As Florida temperatures soar, Disney World workers struggle and pass out from the heat

As Central Florida receives warnings for dangerously high temperatures outdoors, local workers at Disney World say their employer isn’t taking their health and safety seriously, just days after two live performers passed out on the job.

Denys Ortega, a business agent for the Teamsters Local 385, told Orlando Weekly two performers at Disney’s Beauty & the Beast show at Hollywood Studios actually fainted the weekend before last, as the company lagged to fix a broken air conditioning system in a room that performers occupy prior to entering the outdoor stage.

One of those performers, an actor who performs as the Beast, is represented by the Teamsters. The other is represented by Actors Equity, the union that represents some theatrical Disney performers.

According to Ortega, and multiple performers Orlando Weekly spoke to, it took several days for the company to take action. “Now that two people passed out, now — today — it was fixed,” Ortega told Orlando Weekly last Wednesday, “which is something that could have been prevented.”

The Beast is all right, Ortega reassured. But after fainting, the actor understandably refused to work the rest of his shift. He got permission to go home after the incident, and left. Unlike an office worker who goes home sick, however, the remaining hours of his scheduled shift were unpaid, according to Ortega.

Beaten by the heat at the most magical place on earth

At Disney World, more than 40,000 of the parks’ employees are covered by union contracts that guarantee certain safety protections, including the right to refuse dangerous work and to receive education on safety topics.

Under the unions’ current contract with the Walt Disney Company, finalized with the theme park giant last year, one clause states that “no employee shall be compelled to perform work or operate equipment that poses an imminent danger to life or serious physical harm to themself.”

Another section also guarantees that Disney will have refillable water bottles and sunscreen available for their employees during worker hours. Employees who primarily work outdoors during shifts are also promised access to electrolytes “upon request.”

In practice, however, Teamsters Local 385 President Walt Howard told Orlando Weekly that the company is only compliant when pushed, adding Disney “has become unresponsive to characters’ safety.”

Performers who don Disney's bulky costumes, he said, are “suffering” in the service of creating magical experiences for kids, despite contract language that is supposed to guarantee adequate breaks for employees working outdoors.

Costumes worn by Disney princesses, and iconic figures like Mickey Mouse and Goofy — all represented by the Teamsters — are heavy, and performers don’t have a magic wand to keep themselves cool when the local heat index exceeds 100 degrees, placing them at risk for heat exhaustion and other heat-related illnesses.

Another character performer, who asked to be called “Performer 1” due to fear of retaliation, confirmed the fainting incident, and said at least one side of the AC system in that room had been out since November.

The performer explained the actor who plays the Beast has been with the company for 20-plus years, and isn't the kind of person to hyperbolize a dangerous situation. “He's been with the company for a long time, so he's not one to, you know, be over-dramatic.”

Performer 1, who's been with the company for a little over a decade himself, understands that it's a tough line to walk between preserving the magic, and preserving performers' safety at the parks. He loves his job, and stressed it isn't his intention to come off as “vindictive.”

“I've been coming to Disney since I was a kid, so I don't want to take away from the guest experience,” he explained, sympathetically. “That's part of the issue too, is that, you know, what's more important: making sure these guests get this photo, or that my safety is taken care of?”

Another Disney actor hired for the role of a Disney princess (she's not at liberty to disclose which one), said it makes her angry that performers are experiencing this problem. She doesn’t perform in live shows herself, but visits different departments as a union member to check in with other Teamsters.

“We are working with our friends, and people that we grew attached to, and to watch my friends suffer and just like, faint ...” the princess trails off, as though picturing a recent incident in her head. “They're telling us to get on set while someone's fainting, and we're supposed to pretend it's not happening,” she told Orlando Weekly over the phone.

No one is permitted to check to see if the performer is okay,  she said, or to help them if they're expected on stage. “I feel like it's inhumane the way that they treat them,” she said. “And it just makes me angry to see my friend go through that.”

The Walt Disney Co. did not respond to Orlando Weekly 's request for comment on these concerns ahead of publication.

