I’ve done videos in the past about Club 33, the exclusive dinner club at Disneyland
located in New Orleans Square.
However did you know there’s another club, called Club 22?
Club 22 was not a fun club to be a part of, but one it’s members were likely proud to
have joined.
It was the result of a dark month during a dark period in Disney’s history.
Those who have watched some of my other videos know that the early 1980's were not a good
time for the Disney company.
Shrinking box office takes and attendance issues with Disneyland and Disney World resulted
in the company being put in a perilous position.
Annual attendance at Disneyland dropped by one and a half million guests between 1980
and 1983.
By 1984, attendance was most recently affected by the Olympics being held in Los Angeles.
People feared the city would be overcrowded and too much to handle and so many avoided
making vacation plans to the region.
That meant less people visiting Disneyland.
Corporate raiders had their sights set on Disney, and the company was forced to take
measures to try and protect themselves.
These measures ranged from their own acquisitions, to potential leveraged buyouts, to installing
new leadership.
One other attempted method however was to cut down on costs, and it was attempted by
trying something they had never resorted to doing in the 29 years that Disneyland was
open: they tried to cut workers pay.
In September of 1984 Disney tried to negotiate a 17% pay cut for 1,800 cast members across
various unions.
The unions rejected the idea, and so Disney instead tried to offer another contract where
wages were frozen for a number of years and benefits were cut.
They rejected that as well, and when the contracts expired it came time to strike.
It wouldn’t be the first strike at Disneyland, but it would be the largest at that time.
Disneyland management decided they weren’t going to let this strike slow them down, and
so they announced that the parks would remain open anyway, with management and supervisors
filling in as many of the vacant roles as possible.
All in all even with the 1,800 striking cast members, there were still around 3,200 who
remained on the job.
The strikers argued that this was a disaster waiting to happen.
They had been trained to fulfill their roles with safety in mind, and now cast peoples
with less or no training were trying to step in.
Disney would eventually offer another contract, one in which benefits were not affected, but
wages were still frozen for two years.
They insisted that it was their final offer before they’d start to hire more replacements.
It was no empty threat either.
One constant throughout the decades of Disneyland's existence is that the reputation and cultural
love for Disney as a brand meant that there was never a shortage of people eager to work
with the company.
The negotiations were slow, and the strike went from lasting days to lasting weeks.
Slowly over time some of the striking cast members would return to their roles, taking
Disney’s threat seriously and fearing for their jobs.
It caused a rift between cast members, creating grudges between those who continued to strike
and those who went back to work.
Ultimately after enough pressure the unions would accept the terms Disney offered, and
22 days after it had begun, the strike was ended.
Union spokesman, John Steele, said they were happy to have them back, and Disney ensured
that all strikers would have their positions reinstated, and that all replacements hired
during the strike would also keep their position.
However for many it wasn’t considered a victory.
After all, the strike began when Disney settled on a multi-year wage freeze, and that’s
ultimately what they got in the end.
The following day the strikers would return to work at Disneyland, and while the ordeal
was over, many recall that the tension between the strikers and those who returned to work
earlier had remained, creating a rift that wouldn’t fully heal among the cast member community.
In the end, there was a comradery among the strikers who decided to stay on the picket
line until the very last day.
Having not wavered all 22 days of the strike, they began to refer to themselves as members
of Club 22.
If you liked this video and would like to learn more, I have another video all about
how Roy Disney considered taking over the company that very same year of the strike.
I also have a video about Michael Eisner and how his box office strategy around then pulled
Disney into the lead in Hollywood.
Thank you all for watching, and I’ll see you next time!