Disney braces for additional walkouts as workers categorical discontent with CEO Bob Chapek

By admin Last updated Mar 21, 2022 29

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Disney versus Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is way from over. And Disney is the state’s largest private-sector employer, so it is a battle between giants — one which DeSantis clearly welcomes as he plots a run for president.

At challenge: Florida’s Parental Rights in Training invoice, dubbed the “Do not Say Homosexual” invoice, that may ban classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identification earlier than fourth grade. Disney CEO Bob Chapek tiptoed across the invoice at first, was pilloried by workers, after which publicly criticized the invoice after it handed the state’s legislature. Chapek apologized to LGBTQ workers, however his phrases did little to decrease the temperature. Some workers staged transient walkouts final week, forward of a “full day walkout” slated to happen on Tuesday.

What number of will take part? Nobody is aware of. “It is unclear whether or not it can draw a crowd” amongst studios workers, CNBC’s Julia Boorstin wrote, “as solely a fraction of workers have been coming in to work on the lot.”

However the earlier walkouts garnered a variety of consideration, and “the act of protest will culminate” on Tuesday, as The AP’s Mike Schneider put it. Three new tales have excellent perception into this challenge…

Chapek’s determination backfired

The WSJ’s Robbie Whelan, Erich Schwartzel and Joe Flint nailed it with this lead:

“Chapek decided in the beginning of the yr: Disney was staying out of politics. The technique was meant partially to assist the leisure large keep away from the tradition clashes between executives and workers which have plagued many firms in recent times, mentioned individuals aware of his pondering. As an alternative, it backfired.”

Chapek’s mishandling of the Florida battle “managed to offend each progressives, who needed the corporate to do and say extra to battle the invoice, and conservatives, who needed Disney to remain out of the talk and now declare it’s bowing to liberal agitators inside its ranks.”

>> Chapek’s contract is up for renewal subsequent February, so “a number of present and former Disney executives described the subsequent 11 months as a important interval for the CEO,” the WSJ staff added…

The view from Florida

CNN’s professional in all issues Florida politics, Steve Contorno, is out with an excellent new story about how the Disney dispute has additional bolstered DeSantis’s standing throughout the GOP. It has additionally “uncovered a widening chasm between the present crop of Republican leaders and the companies which have historically curried favor with the GOP,” Contorno wrote…

>> Christopher Miles, a Miami-based GOP guide, advised Contorno that watching a Florida governor go after Disney was “not a world I anticipated to be residing in a few years in the past.” However DeSantis, like Donald Trump, has gained reputation by bucking standard knowledge…

Chapek and Iger at odds

In media insider circles, the weekend’s #1 learn was Alex Sherman’s story for CNBC concerning the falling out between Chapek and his predecessor Bob Iger. It is a rift that now “looms over Disney’s future.”

Within the wake of the Florida debacle, a number of Disney workers have known as Iger “to precise their disappointment in Chapek,” Sherman reported. However “whereas public controversies generate headlines, it is prone to be Chapek’s inside adjustments, and the way profitable they change into, that can decide his future as Disney’s CEO.”

One of many key adjustments is the elevation of Kareem Daniel, who has revenue and loss oversight over Disney’s media and leisure companies. Daniel has “some of the highly effective jobs ever created in media,” Sherman wrote. Daniel has not given any interviews since his October 2020 promotion. Read all about the internal intrigue here…

Moments of silence on ESPN

We famous on Friday that ESPN announcers Carolyn Peck and Courtney Lyle confirmed solidarity with fellow workers by going silent for 2 minutes in the beginning of the NCAA girls’s event. Throughout Sunday’s event protection, they did it once more, remaining silent “for about two minutes because the South Carolina Gamecocks and the Miami Hurricanes tipped off,” per Analis Bailey of USA Today.

“Announcers Stephanie White and Pam Ward additionally noticed a second of silence throughout Saturday’s sport in Connecticut,” Bailey added. And Elle Duncan mentioned the walkouts on the air on Friday…

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Disney braces for further walkouts as employees express discontent with CEO Bob Chapek - CNN Media