Julia Boorstin in her article for CNBC covered the recent furloughing of at least 43,000 workers, mostly in the theme park division of the company. Many estimates place the number closer to 100,000 workers which means a substantial number of the company’s employees will be without pay for an extensive amount of time. Disney is now facing strong criticism as their contemporaries which include NBCUniversal and AT&T’s WarnerMedia have yet to furlough or even lay off any of their employees. The article points out that more then one-third of the company’s revenue alone comes its parks and resorts. This contrasts Disney’s competition which has a far less substantial stake in the theme park business. NBCUniversal for example only accounts five percent of the company’s revenue as coming from its theme parks. Despite this, the article makes evident that Disney’s market capitalization is $185 billion which puts the company in the position of appearing greedy and out of touch with the needs of their army of workers. With their theme parks not opening potentially until next year, this move will obviously have a detrimental affect on the tens of thousands of employees who rely on the company to make ends meet.
I found this article to be compelling for its analytical breakdown in terms of hard statistics regarding why Disney made the decision to furlough a significant portion of its workers. Its unfortunate to say the least that the company was not able to work out some form of compensation for their dedicated employees who in their time of need are being left by the wayside.
Current Issues In Media Management 