Disney Heir Goes on a Tear Calling Out Walt Disney Co. Amid Furloughs: ‘WHAT THE ACTUAL F***?’

Monica Schipper/Getty Images for The New York Women’s Foundation

Disney heir Abigail Disney — great-niece of Walt Disney — called out the Walt Disney Company for protecting dividends while furloughing 100,000 workers.

The Financial Times reported this week that Disney has stopped paying 100,000 workers and is expected to save $500,000. However, the report notes the “significant reputational risks” for Disney and how they’re making this decision “even as the company protects executive bonus schemes. The company has yet to comment on its 2020 dividend plan but in recent years has made semi-annual payments typically worth $1.5bn.”

Disney went on a lengthy tear on Twitter Tuesday calling out the company for not doing more to take care of workers:

WHAT THE ACTUAL F***????? Look, dividends aren't ALL bad, given the number of fixed income folks who rely on them. But still 80% of shares are owned by the wealthiest 10%. So that excuse only goes so far. But the REAL outrage is, of course, those bonuses…2/

— Abigail Disney (@abigaildisney) April 21, 2020

"Disney protected incentive schemes, which account for most of the executives’ remuneration. Mr Iger earned $65.6m in 2018 and $47m last year, The latest package is more than 900 times that of the median Disney worker’s earnings, which stands at about $52,000." 4/

— Abigail Disney (@abigaildisney) April 21, 2020

Call attention to the fact that they were giving up a portion of their salaries for the year. I told people to wait until we heard about the rest of the compensation package, since salary is a drop in the bucket to these guys. The real payday is in the rest of the package 6/

— Abigail Disney (@abigaildisney) April 21, 2020

But it gets worse. The front line workers at the parks had to fight for years to get their pay bumped up to $15/hr and the pr folks touted that as incredible magnanimity on management's park, but if you know the back story, which I do, you would be horrified to know just 8/

— Abigail Disney (@abigaildisney) April 21, 2020

being full time) 52 weeks a year (again a big if, esp since they don't have paid sick days unless they get 40 hours, which, see above parenthetical statement) they pull down 31,200 per year. Sounds nice till you consider gas prices and the housing market in Orange County 10/

— Abigail Disney (@abigaildisney) April 21, 2020

And 173x his median workers pay, plus another 15MM over the long term. What kind of person is comfortable with this??? If you have a shred of empathy in your body, if you care even a little about your employees, if you believe a word of your nice rhetoric about how, 12/

— Abigail Disney (@abigaildisney) April 21, 2020

THIS COMPANY MUST DO BETTER. Disney faces a rough couple of years, to be sure. The challenges are existential, even. But that does not constitute permission to continue pillaging and rampaging by management. In fact, if a bonus reflects performance, we might want to claw 14/

— Abigail Disney (@abigaildisney) April 21, 2020

But ANYONE, could have anticipated SOME crisis. That's one of the things responsible managers do. And good, solid, competent management is why they get the "big bucks" we are told. But those buybacks are beginning to look pretty self indulgent right now 16/

— Abigail Disney (@abigaildisney) April 21, 2020

And therein lies another piece of terrible management, worse even the buy backs and the compensation. They have consistently tried to PR their way through a series of messes of their own making, and that will only last for so long. 18/

— Abigail Disney (@abigaildisney) April 21, 2020

sit by when I see abuses taking place with that name attached to them. This isn't all that hard. This isn't all that complicated. Just give up SOME of your already ample compensation, especially this year. Give up, god forbid two or three basis points on the annual return 23/

— Abigail Disney (@abigaildisney) April 21, 2020

is always an opportunity for change. Reassess this mess you've made of the good will you got handed on which you depend more than you like to admit. And pay the people who make the magic happen with respect and dignity they have more than earned from you. BE DECENT. END

— Abigail Disney (@abigaildisney) April 21, 2020

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