An estimated 200 Disney World workers rallied on Wednesday in Kissimmee, just a few miles outside Disney property, to demand Disney drop its current agreements with the Patina Group. The third-party restaurant operator on Disney property is facing ongoing allegations of wage theft, ignoring sexual harassment, and unlawfully firing a young cashier over her leading role in an ongoing unionization drive.
“Our pay, our retirement, our worker protections are second class,” said Jennifer Quinones, a chef at Disney Epcot’s Tutto Italia restaurant, speaking at a press conference outside a drugstore on Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway. The workers marched to their rallying spot from the Holiday Inn Resort, located a little less than a half mile away.
Quinones is technically employed at Epcot by the Patina Group, not Disney, and is one of four plaintiffs in a recent lawsuit filed against the Patina Group, all alleging unpaid work and unpaid overtime at Tutto Italia.
“I care about the guests we serve at Epcot and the experience we help create every day,” Quinones acknowledged, admitting she is proud to contribute to the Mouse’s magic. “But I should be able to do it as a Disney worker,” she argued. “Disney should not subcontract ‘the magic.’”
Around her, dozens of other Patina Group and Disney World employees roared their agreement, holding signs that read, “Make our jobs Disney,” “Don’t subcontract the magic,” and “Disney: Restore the Magic for Workers.”
The Patina Group, a subsidiary of the multinational food service company Delaware North, is the largest operator of restaurants on Disney property that aren’t directly operated or owned by Disney itself.
It owns and runs five restaurants at Disney Springs — Enzo’s Hideaway, Maria & Enzo’s, Morimoto Asia, Pizza Ponte and The Edison — as well as Tutto Italia, Via Napoli, Tutto Gusto, and Space 220 at Epcot.
“As union members, we have fought to make our Disney jobs even better, because we deserve an amazing retirement and amazing healthcare that we can afford, and we want to make improvements when we negotiate our contract next year,” said Disney World employee Lauren, who joined the rally Wednesday in solidarity with the Patina Group workers.
“But at restaurants subcontracting through companies like Patina, not every worker is getting everything that they deserve. We need Disney magic for all workers, not just some of us.”
“We need Disney magic for all workers, not just some of us.”
Lauren, an employee of Disney World
Tens of thousands of Disney World employees are represented by more than a half-dozen different labor unions at Disney’s parks and resorts, including Unite Here Local 737, which represents thousands of food service and hotel workers.
While workers at three of the Patina-operated Epcot restaurants are already unionized with Local 737 — Tutto Italia, Tutto Gusto and Via Napoli — workers at the Patina Group’s restaurants at Disney Springs are not.
Union members, and Patina Group restaurant workers who want to form a union at Disney Springs, say this leaves the nonunion workers with lower pay, worse or fewer job benefits, and a general sense of “second class” treatment.
“I provide full time availability, but I’m not considered full time — that means I don’t receive paid time off and I don’t get any sick days,” said A.J. Meeks, a food runner of three years at The Edison, a steampunk-themed bar and restaurant operated by the Patina Group at Disney Springs.
“If I had paid time off, I could have gone home to see my dad after he had a stroke,” said Meeks, who moved to Orlando from Iowa. “I could have visited my stepdad while he fought cancer, and I would have been able to see my grandpa while he was in hospice before he passed away.”
He said, “I can’t afford to miss a paycheck. Paid time off would completely change that for me.”
Approximately 300 restaurant workers at Disney Springs restaurants run by the Patina Group would stand to join Local 737, if the Patina Group offered the union a fair process to organize and a majority of the workers signed what are known as union authorization cards, thereby signing in support of unionization.
Some of the workers launched an organizing drive in 2024, but according to them and to complaints filed with the National Labor Relations Board, the Patina Group’s management allegedly surveilled them and dissuaded unionization at Disney Springs, in violation of the National Labor Relations Act.
Julissa Ruiz, a young cashier at Pizza Ponte at Disney Springs, was fired in 2024 after reporting sexual harassment on the job and openly supporting an effort to unionize her restaurant. The official reason she received for her termination was for wearing an earbud while clocking in to work.
“Workers should be able to expect better,” said Meeks, who has also been openly supportive of unionization since the early days of the union drive. “We work in restaurants at Disney, we serve Disney guests. We help create the experience people come here for.”
The National Labor Relations Board recently ordered the Patina Group to offer reinstatement to Ruiz and back pay, saying the restaurant operator unlawfully fired Ruiz in retaliation for her union activity.
According to a response obtained by Orlando Weekly, the Patina Group has declined to follow orders, joining several other major corporations that have argued the NLRB is unconstitutional and does not have the authority to order them around.
“If they think that, they should litigate it,” U.S. Congressman Maxwell Frost suggested last month, at a press conference organized by Local 737 concerning Patina. “Put your money where your mouth is, take it to court. But they won’t do that because they know that they’re full of shit.”
The primary demand Wednesday was for Disney to drop its contract with the Patina Group to run restaurants on Disney property, and for those restaurants to be operated by Disney instead.
A union spokesperson confirmed that they do not know when Disney’s current contract with Patina expires — there is no publicly available information available about it that they’re aware of — and Disney World communications staff did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday on the workers’ rally and demands.
Disney has also previously declined to comment, or failed to respond to request for comment, on controversies involving the Patina Group over the last two years of the unionization effort at Disney Springs.
“Disney, as a global company, has the resources to ensure that those that are delivering on these incredible experiences — that you can have good pay, with good benefits and great retirement,” said State Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, speaking to Disney World workers Wednesday from the Holiday Inn Resort’s convention center.
Eskamani’s parents, immigrants from Iran, both worked at Disney World once upon a time. She has repeatedly advocated for tourism workers both locally and in the Florida Legislature, and is currently running for mayor of Orlando, a seat that’s up for election next year.
“I can’t think of anything more American, anything more patriotic than a group of workers coming together and saying, ‘Damn, you deserve better.’”
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