Disney Works at Dreams

My main task this week has been running to various studios and passing out Christmas Party fliers (like I do every year). The other assignment: raising awareness of the upcoming Disney Feature contract vote. So today Disney and DreamWorks were on my visits calendar (which maybe explains the visual to the left there. DreamWorks and Disney/ABC are now partners in "Shrek the Halls," right?)...

The usual challenge for a union rep trying to cover a lot of ground in a finite amount of time is to avoid long conversations. You go into a studio wing and bingo boingo, somebody has a bunch of questions and there goes the big plan to spread your toothy smile far and wide.

Happily, today at DreamWorks, I had a lot of holiday fliers that I was able to thrust into people's hands, nod, smile and duck out of the room. So I had little small talk, but enough to find out that a new feature that's been in development and "different" from DreamWorks recent slate, will be unveiled to staff in early December. Since it doesn't look like it's shown up in the MSM or blogsphere, I will keep my trap shut about it.

Over at Disney, I got swept up in a lot more discussions. People told me about Disney exec Andrew Millstein's recent Question and Answer sessions with the crew over future staffing levels and strategies; I urged people to vote in Thursday's contract ratification. Most folks were satisfied with the new agreement, but one employee gave me an earful of what they believed were the inadequacies of the contract deal. I did a less-than-perfect job of explaining it. (Like, I forgot to mention that the negotiating committee unanimously voted approval of the new collective bargaining agreement. Wouldn't have overcome, I don't think, the objections, but it might have helped. Naturally, you think of what you should have said after you've left the room.)