The complaint, filed with the National Labor Relations Board last October, accused Universal Orlando of maintaining “certain overly broad” policies that infringed on workers’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act.
The entertainment giant, which has long sought to fend off unionization in Central Florida, has agreed to post a sort of “shame on me” notice within its theme park facilities, informing workers of their right to form or join a labor union, or to choose not to.According to the settlement agreement, the notice will also list company policies that Universal has been asked to fully rescind or “lawfully revise” in order to comply with federal law.
A company spokesperson for Universal Orlando Resort, a 700-acre complex that employs roughly 28,000 workers, told Orlando Weekly in a statement, “We are modifying certain policies to ensure they comply with current legal requirements, which have recently evolved, and to eliminate the potential misinterpretation of the policies.” The “modified policies,” they add, “were not intended or applied in a manner that infringed on employee rights.”According to the settlement, obtained by Orlando Weekly, one policy kept by Universal Orlando, for instance, prohibited workers from “soliciting” other workers on company property. Another prohibited discussing terms and conditions of their employment (for example, wages and job benefits).
Another company policy flagged by the federal labor board barred workers from distributing “literature” and implicitly forbade workers from wearing pro-union pins by banning any pins or buttons that aren’t company-issued. The notice posted by Universal will confirm the company will no longer maintain any policy that forbids workers from wearing “union pins, buttons, or insignia at work.”
These kinds of terms in company policy — banning “solicitation,” the distribution of “literature,” or wearing “outside pins” — are buzzwords that are indicative of anti-union scare tactics.
Companies hostile to unions like Starbucks, Trader Joe's and Sodexo — a mega catering contractor — have similarly come under fire for trying to enforce policies restricting or banning union pins or buttons in the face of union drives.
Under the settlement reached this week, Universal Orlando will be required to keep the notices detailing their violations posted where they are visible on-site (and on an online employee portal page) for at least 60 days. If they don’t comply, the federal labor board has the right to resuscitate the case.
“Once the shock kind of wore off, I kept reading it over and over again, just to be sure, and I was like, this actually happened. This is real. Like, it's actually going to make a difference”
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Christopher Collins, a custodial worker for Universal who first filed a complaint over the policies last October, told Orlando Weekly he was surprised by the settlement — which came two days ahead of a scheduled trial date — but hopeful about the outcome.
“Once the shock kind of wore off, I kept reading it over and over again, just to be sure, and I was like, this actually happened. This is real. Like, it's actually going to make a difference,” he told Orlando Weekly over the phone.
Collins, who’s worked at Universal for about two years, wasn’t looking for trouble when he filed the complaint. The 37-year-old has worked in customer service and retail all his life. He does his job, simple as that, and even gets praise from the higher-ups at Universal occasionally for his job performance.
But when Collins was blamed for an issue of overflowing trash cans at the theme park last year and suspended for it, he began looking through the company’s handbook to figure out how to appeal the suspension. He did appeal, and he won.
However, while looking through the handbook, he also noticed some company policies that seemed, well, off: A policy that banned solicitation (for instance, soliciting support for a union) and the distribution of literature (for example, pro-union pamphlets) among workers; a policy that prohibited workers from talking to the media about their job; even an overly broad social media policy that urged workers to “refrain from exaggeration, speculation and rumor, guesswork, drawing legal conclusions, or utilizing characterizations about employees, partners, officers, directors, affiliates and others, including competitors” online.
Collins didn’t have a fancy legal team on his side when he filed a complaint. Later, a field attorney for the NLRB joined his case, but he said for most of the process, he's been on his own. Collins just had a hunch, from doing his own research, that something wasn’t right.
“I didn’t have anyone helping me or giving me advice,” he told Orlando Weekly in August, when the federal labor board moved forward with his case. “I just did it.”
Now, Universal will have to explicitly inform its employees through the “shame on me” notice that they’ll no longer prevent workers from talking to their workers about union organizing during non-work time, for example, or from sharing union literature with co-workers in non-work areas during non-work time.
Universal will also not prevent workers from using company trademarks for reasons other than “official/authorized Company business.”
This by itself is a notable concession. Medieval Times, the jousting knights-and-greasy bites dinner theater chain, actually sued recently unionized workers in California last year after accusing the workers’ union of trademark violations over the company’s name and logo. (Dave Jamieson of HuffPost has been following the dramatic saga closely, even after a federal judge ended up tossing that lawsuit in September.)
Universal Orlando, which stretches across three theme parks — Universal Studios Florida, Universal’s Islands of Adventure and Universal’s Volcano Bay — has been the site of a number of unsuccessful union drives in its history, unlike Universal Studios Hollywood, where there are multiple units of union-represented workers.
In the 1990s, there were at least five pushes for unionization in Orlando, where the rate of union membership, compared to the Hollywood area, is much lower. After the Actors Equity Association lost a campaign to unionize about 300 performers at Universal Orlando in 1999, organizers blamed the loss on relentless pressure from company management.
“The workers’ issues were not about pay or benefits, but instead more intangible things like respect and healthy working conditions,” Orlando Weekly reported at the time.
Universal management reportedly said that workers, in voting against unionization, had rejected a “third party” intrusion in the relationship between company and workers. Companies like Starbucks have similarly used “third party” talking points to dismiss workers' bids for unionization.Since then, things haven’t changed much. Unlike one of its biggest competitors, Disney World, Universal Orlando remains union-free. Part of that might come from Universal trying to remain competitive with Disney, at least on wages.
Each time union contract negotiations at Disney come around, about every five years, Universal tries to head off contract gains by dangling pay raises.
For instance, just over a month before Disney World unions reached a deal with the theme park giant in March, delivering an $18 minimum wage for hourly workers, Universal announced they’d similarly be raising their minimum wage to $17 come June. The company pulled a similar stunt back in 2021.
Still, if you follow the news, there’s no way to miss the organizing activity going on among workers in various sectors of the U.S. economy, even in the so-called “nonunion” state of Florida. From the organizing movement at Starbucks to Disney World to UPS delivery drivers showing off their leverage with the Teamsters, to auto workers striking for a better deal from the massively profitable Big Three auto companies and striking actors with SAG-AFTRA, who rallied outside of Universal Orlando this summer and fall ahead of reaching a deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers in November, it’s been the year of the worker.
Collins told Orlando Weekly that he wasn’t trying to organize a union when he filed the complaint. He’s tried to keep a low profile since then, going to work, doing his job as usual and heading home.
Retaliating against workers for discussing unionization, or joining together to form a union, is unlawful under the National Labor Relations Act. So is interfering with, coercing, or otherwise restraining workers from exercising their right to do so. Retaliatory acts can include, but are not limited to firing a worker, cutting their hours, or threatening their job or benefits for talking about unions.
Collins, for his part, does hope the change in company policies at Universal and the notice presented to workers — who he hasn’t spoken to much about his case, yet — will be clarifying and reassuring.
“It’s kind of uncharted territory,” he admitted. “I just hope that attention is brought to it.” Subscribe to Orlando Weekly newsletters.
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