• Home
  • About me: Jim Fitzpatrick
  • Contact

JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« Page Two! The rest of the story…
We interrupt the Super Bowl hyperbole to bring you this message about a 27-year-old former player whose death was brought on by football »

Disney: A lyin’, cheatin’, loathsome company

January 26, 2016 by jimmycsays

Maybe you’ve heard about this movie the Walt Disney Co. has out. It’s called Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Seems like it’s doing pretty well at the box office.

Did I see it? No.

Why? Well, for one thing, I just never turned my attention to any of the Star Wars movies, so I had no particular reason to go to the new one. But more important…I don’t give a shit about the Walt Disney Co.

Let me tell you three reasons I loathe the company:

Eisner

Michael Eisner

First, my longtime employer, The Kansas City Star, was owned by Disney for a forgettable year, straddling 1996 and 1997. After the purchase, then-CEO Michael Eisner came into The Star’s newsroom and said Disney had no plans to sell The Star and three other dailies it had obtained as part of its purchase of ABC/CapCities.

A year later, all four papers were up for sale.

Second, during the time Disney owned The Star, Eisner got rid of his second in command, a former talent agent named Michael Ovitz, and gave him a severance package valued at $38 million in cash and an estimated $100 million in stock.

Third, about a year ago, Disney fired more than 200 American IT workers at Walt Disney World after forcing the workers to train foreign workers, certainly with lower salaries, to replace them.

On Monday, two of those dismissed workers, Leo Parrero, 42, and Dena Moore, 53, sued Disney and two global consulting companies that brought in the foreign workers who replaced them. Parrero and Moore contend the companies colluded to break the law by using temporary H-1B visas to bring in immigrant workers, planning all the while to replace the American workers. In the New York Times story reporting the lawsuit, Moore was quoted as saying Disney was “just doing things to save a buck, and it’s making Americans poor.”

The separate but similar Perrero and Moore lawsuits seek class-action status, meaning many of the other fired Americans could potentially gain standing. By late Monday, The Times’ story had drawn more than 650 reader comments, including this one posted by Jack Meoph of Santa Barbara, CA:

H-1B has been exploited by corporations since it’s inception to displace American workers. There is no lack of experienced workers, just a complete lack of morals by the corporations who have used this dodge to bring over cheap labor. There are seminars dedicated to the H-1B dodge/scam. If I hadn’t promised my granddaughter that I would take her to Disneyland this year, I would never go again. The Mouse has become an evil empire, and Walt spins in his grave.

Dena Moore told The Times she has 13 grandchildren and that one of the perks that went away with her job were passes that allowed her to take them to Disney World at no cost.

I remember that, too. It seemed like we had the world by the tail when Patty and I took Brooks and Charlie to Disney World on passes when they were about 9 and 8 years old respectively. (I particularly remember buying Charlie a stuffed replica of the python character Kaa and then watching the two kids rip stitching from Kaa’s jaw as they engaged in a bitter tug of war minutes after we left the park.)

Iger

Robert Iger

I tell you, though, that feeling of getting a sweet deal passed quickly after Eisner dumped The Star. Just as current CEO Robert Iger knew he was going to fire those American workers once he had them dig their own graves (training their successors), so Eisner knew when he entered The Star’s the newsroom all those years ago he was going to sell the paper, even while his lips were saying, “No, we don’t buy properties to sell them.”

No, I won’t be going to see Star Wars or any other Disney movie that comes along. And I hope Mr. Parrero and Ms. Moore are successful in getting a class-action suit established and that all the dismissed American workers get big, fat judgments for the hosing the company gave them.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Posted in Uncategorized | 30 Comments

30 Responses

  1. on January 26, 2016 at 5:23 am Don Hoffmann

    Give ’em hell, Jim! The corporate world is obviously full of snakes, and Disney has its share of them. I still think about Gerald Garcia, the expediter imported by Cap Cities to clean out The Star, and how many people he “laid off” in one day — and we later got “complimentary” copies of a history of how successful the company had been. I mailed mine back to the CEO.


