In early July, the Walt Disney Company reopened parts of two amusement parks: Disney World near Orlando, Florida, and Disneyland in Anaheim, California. The former reopened to space out the highly controlled 13-week party known as NBA Bubble, in which staff, players, coaches and staff adhered to strict social distancing rules and isolation requirements, along with normal on-site testing. . several hundred.
Although they went a few days apart, the two parks operated with incredibly other resources.Unlike the bubble, the Downtown Disney community has not been tested on the site.In a letter to unions in June, Disney’s director of industrial relations, Bill Pace, called the evidence “unsustainable” and the subject of “false negatives,” even though they were implemented in Orlando.Similarly, the domain did not involve its visitors, but it allowed thousands of people to enter and leave the domain with little more than temperature control.But the alarming maximum difference, the cast members told the Daily Beast, the search for the dark contacts of the community.
Four resources close to the case told the Daily Beast that Disney had kept the total number of positive cases in the district a secret, alerting unions only to the positive effects of its members’ checks, days after the fact, thus risking being more exposed, and therefore to staff.to guess for themselves why colleagues disappeared for days at a time in Array or why 11 other people from the 12-person horticultural irrigation team did not show up to paint for a full week.
“We need to know if any members of the distribution have tested positive, but Disney has taken the position that they will only tell us if our cast members do,” said Matt Bell, spokesperson for TUAC Local 324, one of 12 unions.representing workers, or “distribution members,” at Disneyland.”What is intended to happen is to search for contacts: locate who has been exposed and also quarantine them.I verify they did.”
“Basically, all of our COVID data comes from word of mouth,” said Alicia, the wife of a cast member whose contract forbids them from talking to the press, “colleagues have texted each other, colleagues are talking to everyone.others, and things my [spouse] saw at work.None of this comes from one of the managers. Disney’s control doesn’t officially recognize that all this is happening.”
Disney responded to more than 8 requests for feedback.
Matt, who sought anonymity because of concern for his paintings, has been working at Disney for four years as a plumber.In March, he was on leave with the vast majority of Disney employees, charging the holidays to achieve the finishes.He reminded staff to reopen parts of the park in late June, Matt wasn’t too worried.I basically painted outside, alone. The paintings already required dressing in a latex mask and gloves due to insecticides on the Disney floor.”It looks nice,” he says, “but it’s a lot of chemicals.”
The first week ago, two resources close to the stage told the Daily Beast, a gardener fell ill in the house and returned to the paintings only to notice, after being tested at his own speed, that he had caught the virus from one of his parents. He told the Daily Beast that Disney only showed the positive case the following Monday, and left a week before his colleagues knew they could have possibly been exposed. Representatives from the painters union, LIUNA Local 652, did not respond to requests for comment.
Alicia was not in Disney’s ability to organize a safe reopening without normal on-site testing, temperature controls and contactless bags, and a strict touch tracking protocol, especially at a time when Orange County was experiencing an increase in positive cases.On July 8, 10 days after cast members repainted and a day before the district opened, he wrote messages to the city of Anaheim and the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, reporting the danger on behalf of several cast members.”Unknowingly, [the cast members were painting] with a painter who was exposed to COVID-19,” he wrote.”Although the union suggested that he not return, he still painted his entire shift, exposing ALL [them].”
“PERSON, ” he concluded, “doesn’t need” to ride Dumbo in a plague.”
The governor never returned, however, the city of Anaheim replied, “We are sorry to hear what they shared,” they wrote, according to revised publications through The Daily Beast.The next day, however, the city posted on its Facebook page about downtown.Disney, which celebrates the reopening of the community “safely and accountablely.”Downtown Disney, they noted, is “a major generator of sales tax revenue.”
“We sense the considerations of who works or will return to work,” Mike Lyster, Anaheim’s communications director, told the Daily Beast, “but we are not aware of any consideration at Downtown Disney.”
From there, says Alice, more staff began to disappear.In a long thread of text messages sent between July and mid-August, all reviewed through The Daily Beast, 3 staff members discussed positive cases within the horticultural irrigation team and their concern.to get to work.
On July 23, one employee spoke to two other members of the poor health team, one of whom tested positive, the other waiting for the results of the control.The other employee responded by saying that two machinists and a roofer from another team had also returned to the house.in poor health. The next day, they talked about a third gardener who had returned home in poor health.On July 26, a cast member, Wilson (not his genuine name) said he himself tested positive for COVID; his wife would get the same result four days later.
On July 27, according to the messages, six of the 12 members of his team were at home or in solitary confinement; by July 29, that number was greater than nine.
On August 2, Wilson claimed in a text message that just five days after being positive for COVID-19, Disney had allowed him to return to paintings.At this stage, Wilson stated that he had not strayed from the age of 14 and had not won a negative.However, he writes, returned to the paintings on August 3.The next day, according to text messages, two other members of the 12-person team returned home, leaving Wilson and some other painter alone.
Over this period, concern has increased among workers.On behalf of his wife, Alicia sent five messages to Governor Newsom’s office, all of his social media accounts, and his online comment portal.
“In addition to the unscrupulous [Disney] elimination of their Covid-19 case numbers, workers have ‘strongly encouraged/recommended’ not to aggravate visitors to NO Downtown Disney,” Alicia wrote.”Regardless of the new protection rules, as long as the visitor wears a mask, [the actors] are not encouraged to ‘clean the feathers’, which means that the application of social distance has been dispersed at best.’
His messages were not returned. Meanwhile, Matt was concerned about the evidence among his colleagues.Many of them did not have time to queue for loose tests or those covered by their insurance.One colleague, according to text messages, said he paid $200 out of his own pocket to get proof.quick test.
Communication about outbreaks is unclear, even for high-ranking union members. None of the 11 unions contacted through The Daily Beast can simply verify the total number of COVID-19 cases among the workforce.
Bell, the representative of TUAC, said Disney had reported only two positive cases among its members, one on July 17 and the other on August 5, but did not provide the main points to whom they have exposed.
“We’ve heard other coalition members say there have been epidemics in Downtown Disney,” said Chris Duarte of Workers United Local 50, a member of the Coalition of Resort Labor Unions.”I don’t know many main points about their and but we’ve heard from our other partners that other people in Downtown Disney have contracted the disease.
“Of course, some other people have tested positive as we know it,” said Anthony Novello, president of Pipers Union, Local 582.”I know there are two or three guys in a unit, and one of them understood.and the other two were told to stay home…But we weren’t told there were so many instances inside the park.
Novello said he’d take a look at the total number of cases at Downtown Disney and let me know.Two days later, he gave a new answer: no comment.
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