On May 1, 2018 – for the first time since September 2017 – the Company entered the room to negotiate with the Union. They’ve put two options on the table.
Each Cast Member would receive the thousand dollar tax cut bonus that the Company already promised them, but only if they settle an unsustainably low raise (fifty cents per hour).
This option is spelled out in a thirty-eight page proposal. It has a few ups, but a lot more downs.
• The Company would no longer have to pay overtime rates to Cast Members who are scheduled for fewer than five days a week. Tough luck, part-timers!
• The Company would get rid of sixth-day overtime and seventh-day doubletime altogether. So if you work for that brutal and exhausting amount of time, you would be rewarded with regular pay.
• The Company would stop the Union from having a say in how Cast Members are scheduled altogether.
• The Company would change transfer guidelines. A Cast Member would have to wait a full year before transfering to a new location. (Currently it’s six months.)
• The Company would only allow Cast Members to transfer to a new location if they have two attendance entries and no reprimands. (Currently it’s five attendance entries and one reprimand.)
• The Company would be allowed to transfer Union Shop Stewards to other locations upon whim. The Shop Steward wouldn’t have a say in the matter.
• The Company would no longer have to reimburse a Cast Member who takes a leave of absence due to civil or criminal charges, even if the Cast Member is found Not Guilty. (It shouldn’t matter either way, but still.)
• The Company would no longer be required to have a Shop Steward present when Management calls a Cast Member in for disciplinary reasons.
• Currently, Cast Members can clock in fifteen minutes before their shift starts and clock out fifteen minutes after it ends. The Company would reduce that to five minutes, before and after.
• If a Cast Member has a grievance that can’t be resolved by an Area Manager or a General Manager, the Company would no longer have to send a higher-ranking representative to resolve it. The grievance would just go unresolved.
• The Company would only provide Holiday Pay to Cast Members who have worked the day before the holiday, the day of the holiday, AND the day after the holiday.
• The Company would place a cap on the number of hours of Vacation Time and Sick Time that a Cast Member can accrue. (Currently it’s based on the number of hours that the Cast Member works, but the Company wants to base it on the number of hours paid up to 1,800 hours.)
• The Company would no longer be required to have a Shop Steward present for Scheduling Bids and Vacation Bids.
• The Safety Committee is a forum where Cast Members can voice safety concerns in their work area to Management. The Labor/Management Committee is a forum where Shop Stewards can voice their concerns to Management.
The Company would combine these two Committees, and diminish the Union’s representation in them.
• The Company would now be allowed to subject Cast Members to random drug testing at any time, for any drug, without even notifying the Union first.
• The Company would no longer allow Cast Members to speak one-on-one with Union Representatives while on the clock. Not backstage. Not during a break. Nothing.
• The Company would no longer allow the Union to contact Cast Members directly at all. They’d have to do it via mail or solicitation letters.
• The Company would no longer allow the Union to contact Non-Union Cast Members at all.
• The Company would allows Cast Members to join the Union without paying monthly dues. This would de-fund the Union, which would basically kill it altogether.
• The Company wouldn’t be required to negotiate another contract with its Cast Members until 2022 (assuming the Cast Members still have a Union to advocate on their behalf).
The Perfect Scientist 