Disney workers decry health-care contract

“The workload of our housekeepers is on the low end of industry standards, and we monitor that closely,” she said. “What this is really about is Local 11 can’t get what they want at the negotiating table: free health care.”

The demonstration at West Alameda Avenue between South Brighton and South Lincoln streets began Tuesday night as employees dotted the sidewalk with tents, signs and banners exclaiming: “Shame on Walt Disney Co.” and “Work Shouldn’t Hurt.”

“We pray that Disney opens its heart, that is gives up its corporate greed and chooses instead to take on a new discipline, one that respects workers, one that respects families and one that makes a space for strong worker-leaders,” Pastor Bridie Roberts, program director for the Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, Los Angeles, told the five fasters in blessing.

John Hughes, a bell service captain at Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel, said he hoped to resolve differences with the company through meditation and prayer.

“We’ve given up a lot to be here,” Hughes said. “From our past contract experiences, we’ve always given up something in the wages in order to receive the free monthly premiums.”

Local 11 members are charged only co-pays for visits to doctors and prescriptions.

Whitney Rupp, a server and bartender at the Disneyland Hotel, identified herself as one of many hotel and restaurant workers whose work-related injuries have compounded over the years.

The chronic pain is “off and on,” she said, and highlights the need for affordable health insurance.

“One thing that I believe is the more people out there with health insurance, the cheaper it will be,” Rupp said. “There are a lot of people who could not do this hunger strike. The fact that we have taken the lead in this, we’re representing ourselves as well as more than 2,000 more workers.”