Disney To Furlough 43K, Free Health Benefits For Year

The Orlando Sentinel reports:

About 43,000 unionized Disney World workers will be furloughed starting April 19, the largest wave of employees in Central Florida to be sent home without pay because of the coronavirus crisis. The Service Trades Council Union, a coalition of six locals, announced the news Saturday on Facebook Live.

The coalition said Disney had agreed to provide free health care benefits for a year and will keep paying for a program called Disney Aspire that gives workers a free education. About 200 union workers deemed essential will stay on the job, the union said.

Union leaders acknowledged they did not want furloughs but that Walt Disney Co. was within its rights to impose them and had already paid workers’ wages for weeks after the parks shut down March 16.