A group of decoration installers at Disney theme parks in California do not have enough in common with a larger group of technical workers to organize with the technical workers’ bargaining unit but can vote to form a unit of their own, a National Labor Relations Board regional director has said.
Region 21 Director William B. Cowen said Wednesday that a group of about 43 art crew employees could organize but not with an existing International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees unit of about 600 technical services workers, whose jobs Cowen said demand dramatically different duties and skills than those of the art crew.
“There are stark and significant differences between the two groups of employees, most significantly with respect to: the level of required skill and experience, the separate work locations, and the near-complete lack of interaction and interchange between the two groups,” Cowen said.
Most of the nearly 600 employees in the technical services unit work as stage technicians, Cowen said. In this role, their primary duties are setting up temporary live performance spaces of various types inside and outside of Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure theme parks. Their duties include installing sets, support units for overhead audio and lighting systems and support systems for live entertainment, including audio, light and video systems. The vast majority of these technicians work primarily inside the parks, while a handful work mostly outside.
The primary duties of the 43 art crew employees are to deliver certain decorative elements from a warehouse to special event areas and once there, to set them up, Cowen said. The equipment they handle includes scenic elements, backdrops and simple props, such as wall panels or candy boxes. Art crew employees alternate their time between an offsite warehouse and special events, about 60 percent of which take place on park grounds.
The art crew employees had asked to hold an Armour-Globe self-determination election to join up with the technical services workers’ unit. To merit a self-determination election, a group of employees must share a community of interest with an existing unit rather than be an identifiable, distinct segment. But every community of interest factor evaluated here, including the proposed units’ structures, duties, skills and work locations weighs against the art crew workers joining with the technical services workers, Cowen said.
Where technical services workers need extensive experience and skills to be qualified and the job is not entry-level, art crew jobs require “far more basic,” less technical skills, Cowen found. Further, Cowen noted art crew employees work mainly out of a warehouse about seven miles from the parks, while technical employees operate out of a warehouse inside park bounds but are not required to report there. The art crew and technical workers “at most” perform their work in sequence with or “in relatively close physical proximity” to the technical staff, Cowen said, and the union did not offer evidence showing their jobs are interchangeable.
However, Cowen ordered that the art crew employees be allowed to decide whether to form their own unit by secret-ballot election, which will be held March 21 barring a request for the NLRB to review.
Attorneys for Disneyland and a representative for IATSE did not immediately respond Friday to requests for comment.
Disneyland is represented by Andrew Lichtenstein and Apalla Chopra of O’Melveny & Myers LLP.
The union is represented by Ira Gottlieb and Lisa Demidovich of Bush Gottlieb.
Law360, New York (March 17, 2017, 7:05 PM EDT)
https://www.law360.com/articles/903191/nlrb-official-says-disney-decorators-can-t-join-iatse-unit