‘It’s like a big oven’

Workers in the United States, generally speaking, have few guaranteed protections from extreme heat on the job, despite the fact that it just keeps getting hotter .

Just three states in the U.S. — California, Oregon and Washington — require heat breaks for outdoor workers, while only Minnesota and Oregon currently have heat safety regulations for indoor workers.

Florida, a state with a reputation for being business-friendly, doesn’t have any state standards of its own for workplace heat protections, and recently banned cities and counties from coming up with their own, at the behest of “ the entire business community ,” as one lobbyist put it. According to lobbying disclosure records, this indirectly includes the Walt Disney Co., which is a member of an industry trade group that lobbied in favor of the ban.

While a regulatory process is underway to develop federal heat safety standards , the process could still take years to finalize, and worker advocates warn this process could be disrupted , or even gutted completely, if the Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump is elected for a second term in the White House.

His record on worker safety isn’t impressive . During his first term as U.S. President, Trump signed a Republican-backed bill that made it easier for employers to hide workplace injuries. He also tried to appoint the CEO of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. — whose company had been fined for breaking work safety laws — to lead the U.S. Department of Labor. That didn't end well .

Today, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, an agency within the Department of Labor, can fine employers if they are found to violate what’s known as the “general duty” clause under federal law, which requires employers to ensure a workplace is “free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees.” The clause leaves room for discretion, however, leaving enforcement spotty . Often, employers are only fined if a worker is injured, or dies on the job.

AJ Meeks, who works as a host at The Edison restaurant at Disney Springs in Orlando, said that just the walk into work these days is “grueling.”

“It’s like, I'm sweating just walking in, and then to know that I just have to stand outside the entire shift is not a great feeling,” Meeks told Orlando Weekly .

If Meeks is scheduled for a morning shift, he mostly works outdoors. If it’s an evening shift, he said it varies. While he’s never gotten sick from heat on the job, he admits his concentration “isn’t quite all there” when he’s working outdoors for too long.

The heat, he said, becomes an ever-present issue “constantly” running though his head. “I'm so hot, like, you get to a point where you just, that's all you can think about,” Meeks explained.

Even more, hosts like him at The Edison — an industrial, 1920's-themed restaurant — are required to wear a multilayered uniform, consisting of an undershirt, a dapper gray dress shirt or vest, dark pants, and suspenders. Even guests, he said, sometimes come up to him to share their sympathies.

“I don't even get health insurance through this company, and yet I have to work outside these conditions, you know?” he remarked. “They don't want anyone to have a health episode, but then, they kind of hypocritically don't provide me health insurance.”

Unlike Disney World employees, who have health insurance benefits and certain safety regulations guaranteed in their union contracts, Meeks is technically an employee of the Patina Restaurant Group, a third-party subcontractor that operates several restaurants at Disney Springs, including The Edison.

Meeks said he asked his restaurant’s director of operations recently if there was any sort of heat index cutoff for when employees would be forced to move inside, assuming he would receive some sort of answer. “He was kind of confused by that,” Meeks recalled. “And he just told me, there is no cutoff. Like, I can be outside indefinitely.”

Julissa Ruiz, a young cashier and line attendant at Pizza Ponte — another Disney Springs restaurant owned by the Patina Restaurant Group — similarly said she and her co-workers have very little protection from heat on the job. “They don’t do nothing,” Ruiz told Orlando Weekly . “It’s like a big oven.”

Unlike Meeks, Ruiz mostly works indoors, but said that the AC in the restaurant has broken down several times, and isn’t always functioning properly even when it’s semi-functional.

When the AC breaks down, she said it feels like it’s hotter inside the restaurant than outdoors. Working under those conditions, she said she gets dizzy, and often has headaches — both symptoms of heat exhaustion .

“It’s frustrating,” Ruiz said. “I shouldn’t be working in these conditions.”

Organizing for action

Thousands of miles away on the West Coast of the U.S., workers at a Seattle-based sandwich shop chain had the same thought, as they experienced a similar issue with heat.