    • on January 26, 2016 at 8:36 am jimmycsays

      I don’t remember the complimentary history of CapCities, but everyone who was there at the time remembers Garcia. He’s the only manager I can recall who walked around with an actual sneer on his face.


      • on January 26, 2016 at 1:49 pm gayle

        Expediter. Sounds like a euphemism for a hit man.


  2. on January 26, 2016 at 6:06 am Lisa Round

    Unfortunately, it’s not just Disney…there isn’t a company out there who will say outright “yep, we bought you, now we are making plans to sell you.” Most times when companies trade hands there’s an agreement in the sale that says “you have to keep this group together for a year before you sell them off again or close the office.” Then, that magic year date passes and the new owner goes about their business of either closing the place or selling it again.

    As for the foreign IT…also, not just Disney.

    Then, the free passes…Really, anyone who thinks “soft perks” are going to stay forever is plain crazy. If it sounds too good to be true, it is. Take advantage of soft perks immediately…they will never stay.

    Corporate America stinks. The days of loyalty are gone, especially when it comes to a company being loyal to its employees. Am I a tad cynical? Maybe. Did it happen to me? Hell, yes.


    • on January 26, 2016 at 8:48 am jimmycsays

      Great comment, Lisa — and from someone who knows well the inner workings of big corporations.

      One thing I will say, I made good money on the stock transaction when Disney bought CapCities. I still get a decent pension check from McClatchy, and you told me you got a nice severance package from your employer.

      So, yes, these big companies do outrageous things but often there are some longer lasting “perks.”


    • on January 26, 2016 at 8:52 am Maneesh Jhunjhunwala

      Amen, Lisa. I’ve worked in corporate America my whole life. When I started, I had an idealized view of mutual loyalty and mutually beneficial relationships whereby I work my butt of for the firm and they take care of me. I’ve only worked for a couple of companies like that, and both ended up being sold and gutted. I quickly learned that I have to put myself first, because the company puts me much further down that list. It’s a shame, too. Mutually beneficial arrangements are better for all parties, including shareholders. But the short-term stock price view of a business has destroyed any long-term thinking about value and meaning in companies–especially publicly-traded ones.


  3. on January 26, 2016 at 8:52 am Vern barnet

    Why did the employees who at one time, i am told,, owned the paper, sell the paper? Have you written a column about this? if so, could you please provide a fresh link to it? I would like to know the story.


    • on January 26, 2016 at 1:19 pm jimmycsays

      Good question, Vern…I was there when CapCities purchased The Star in 1977. The employees did own the paper, but upper management owned a majority of the shares, and it was upper management that made the decision.

      At the time, I had been at the paper eight years, and I owned $10,000 worth of stock. In the 2-for-1 sale, I came away with $20,000 — enough for the downpayment to buy my first house.

      Considering what daily papers were worth back then, it would have been virtually impossible for the paper to go very much longer under employee ownership. Cap Cities paid $125 million, which turned out to be a bargain for them. They significantly increased return on investment, taking it up to a 30-percent or so profit margin.

      And that $125 million? The paper might not be worth that much now. By comparison, the Las Vegas Review-Journal sold recently for $140 million, but the buyer, casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, acknowledged he paid more than the paper was worth. It had sold less than a year earlier for $102.5 million.


  4. on January 26, 2016 at 9:09 am Mike Rice

    Fitz, I have a feeling that Mr. Meoph of Santa Barbara was not using his real name.


    • on January 26, 2016 at 1:54 pm gayle

      Catch the joke in 3…2…1…


  5. on January 26, 2016 at 9:58 am Leigh Elmore

    I’m glad I missed the keyboard with my spit take… Nice catch Mike Rice.

    \\


  6. on January 26, 2016 at 10:54 am G. Fred Wickman

    I remember hearing Mr. Meoph paged in the Denver airport.


