Disney will lay off 28,000 theme park employees after months of coronavirus furloughs


Disney has realized its parks won't be back at full capacity anytime soon.
Disney furloughed and stopped paying more than 100,000 of its parks employees in April, about a month into the coronavirus pandemic. And on Tuesday, Disney's head of parks, experiences, and products Josh D'Amaro announced about 28,000 of those furloughs will become permanent layoffs. Employees at all levels of D'Amaro's department will be affected, though 67 percent of those laid off are part-time employees.
After the April furlough, an agreement with a union led the company to continue paying health care for furloughed workers. D'Amaro said in his statement the company was currently talking with unions and union-represented employees about the layoffs. He also blamed California's coronavirus restrictions for keeping Disneyland closed, failing to mention that California and Florida — the home of Disney's American parks — are still among the hardest-hit states by coronavirus.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The COVID-19 pandemic hit every aspect of Disney's business hard, though it still brought in a lower-than-expected $11.87 billion in revenue in 2020's second financial quarter. Its theme park division alone saw a $3.5 billion revenue drop; it usually accounts for 37 percent of the company's total revenue.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
-
What to know before turning to AI for financial advice
the explainer It can help you crunch the numbers — but it might also pocket your data
-
Book reviews: 'The Headache: The Science of a Most Confounding Affliction—and a Search for Relief' and 'Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born to Run'
Feature The search for a headache cure and revisiting Springsteen's 'Born to Run' album on its 50th anniversary
-
Keith McNally' 6 favorite books that have ambitious characters
Feature The London-born restaurateur recommends works by Leo Tolstoy, John le Carré, and more
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fine
Speed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in Intel
Speed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to China
Speed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with Disney
Speed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B deal
Speed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance merger
Speed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profits
Speed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new high
Speed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year