Workers at Homegrown Sustainable Sandwiches in Washington, a shop unionized with Unite Here Local 8, led protest actions over this issue , according to reporting from Labor Notes , and brought the problem up to company management.

Through contract talks, they eventually won something that they believe is an industry first: a clause in their union contract called “heat pay.”

The clause requires their employer to pay the indoor sandwich workers time-and-a-half pay for their shift when temperatures in their store reach 82 degrees Fahrenheit, or double pay if store temperatures reach 86 degrees. If the latter occurs, workers are also guaranteed the right to leave their shift without punishment, as another option.

Unite Here Local 8 president Anita Smith told Grist the goal of this clause is to “really incentivize the employer to update and improve their heat mitigation systems,” which can include repairing or updating the AC.

Jeremy Haicken, president of Unite Here Local 737 in Orlando, told Orlando Weekly their local hasn’t yet proposed or won similar language in their contracts, covering roughly 19,000 hospitality and service workers in Central Florida — including thousands at Disney World. “But it’s an excellent idea that would go a long way towards protecting workers here in Orlando,” Haicken told Orlando Weekly over email.

Meeks and Ruiz are two of some 300 restaurant workers at Disney Springs who recently announced an organizing drive with Unite Here Local 737, which also represents local hotel workers with a contract set to expire at the end of the year.

Five Disney Springs restaurants — all owned by the Patina Restaurant Group — are currently involved in organizing with Unite Here, including the Edison, Pizza Ponte, Maria & Enzo’s, Enzo’s Hideaway and Morimoto Asia. Other Disney-owned restaurants at Disney Springs are already unionized.

The Patina Restaurant Group employees have not officially filed paperwork for a union election, nor have they asked their employer to voluntarily recognize their union. At this point, they’re just asking their employer to allow them a fair process to organize.

Delaware North, a food service management company that owns a majority stake in the Patina Restaurant Group and thus fields media inquiries, did not respond to Orlando Weekly ’s request for comment on their employees’ heat-related concerns in time for publication.

Meanwhile, although character performers with the Teamsters say they’re struggling to get Disney to follow the safety language they’re contractually obligated to, some in food service are having success.

David Napierala, a greeter at the Plaza Restaurant at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, said the safety language in his union contract empowered him to seek out help from a union rep when he found himself working extended periods of time outdoors.

As a greeter, Napierala works partly outdoors — where he checks people in — and partly indoors, as he gives visitors menus and guides them to their tables. On one occasion in late June, however, the 26-year-old told Orlando Weekly he’d been working outside, and found himself “struggling” due to the high temperature and humidity. Such conditions significantly increase the risk of experiencing heat-related illness, especially for outdoor workers and people with pre-existing medical conditions.

Napierala approached a supervisor about the issue, fully aware of the contract language that is supposed to protect his safety. After the exchange, however, he was still concerned. So, following his shift he contacted a union rep, who was surprised he’d been working outdoors as long as he had.

The rep brought Napierala’s concerns to company representatives, who then agreed to adopt a 30-minute rotation policy at the Plaza, to prevent such problems in the future.

He said workers also keep water bottles on them at all times, and are allowed to ask supervisors for a “10:10,” or a short break to sort of gather themselves and assess. Disney characters, represented by the Teamsters, are also guaranteed the right to take time to grab water, or rest, if they're feeling ill.

The employee who doubles as a Disney princess told us she wants to see change from Disney — a sentiment echoed by Performer 1. “Start treating us more like humans, instead of attractions,” the princess shared. “That’s what I really want to see. I want to see [Disney] actually treat us like humans.”

AdventHealth Central Florida confirmed a 20% increase in patients seeking emergency care for heat-related illness last summer, according to Central Florida Public Media, while a data analysis from the Associated Press found that heat-related deaths in the U.S. last year reached a record high . More than 2,3000 fatalities related to excessive heat were recorded.

For more information about how to stay cool in Orange County, Florida, here is a list of public cooling locations designed to help keep people safe from the heat.

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