ANAHEIM – Sheraton Park Hotel in Anaheim and UNITE HERE Local 11 reached a tentative contract agreement yesterday, Aug. 4, ensuring affording healthcare and raises for the Disneyland-area hotel’s 220 workers.

The contract agreement comes about a month after workers from the nearby Anaheim Hilton settled a similar agreement for its 770 workers. Meanwhile, the 2,100 hotel workers at the Disneyland Resort have been struggling for three years to reach an agreement with the same basic rights.

“I am proud to work for the Sheraton Park Hotel,” said Jesus Villa, a Sheraton Park cook. “We are very proud to have negotiated a fair deal that respects the rights of the workers and the success of the hotel.”

Like the Anaheim Hilton deal, Sheraton Park hotel workers won the necessary increased healthcare contributions to ensure that workers will continue to have access to affordable family medical care.

Sheraton Park non-tipped employees received raises of $.65 per hour each year, giving front-desk agents, housekeepers, dishwashers and cooks a per-hour increase of $1.30 by the end of the contract. And in response to the hotel’s new pet-friendly policy, housekeepers will receive assistance in cleaning guest rooms with dogs. The contract is effective until 2013.

Blocks away at the Disneyland Resort, workers who do the same work have been struggling for three years to win a comparable deal.

In May, Disney imposed its last contract offer instead of bargaining to reach an agreement with the union in negotiations. While the Sheraton Park Hotel is willing to contribute more than $4 per hour worked for employee healthcare, Disney is only willing to pay $2.55 per hour worked for employee healthcare.  

“I’m happy for my friends at the Sheraton Park Hotel, but frankly, when I see how a small hotel like the Sheraton Park treats its workers, and then think about what Disney has put us through to win a right as basic as affordable healthcare, I feel disgusted,” said Maria Isabel Barrera, a laundry attendant. “Disney isn’t suffering financially, why do they insist on making us?”

Disney profited $4.3 billion in 2010.

As University of California Regents prepare to vote for another tuition hike next week, students and workers gathered today, July 8, to protest drastic higher education cuts, while corporations like Disney win generous tax breaks.

Disney Dining worker June Mekker and student volunteer Giselle Armendariz, a Cal Poly Pomona freshman, talk to UPRISING Radio about the July 8 protest.

As discussed often on this site, Disney's contract proposal will make healthcare unaffordable for hundreds of cooks, dishwashers and housekeepers, some of whom make as little as $8.89 an hour. Watch a London School of Economics student question Disney board member Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, on the issue.