LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Walt Disney World actors, who argued that the Florida theme park’s proposed coronavirus protection measures were inadequate to protect them, settled a dispute over the COVID-19 trials, a union said Wednesday.
The Actors’ Equity Association had asked Walt Disney Co to provide normal coronavirus tests to its members, who wear a protective mask while acting as other park workers do.
Disney said Wednesday that it would supply the area outside of Walt Disney World in Orlando for a review site through Florida’s Division of Emergency Management. The site will be open to Disney employees, known as cast members, and the public.
“Our movements are all interested and our network as a whole,” Disney said in a statement.
Walt Disney World reopened on July 11 with various security measures, adding limited presence, social distance at queues and attractions, and masking needs for visitors and staff.
Actors’ Equity, which represents about 750 of the park’s performing artists at exhibits such as the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular and Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage, said the measurements did not pass enough and called for normal tests. Disney opened the park without the artists.
“We are convinced that testing is a vital detail to secure an office for fair artists, and I am pleased to see today that Disney World has accepted,” said Kate Shindle, chairwoman of the Actors’ Equity Association.
The union said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Disney and was hoping to know how many employees the company would remember for its limited operations. In June, before the check dispute, Disney withdrew about 220 actors and singers, the union said.
Disney said it submitted a verification area “to assist in network verification” and that “any suggestion that this has been made as a result of a union is unfounded.”
Reporting through Lisa Richwine; Editing through Cynthia Osterman and Leslie Adler
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