Disneyland workers say they live in cars and motels due to low pay
Cynthia “Cyn” Carranza meticulously scavenged for a shady parking spot in the car she called home.
The overnight custodian at Disneyland has to sleep during the day - a difficulty for anyone, let alone when you're living in your car with two dogs. Ms Carranza says she makes $20.65 an hour (about £15.99) at the park but last summer, she couldn't afford rent in this Southern California city where the average apartment can run more than $2,000 (about £1,550) a month.
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Ms Carranza, like others who work at the park, detailed to the BBC the financial hardships that come with working at what’s supposed to be the “Happiest Place on Earth”. About 10,000 union workers at Disneyland - the first of 12 parks created around the globe - are threatening to strike over the wages and what they say are retaliatory anti-union practices.
Hundreds of workers protested outside the park this week, with an array of signs and pins showing Mickey Mouse's gloved fist in defiance.
“Mickey would want fair pay,” workers chanted outside Disneyland near the park's gates.
They voted almost unanimously to authorise strike action on Friday, just days before union contract negotiations for workers are set to resume.
In other words you think it's reasonable to criticise homeless people for not giving up and abandoning their companions and dependants, who provide comfort and love in the bleakest of times, as soon as times got hard.. Classy.
I would criticize anyone wasting money on an animal while living so close to their means that homelessness could conceivably be in their near future. Sometimes you have to make choices you don't want to; she probably never had the means to support those animals. The argument isn't that she should get rid of them, it's that she never should have had them in the first place. Animals are expensive, and I also wonder what she could do now if she had all the money she spent on them over the years of ownership.
To be clear, I'm not advocating for $20/hr being considered a livable wage. Disney should be ashamed. Anyone working a full time job should be able to afford a pet if they want one. I just also believe in personal accountability.
Speculation, and baseless at that.
Things change, bud. I have a stable job now, have had it for over five years, but I might not in a month or a year. Dogs live for longer than that.
I think a pretty good rule of thumb is that if you find yourself speculating about someone else's life or the future, there's probably a lot you don't know, so dial down the judgement.
I'm just operating on the information I was given. In a vacuum, all other things being equal, animals are a net cost, one she clearly cannot afford. I'm not speculating any more than that.
One she clearly cannot afford now, but that doesn't mean she couldn't afford them when she got them.
It is this exact speculation I'm telling you is the problem. You don't know so you default to saying she's irresponsible, despite having no evidence other than she fell on hard times while dogs were under her care. You don't even know what you're blaming her for, just the result, which is fucked up yo.
You're just operating on your assumptions and confirmation bias.
Do better.
Show me better data and I'd be glad to.
Show us why you believe they got the dogs after they were homeless.
that is not and has never been my supposition
I think everyone deserves a chance at having a loving companion, even poor people.
I never said I disagreed, just that reality isn't always congruent with equity and fairness.
Then there's something seriously wrong with our society's reality.
Even if they treat those companions badly?
Oh did you read somewhere that she was cruel to her pets?
Two dogs living in a car for two years and being left in there while their owner goes to work every day is cruelty, especially with the weather in California.
Weird, I didn't read that she left them in the car. Please quote where that was in the article because I missed that.
Sure was living in her car for two years and she mentions having her dogs with her, either she left them outside all day attached to the car or she left them in the car, either way, it's not appropriate living conditions for a dog.
Please do some research on homeless people with pets. Even the ASPCA advocates for homeless keeping their pets.
Something something bootstraps!
Jfc.. 🤦♀️
You could have saved yourself a little typing and just said you're a wilfully ignorant classist bootlicker... 🙄
Careful though, just like the majority of the population, you're barely a missed pay check or two, or one big accident/disaster, away from being homeless yourself.. That despicable attitude of yours may very well come back to bite you in your self cantered unempathetic ass sooner than you think..
You think it's ok to leave two dogs in a car all day in the weather they have over there?
You're making a lot of assumptions about my choices. I choose to live well below my means because I don't want this to happen to me. I don't have pets, despite wanting them. I didn't buy a nice house on an expensive loan; I rent a small crappy place in a decently safe area. I don't buy cars on loans, I fix them myself until I need to buy a new one in cash.. I live as if I make half as much as I do, and have done so since working my way through school.
She should be making 40+/HR for what she does. Hard work out in the sun all day is brutal and should be adequately compensated. But until society figures it's shit out, people have to be willing to make hard choices. It can be done, it's just hard and people generally don't like making hard choices.
As usual, all nuance is lost on some people who insist on a world of blacks and whites