Venezuelan workers at Disney put on leave from jobs after losing protective status

Key Points

• Disney placed 45 Venezuelan employees on leave after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to strip their temporary protected status.
• Those workers will continue receiving benefits, and the union contract allows them to be reinstated without loss of seniority if they regain proper work authorization within a year.
• The Supreme Court’s order stayed a federal judge’s extension of TPS for Venezuela, potentially exposing about 350,000 Venezuelans to deportation.
• Disney and union leaders stressed the decision was legally forced and highlighted their commitment to employee well-being amid shifting immigration policies.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Almost four dozen Venezuelan workers who had temporary protected status have been put on leave by Disney after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to strip them of legal protections.

The move was made to make sure that the employees were not in violation of the law, Disney said in a statement Friday.

The 45 workers across the company who were put on leave will continue to get benefits.

“We are committed to protecting the health, safety, and well-being of all our employees who may be navigating changing immigration policies and how they could impact them or their families,” the statement said.

About two-thirds of the workers were in union jobs. The union contract for Walt Disney World service workers in Florida allows them to be reinstated without loss of seniority or benefits once they provide proper work authorization within a year of losing their jobs, said Julee Jerkovich, secretary-treasurer of the United Food And Commercial Workers International Union's Local 1625.

“It's very distressing,” Jerkovich said Friday. “Disney is being made to be the bad guy, but they didn't have any choice.”

Disney would have been criticized if the workers weren't put on leave, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents made raids at Disney World, she said.

The Supreme Court’s order on Monday put on hold a ruling from a federal judge in San Francisco that kept in place Temporary Protected Status for the Venezuelans that would have otherwise expired last month. The justices provided no rationale, which is common in emergency appeals.

The order potentially exposes as many as 350,000 Venezuelans to deportation. The status allows people already in the United States to live and work legally because their native countries are deemed unsafe for return due to natural disaster or civil strife.

Disney managers had informed the employees verbally before they received an email with details on the leave. This week was their last to work before the 30-day leave, and some employees had been asked to turn in their IDs, said Oscar Tineo, a Venezuelan shop steward at Unite Here Local 737, which represents hotel and restaurant workers at Disney World in Florida.

“The company is taking this decision to protect them and to protect itself,” said Tineo, who won his asylum case and is a U.S. legal resident.

Anywhere from 15% to 20% of the almost 80,000 employees at Disney World are Venezuelans. Some of them have an asylum process pending or have requested immigration benefits other than Temporary Protected Status. A bigger concern is a larger group of Venezuelan Disney workers whose status could end at a later date but weren't included in the Supreme Court’s decision, Tineo said.

“We came here to live in liberty, without fear, looking for peace,” said a 49-year-old Venezuelan woman who works in kitchens at Disney World hotels and asked that she not be identified. “It has been difficult, and the fear is very great.”

The woman left Venezuela with her 10-year-old son after receiving death threats for being a political opposition activist. She applied for asylum and temporary protective status, and her work permit is tied to her asylum. For now, she said she can continue working as a kitchen assistant.

“They are seeking to comply with the laws,” she said of Disney. “They are obliged to do this.”

The Supreme Court case was the latest in a string of emergency appeals President Donald Trump’s administration has made to the high court, many of them related to immigration and involving Venezuela. Earlier this month, the government asked the court to allow it to end humanitarian parole for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, setting them up for potential deportation as well.

“These workers — our colleagues, friends, and neighbors — have contributed immensely to the success of the Walt Disney Company and to the vibrant culture of central Florida,” a coalition of unions at Disney World said in a statement. “No worker should have to live in fear of losing everything after building a life here.”

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