodgate of infections that could result from such a move. “I can’t imagine they are able to protect their employees and all their customers,” the heiress said.
For its part, the company has introduced numerous health and safety measures at each reopened park around the globe, which includes a mask and temperature check requirement, in addition to increased cleaning of the resorts. Still, the company makes clear on each individual park’s website that guests assume all risk of possible infection by visiting the destinations.
As she has done numerous times before, Disney also blasted the company over its highly paid execs compared to the low-paid park employees, who she noted are on the front lines of possible exposure.
“I will say that I don’t know how a person sleeps at night given what we know to be — and they know perfectly well — to be the condition of their workers and the insecurity they’re living in now,” she told Yahoo. “Two of the three people I have been talking to in [the] Anaheim [park] have asthma and they seriously don’t have any idea how they’re going to address this decision even if they get offered their position back. So I have to say preserving your bonus, as they did, was unconscionable. There’s just no making sense of it, as far as I am concerned.”
Along with Walt Disney World reopening fully this week, a portion of Disneyland Paris reopened while at the same time, Hong Kong Disneyland closed again due to rising virus case numbers in China.
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