As we have been reporting for months, Disney has been laying off part-time and full-time cast members at their Disney Parks due to the ongoing pandemic. Disney is one of those rare companies that is easily identified by nearly every person in the United States. Also, these recent layoffs have been huge in terms of their numbers and wide sweeping in the areas that they affect. The reason for the layoffs is due to the fall out from the COVID-19 pandemic. The United States is at the climax of a highly contentious Presidential election that culminates in just a few days. One major issue being debated is the Presidential response to COVID-19.
So take all of those factors and add in that a very important state for either candidate to win the election is Florida. Florida happens to be the home state of The Walt Disney World resort. Thousands of those laid off the past few months came from Walt Disney World and they are now jobless in central Florida.
It was only a matter of time that these layoffs would be mentioned in a campaign advertisement, but even I was surprised that this former cast member got the focus for the entire commercial. The commercial was for Presidential Candidate Joe Biden.
Here is the commercial that features a laid off Disney Parks employee who lives in Florida:
Editorial note: the various writers, content providers, and social media hosts at The DisInsider are intelligent and well-read individuals who obviously have opinions about political topics and personally support political candidates. However, we do not use this website for that purpose. As I am writing this I can promise you that I only know two other writers’ political preferences and that is because of discussions outside of The DisInsider. The point I am making is that we are running this story to highlight how big these layoffs have gotten, so big that they end up in these pricy Presidential election campaign ads. If Mr. Trump or a third party candidate had a similar ad, we would have written about it too. In fact, the election is still four days away (from writing this), so if an ad does appear from the main candidates primary campaign, we would also share it.
For us, the news here is that the current campaign arena is so dense and the space for new ads is so limited, it is noteworthy that one of the two major candidates found the Disney layoffs to be important enough, or emblematic enough, to spend time and money highlighting it in their ad.
While we keep our political leanings close to our chest on this website, we are extremely vocal about our support of these cast members. Irregardless of how the election turns out, which new policies are instituted, and what happens to the trajectory of COVID-19, I can speak for everyone at The DisInsider when I say we wish you all the love in the world right now, we hope you stay safe and healthy during these Fall and Winter months, we hope that you know you were not laid off because of you, you were laid off because of COVID-19, something you personally could not control, therefore, you losing your job is not a reflection of you as a person, as an employee, or as a cast member. Disney only hires the best, so in times of a global pandemic when they are forced to lay off their people, they are having to let go of the best and brightest. Maybe you will end up back at Disney, maybe you will find another outlet, but whatever happens please know that you were hired, trained, and employed by one of the most difficult companies to get hired into. No one can take that away from you.
Oh yeah, do not forget to get your ballot into a ballot drop box if you have not done so yet. There is no guarantee the ballot will get there by mail this close to the end of the election. Go drop it off and let your voice be heard.
We will continue to keep an eye on the layoffs, the rehiring, and all of the changes the Disney Parks will be going through as we continue to grapple with COVID-19.
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