Minimums

So this afternoon I stroll through one of the Mouse's animation division, and a member says this:

"I've been in the business for over twenty years, I'm in my forties, and I'd like more than two weeks vacation. And Human Resources tells me, 'Sorry, we have an agreement with the UNION. What you get is two weeks.'" ...

At my advanced age there's not a lot that ticks me off, but Disney's minions continually saying "Oh, the union agreement is for two weeks off per year. So that's all we can give you. Sorry."

Actually, that's not all they can give. Because the "agreement" also states this:

"Employees who have had one continuous year of employment with the Producer shall be entitled to two weeks paid vacation."

Sure enough, the contract says it's two weeks. But the contract also says this:

Nothing in this agreement shall prevent any individual from negotiating and obtaining from the Producer better conditions and terms of employment than those herein provided.

See, what sticks in my craw is this flapdoodle spouting from administrators' mouths that they have no choice but to grant a mere two weeks vacation because, gosh darn it, the contract forces them to..

What the ten days of pay is, is a base line. The boys and girls at Diz Co. can always dole out more days off, but they can't give less. If the company would man up and say: "Junior chum, the contract says we only have to give you a minimum of two weeks paid vacation, and that's what you're getting, because we will it to be so," honest to God I would be fine with that.

But they don't. And it's this maddening impulse to deflect responsibility and make some other entity the bad guy that causes me to lose my lunch.

But hey. It's Tinsel Town. Honesty has been missing in action for seventy years already. No doubt it will be missing for the next seventy.