As reported in detail last week, the three unions cfdt, CFTC and UNSA representing cast members of Disneyland Paris had called for a one day strike on December 23, 2009. In the years past strike actions usually were limited to gatherings in front of the RER and TGV train station as well as in front of the entrance to the Fantasia Gardens (making sure guests had to pass through a cordon of union members voicing their discontent with the management of Disneyland Paris). Ocassionaly the strikers marched through the Disney Village and around Lake Disney. However, impact on the guest experience was minimal while the unions still were able to get a showing of their strength. However, the current union membership decided that it was time to take the guests paying their wages as hostages of their actions. According to an article of the daily Le Parisien posted on the website of the union cfdt the unions not only managed to get the days only performances of Disney Stars’n'Cars in the Walt Disney Studios Park (as seen at the bottom of this article in a video posted by chrissouille08 to YouTube) and the Once Upon a Dream Parade in the Disneyland Park cancelled instead marching down the parade route / showing off on the stage on Production Courtyard with their flags and posters – as reported on DLP.info in both cases. In addition the strikers apparently temporarly blocked access to various attractions including Space Mountain: Mission 2 and Big Thunder Mountain. Furthermore they convened on a performanc of the stunt show in the Walt Disney Studios Park and demonstrated inside Studio 1 as well as inside the lobby of Disney’s Hotel New York.

In other words: the unions managed to destroy a considerable bit of the magic and made a part of the visit on the day miserable for guests, for many of which this most probably was a once-in-a-lifetime visit - even so their apparently were only between 150 and 200 striking cast members and the majority of cast members tried their best to make sure guests had a magical time.

The demands? Negotiations regarding the work conditions and regarding age increases, which the management of Disneyland Paris had originally countered with ” zero wage increase” proposal for 2010. The results? They came swift… (more…)