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As Disneyland remains closed, Disneyland Unions announce more layoffs of key Cast Members. Find out Governor Newsom’s response as former Disney CEO, Bob Iger removed himself from the state’s reopening task force. When will Disneyland ever reopen?
65th Anniversary
2020 was to be a year of celebrating for Disneyland in celebration of the Park’s 65th anniversary. In June, it even appeared that Disneyland would reopen on July 17th to commemorate the 65th anniversary.
This date was pushed back and many began to question when Disneyland would be able to reopen.
Walt Disney World reopened safely and has since maintained their health and safety protocols. Preparation was made in Disneyland with similar health and safety protocols used in Walt Disney World.
Still Disneyland and California Adventure remained closed.
Bob Iger Leaves Task Force
Bob Iger has served as Disney CEO since 2005 and stepped down from that position in February 2020. He currently serves as chairman with the Walt Disney Company.
In April, Governor Newsom welcomed Iger to join the State Task Force “to work to develop actions government and businesses can take to help Californians recover as fast as safely possible from the COVID-19 induced recession.”
Last week, the Walt Disney Company announced massive layoffs that would affect 28,000 employees. Soon after this announcement, Iger stepped down from his position with the California State Task Force.
Today a question was directed to Governor Newsom regarding Bob Iger leaving the Task Force. Newsom noted that Bob Iger was a very
“active and participatory in our task force and I’m incredibly grateful for his support, insight, and council over the period of the past number of months. (His quitting) didn’t come as a surprise to me at all.“
Governor Newsom shares, “There were disagreements in terms of opening a major theme park. We’re going to let science and data make that determination. I understand the friction and frustration that many business leaders have. That they want to move forward to reopen, but we’re going to be led by a health-first framework and we’re going to be stubborn about it.”
“there were disagreements in terms of opening a major theme park. WE’re going to let science and data make that determination.”
Governor Newsom
“We feel like there’s no hurry putting out guidelines. We’re continuing to work with amusement parks…it’s very complex. We don’t anticipate in the immediate term any of these larger theme parks reopening until we see more stability in terms of data.”
“We don’t anticipate in the immediate term any of these larger theme parks reopening until we see more stability in terms of data.”
Governor Newsom
Massive Disneyland Union Layoffs
As Governor Newsom makes the statement that there are no immediate plans to reopen major Theme Parks, including Disneyland, more than 1,800 layoffs were announced today for Disneyland Cast Members.
One of the big reasons for the massive Disney layoffs was shared by Disney Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro, “In light of the prolonged impact of COVID-19 on our business, including limited capacity due to physical distancing requirements and the continued uncertainty regarding the duration of the pandemic- exacerbated in California by the State’s unwillingness to lift restrictions that would allow Disneyland to reopen.”
Teamsters Local 495 Union represents Disneyland attraction operators, meet and greet character performers, and other trade positions. This union announced today, that 1,400 Cast Members from their Union will lose their positions.
The total number of Disneyland layoffs is now more than 8,400.
In addition, Disney Security will be losing 500 Cast Members. At this time the running tally of Disneyland layoffs have affected more than 8,400 Cast Members. At this time there is no sign of when Disneyland may reopen.
Last week, rumors emerged that Governor Newsom had reopening guidelines. California Theme Parks asked to weigh in on these reopening guidelines, but this request was not well received by Governor Newsom. He is now stating that he is in “no hurry putting out guidelines.”
What do you think of Bob Iger leaving the Task Force and Governor Newsom’s response? Do you think Disneyland should remain closed or do you think they should reopen? Do you think more Cast Members may lose their jobs if the Parks remain closed? Share your thoughts with us on our Facebook Page.
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