Abigail Disney, an heiress to the Walt Disney legacy, slammed the Walt Disney Company for slashing workers’ pay while doling out massive executive bonuses in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
The world’s largest entertainment conglomerate announced this week that it was putting half its workforce on unpaid leave after shuttering its theme parks, hotels, and retail outlets in response to the coronavirus.
However, the company also decided not to alter its bonus schemes for high-paid executives. While executive chairman of Disney Bob Iger and CEO Bob Chapek decided to waive their salaries during the crisis, they will continue reaping the benefits of their compensation packages in incentive and bonus plans. Indeed, their annual salaries are only a small portion of their yearly compensation deals.
Abigail Disney found hypocrisy in the company’s move. She took to Twitter with a long thread to excoriate the “nice rhetoric” that only served to disguise the “pillaging and rampaging [of workers] by management.”
“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,” she said. “All 1.5 billion of them. 1.5 BILLION. That’d pay for three months salary to front line workers. And its going to people who have already been collecting egregious bonuses for years.”
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
Last year Abigail Disney bashed CEO Iger for earning “roughly 173 times the median Disney worker’s” pay. Also last year, she was seen stumping for a “wealth tax” as a member of a George Soros-backed, left-wing activist group. And in 2014, she joined other anti-Jewish groups in calling for divestment in companies based in Israel.
In her Twitter rant, Disney noted that she is not a member of Disney’s management, but she is an heir: “And I do carry this name with me everywhere. And I have a conscience which makes it very difficult for me to sit by when I see abuses taking place with that name attached to them.”
See her Twitter thread below.
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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