Disneyland union plans Saturday protest against COVID-19 reopening plan

UPDATE: Following the publication of this story, Disneyland announced it will not reopen its theme parks on July 17 as previously announced. The July 9 reopening of Downtown Disney will proceed as scheduled. Read more here.

Union representing workers at Disneyland are planning a protest caravan outside the Anaheim theme park on Saturday over the resort’s plans to reopen in July.

The protest follows a letter sent to California Gov. Gavin Newsom by the Coalition of Resort Labor Unions — whose members represent 17,000 Disneyland employees — which claimed that Disney has not addressed all their concerns about reopening amid the COVID-19 pandemic, such as discussing testing for the coronavirus among employees.

“Moreover, Disney has rejected or not yet responded to important safety proposals made by CRLU member unions,” the letter stated. “Therefore, at this point we do not know if the resort can be operated safely.”

Theme Park Tribune did not receive a response to a request for comment from union representatives on the protest.

Despite the unions’ concerns, Disneyland has begun notifying cast members to return to work as soon as June 28.

Park operations would be far from business as usual, however; like other major theme parks, Disneyland would reopen with restricted capacity, physical distancing reminders and a requirement for all guests over the age of 2 (as well as all employees) to wear face masks.

Disneyland’s home of Orange County, California is among the regions of the state seeing an uptick in COVID-19 hospitalizations. According to the Los Angeles Times, the county saw an average daily increase of 32 hospitalizations due to confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 between Memorial Day and the week ending June 21.

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