I have very, very fond memories of watching Disney movies when I was younger. I was born at the perfect time to be just old enough to appreciate the golden age that was the late 1980s and 1990s -- the era of 'The Little Mermaid', 'Aladdin', 'Beauty and the Beast' and 'The Lion King.'
Those movies were a cherished part of my childhood and -- for the longest time -- I dreamt of going to Disney World in Florida.
How times have changed.
Disney is now -- like so many other corporations -- utterly beholden to the woke ideology.
Whether it's the firing of Gina Carano (and then trying to get her wrongful termination lawsuit dismissed on First Amendment grounds), erasing the now-problematic Tinkerbell, or gutting beloved IPs like 'Star Wars' by handing it over to woke Leftists. 'The Acolyte' is a prime example: its producer calls it the 'gayest' 'Star Wars' ever.
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Disney, undoubtedly, does this because they want to appear morally superior, 'tolerant' and 'inclusive.'
If only they'd extend that same courtesy to their employees.
Two Disney workers have sued the company after it asked them to relocate from California and be based at a new Florida campus — which it later canceled.https://t.co/mpHa9qSkiY
— Entrepreneur (@Entrepreneur) June 24, 2024
In May of last year, Disney scrapped plans to build the nearly $1 billion campus in Orlando's Lake Nona neighborhood. The company was on a cost-cutting spree after Bob Iger returned as CEO. Simultaneously, Disney and Gov. Ron DeSantis had locked horns over a Florida law that limited what public schools could teach about gender identity and sexual orientation.
About 2,000 jobs, mainly in the company's parks, experiences, and products division, were set to move from an office in Glendale, California, to the new campus, which had been in the works since 2019.
At least 200 employees had already relocated to Florida before the project was canceled, Disney's theme-parks chair, Josh D'Amaro, told employees in an internal email in 2023.
Two of these workers have now sued Disney seeking damages.
Maria De La Cruz, a vice president of product design, and George Fong, a creative director of product design, filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against the entertainment and theme-park giant on Tuesday in the Los Angeles Superior Court.
Disney told them in August 2021 that their roles would move to the Lake Nona campus and "made it clear" that they would lose their jobs if they refused to relocate, the lawsuit said. It added that the workers were given three months to make their decision.
First, if Bob Iger is worried about cost cutting, perhaps it should focus on making quality product people would watch rather than the 'gayest' renditions of massive IPs. Many of its latest offerings have been disasters at the box office, and shows like 'The Acolyte' have been universally panned by fans.
They'd do away with these 'white privilege checklists' that shame employees on the basis of race.
They also decided picking a fight with Ron DeSantis -- one they lost handily -- at the behest of whining employees after the media said the governor's parental rights legislation was really a 'don't say gay' law. This exposed just how woke Disney has become, and James O'Keefe recently exposed a Disney VP saying they'll never hire a white male.
But I digress, however.
Just imagine the audacity of this company to demand you relocate everything for your job, only to cancel the project after you've sold your home and uprooted your family to move across the country, and thinking you're the good guys.
Disney surely believes its entire culture -- from the DEI nonsense to firing Gina Carano -- makes it a good corporate citizen.
It does not.
Treating your employees well -- and your fans -- is how you do that.
Disney made thousands of employees move thousands of miles from home -- selling houses, requiring spouses to switch jobs, kids to switch schools -- under threat of losing their jobs. Then the canceled the project. The economy and housing market changed, making it difficult if not impossible to find housing comparable to what they sold when the moved out of California.
And clearly Disney hasn't done much to help with the tremendous expense of moving.
Although, if I'm being honest, moving out of California and to Florida would be a blessing in and of itself. But I'm an outsider; my life isn't in California and I completely sympathize with the economic and job situation these Disney employees find themselves in now. Because of decisions Disney made.
The lawsuit is absolutely justified, and Disney should be ashamed. It took a beloved, respected brand and drove it into the ground in the name of woke insanity, while forgetting its duty to its employees.
