During a press conference on Monday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis not only reiterated that there’d be no additional COVID-19 lockdowns or safety measures, but he also praised the theme parks—particularly Walt Disney World—for how they’ve handled reopening during the pandemic. However, DeSantis stated that the 32,000 layoffs impacted “mostly California”, meaning Disneyland Resort, but considering the numbers coming from Walt Disney World, that has turned out to be incorrect.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, state records and union leaders indicate that at least 18,000 Walt Disney World Cast Members were let go. That’s 56% of the announced layoffs, and nearly 25% of the workforce Walt Disney World employed as of last year. Disney has not come forward with exact breakdowns on the layoffs.
DeSantis also called for the lifting of travel restrictions from Brazil and Europe to “help Central Florida”, claiming that travel bans are unlikely to be effective given the current spread of the virus.
Source: Orlando Sentinel
I think the Governor incorrectly, but meant to say was that proportionally the restrictions in California have hurt Disneyland significantly more than Disney World. California restrictive guidelines have created a much larger impact as a percentage on the poorest cast members in CA. 44% of layoffs coming from a MUCH smaller operation is huge.
It’s because WDW has more employees. It’s a simple thing to realize that if the park is smaller, there is less employees, the more impact losing employees has. It’s true that more layoffs happened at WDW but it had a bigger impact on Disneyland based on the fact they have significantly less employees.
He’s a charmer, that one. A snake charmer, or maybe just… a snake.
The man is the biggest idiot, if he really knew the spike in cases and how many people walk around positive, maybe he would change his tune.
I Happy 😊 Open Disney World
Well the point is: the layoffs are affecting someone. I get why he wants to open up for the sake of the economy but they need to put in some strict travel rules and protections against super spreader events. Disney and Universal can do this but maybe not so much the shady hotels and businesses.
You’re ignoring the context. The point was that economic shutdowns decrease job opportunities, so he was justifying keeping the parks open in Florida. Also, his statement may actually be accurate because you didn’t quote him correctly. He didn’t actually specifically reference Disney, he referenced theme park workers. Universal experienced heavy layoffs in LA that could more than make up the difference to favor CA with the majority of theme park layoffs. Lastly, it’s true that the layoffs disproportionately affected Disneyland. They lost 60% of their workforce compared to 25%. It could have been way worse in Orlando had Disney not been allowed to open because they employ three times more people.
Pretty much any sentence mentioning Governor DeSantis should probably also contain the words “incorrectly states,” as a general rule.
I forget where I saw it, but several weeks ago I read that one of the national health groups was doing virus tracking of folks who had visted parks and recreation areas including WDW. They stated that the incidence of people getting C19 related to WDW was VERY LOW !!! Looks like Disney is doing an outstanding job of keeping guesta safe !