For the first time in the United States, retail workers at a LEGO Store are seeking to unionize. Employees at Downtown Disney’s LEGO Store announced that they are organizing with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).
The store employs more than 60 non-managerial workers, known as “brick specialists,” who help customers, build displays, and manage the shop’s day-to-day operations. Workers say the effort to form a union is about fairness and having a voice in decisions that affect their jobs.
“Thousands of our friends and coworkers at Disneyland are already members of a union, we just want the same rights they enjoy,” said Hunter Gulino, a LEGO Store brick specialist, in the union statement. “To us, having a union is about being treated fairly.”
While LEGO employees do not work directly for Disney, the union said they are covered under a December settlement that guarantees a living wage under Measure L because the store is part of the Downtown Disney shopping area. UFCW said, however, that LEGO employees were not given the same clear information about benefits such as 401(k) contributions that Disney employees received under the settlement.
“I love my job and I love working for LEGO,” said brick specialist Melissa Gonzalez in the statement. “But I want a voice on the job. Having a union will help us build a better workplace, and I think that will have a positive impact on us as Brick Specialists, but also the customers and the store as a whole.”
The union also highlighted that Disneyland Resort workers are already represented by 27 different unions across the resort, including at Disneyland, Disney California Adventure, Downtown Disney, and the resort hotels.
Roughly 80% of Disneyland Resort employees are union members, and Disney has said wages for unionized employees have risen by 40% over the past five years.
Workers at the LEGO Store are asking both LEGO and Disney to guarantee a fair process for unionization and to respect employees’ rights to organize, UFCW said.
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