  7. on January 26, 2016 at 11:09 am Mike Rice

    I’m surprised that Hugh G. Reichten hasn’t chimed in.


    • on January 26, 2016 at 1:07 pm jimmycsays

      Wouldn’t that be Hugh G. Rection?

      I am very embarrassed about missing the joke attendant to Mr. Meoph’s name, and I am shocked and appalled that such impropriety crept into an almost-family-readable blog.

      But now that the damage has been done and I’m wearing the dunce cap, I’m going to leave in Mr. Meoph’s name and comment.

      I must say I think his comment would be weightier if he used another “handle.”


      • on January 26, 2016 at 1:57 pm gayle

        PLEASE, STOP … you’re killin’ me!!


  8. on January 26, 2016 at 1:34 pm Tracy Thomas

    For the love of God, Fitz. You are channeling your inner Hearne Christopher. And are you and Hoffman seriously blaming Garcia for doing his JOB? As ordered by Mr. Hale? I knew him. That was not a sneer. He did not relish the task, believe me. Nor did Hale. It had to be done. You all came out ahead financially. And got away before it got to really be a cake walk, like when Karen Dillon was forced to play Sophie’s Choice.

    Ironically, soon we will all see you weigh in on the Presidential race. What say you, when the leading candidates, Trump and Sanders, all campaign on cutting waste and bloat.

    The Star was bloated. You floated. Now you are the Goat-head.
    Bleeting into the wind.

    –Sarah Palin
    (ABR: Always Be Rhyming!)


    • on January 26, 2016 at 1:42 pm jimmycsays

      I have never complained about the sale to CapCities, Tracy, or CapCities management. Those were the best years. It was the subsequent sales that took things progressively downhill, to the point that Karen Dillon, who had seniority, was forced to choose whether she went or another reporter, Dawn Bormann, went. Ultimately, of course, they both went.

      And Gerald…Maybe what I saw as a sneer was simply a crooked smile.


      • on January 26, 2016 at 5:51 pm Tracy Thomas

        Or a grimace. I had a drink with Garcia in the lobby of the Crown Center that night, and then dinner with Jim Hale and Mike White. Hale’s chili and cornbread, the usual. I can assure you, they were both devastated at having to terminate 31 reporters and editors in that one day. Of course, Michael Davies had the easy job–as editor he didn’t have to do it. Let management do the work.

        Glad to have you reconfirm, Fitz, that the Cap Cities days were the best years.


  9. on January 26, 2016 at 1:45 pm Mike Rice

    I thought Rection was too obvious. But on the subject of this post, I do remember when the announcement was made in 1995 about Disney buying The Star my editor at the time Connie Bye singing to the tune of the Mickey Mouse Club’s sign-off song: “Now it’s time to say goodbye to our good company, M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E”


  10. on January 26, 2016 at 1:46 pm gayle

    I went through several similar scenarios in my long employment history. Never got easier or less painful. Sometimes I was part of the group that got coffee and doughnuts (old joke from one company downsizing), sometimes not. Seems it has become the American way.


  11. on January 26, 2016 at 2:18 pm Sub Basement ghost

    The neutron bomb of the Capital Cities purchase was how the management / bridge was removed from the editorial side to a corporate boss / business monarchy. Newspapers at one time were looked on as living, breathing, entities. The selling out to Cap Cities ripped out the fallible, but human heart of The Star and replaced it with a calculating machine.


    • on January 26, 2016 at 2:39 pm jimmycsays

      Damn! There aren’t many people who know about the sub-basement at 18th and Grand. Unfortunately, I can’t get past the lobby any longer, much less to the bowels of the place.


  12. on January 26, 2016 at 4:10 pm kaler

    It’s all just a component of labor becoming only a commodity. The entire world is looking for a deal to drive costs down. If loyalty to a worker is now gone, then loyalty to their family and children is as well. This worldwide competition allows the few who broker the labor deals to become amazingly wealthy.


    • on January 26, 2016 at 4:34 pm jimmycsays

      That’s where, in the case of Disney laying off the IT workers, the two global consulting companies enter the picture.


  13. on January 26, 2016 at 7:39 pm John Altevogt

    The one time I ever hear a blatant admission of bias by any of the editors of The Star concerned the Cap Cities era when I was told “the mouse has needs.”

    As for the h1b visas, I believe that’s the category of visas that was greatly expanded by the recent budget deal.


  14. on January 26, 2016 at 8:37 pm Rex Wilson Jr.

    Compare and Contrast:

    “Disney has no plans to sell the Star” …Michael Eisner.

    “I did not at any time transmit, receive,or store any highly classified emails on my private server.” …Hillary Clinton.

    Which one was the biggest liar?


  15. on January 27, 2016 at 6:30 am Will Notb

    I wish the employees well with their attempt at a class action suit (I’ve long been disgusted by Disney and their claims to perpetual copyrights on, well…everything), but as I noted back in November such are rara avis, and becoming more so every day. I will be enormously surprised if their motion is not squashed, causing them to squirmish…


  16. on January 27, 2016 at 8:36 am Tracy Thomas

    A morning comment from the great Will Notb is better than a glass of orange juice. Rara avis, AND squirmish! In one post. Circling round from his usual high brow perch to view the life in the Alaskan swamps.


    • on January 27, 2016 at 9:43 am jimmycsays

      Pretty good line yourself there, Tracy — circling from the high-brow perch to view the Alaskan swamps.

      This post is proving to have “legs,” as we journalists would say about a story that doesn’t flame out quickly.


      • on January 27, 2016 at 10:37 am Tracy Thomas

        And to think, it all started with a pretty lame hook: your rant about a film not showing at most theatres any more: Star Wars. Skip it. Not a great film.



Comments are closed.

  • Pages

    • About me: Jim Fitzpatrick
    • Contact
  • Archives

    • April 2023
    • February 2023
    • January 2023
    • December 2022
    • November 2022
    • October 2022
    • September 2022
    • August 2022
    • July 2022
    • June 2022
    • May 2022
    • April 2022
    • March 2022
    • February 2022
    • January 2022
    • December 2021
    • November 2021
    • October 2021
    • September 2021
    • August 2021
    • July 2021
    • June 2021
    • May 2021
    • April 2021
    • March 2021
    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • December 2017
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • April 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    • December 2016
    • November 2016
    • October 2016
    • September 2016
    • August 2016
    • July 2016
    • June 2016
    • May 2016
    • April 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
    • January 2016
    • December 2015
    • November 2015
    • October 2015
    • September 2015
    • August 2015
    • July 2015
    • June 2015
    • May 2015
    • April 2015
    • March 2015
    • February 2015
    • January 2015
    • December 2014
    • November 2014
    • October 2014
    • September 2014
    • August 2014
    • July 2014
    • June 2014
    • May 2014
    • April 2014
    • March 2014
    • February 2014
    • January 2014
    • December 2013
    • November 2013
    • October 2013
    • September 2013
    • August 2013
    • July 2013
    • June 2013
    • May 2013
    • April 2013
    • March 2013
    • February 2013
    • January 2013
    • December 2012
    • November 2012
    • May 2012
    • April 2012
    • March 2012
    • February 2012
    • January 2012
    • December 2011
    • November 2011
    • October 2011
    • September 2011
    • August 2011
    • July 2011
    • June 2011
    • May 2011
    • April 2011
    • March 2011
    • February 2011
    • January 2011
    • December 2010
    • November 2010
    • October 2010
    • September 2010
    • August 2010
    • July 2010
    • June 2010
    • May 2010
    • April 2010
    • March 2010
  • Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 567 other subscribers

Blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


  • Follow Following
    • JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC
    • Join 567 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: