Abigail Disney, daughter of the late Roy Disney, is once again calling out the Walt Disney Company. This time over how the executives are taking $1.5 billion in bonuses even though they company is saying it needs to furlough most of their employees because of the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Now I’m going to share what she said and get Op Ed on you.

Frankly, she’s not wrong. So many were furloughed and in Florida, if you can get onto the unemployment system you will get about $275 per week maximum. Then they could also get the $600 a week from the Federal Government stimulus too. All while Disney has their hands out to the Federal Government as well. When the first meetings at the White House started, talking about financial help, representatives from the Walt Disney Company were there trying to get a piece of the pie, and yet their executives will get $1.5 billion in bonuses.

Here’s Abigail Disney’s Twitter thread:

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

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. Here is what the @ft piece has to say about it: 3/

— 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

And continuing: “Mr Chapek could potentially earn an annual bonus “of not less than 300 per cent” of salary, in addition to a long-term incentive award of “not less than $15m” This is why I was quiet in March when executives at the company made a big pr push to 5/

— 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

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

how hard they made it for the people asking for that $15. The way they floated around congratulating themselves it was damn hard to take. If a frontline worker gets 40 hours a week(and that’s a big if, since just like everyone else, Disney shaves away hours to keep folks from 9/

— 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

(It’s weird to note, btw, that both Disney’s, Land and World, are in Orange Counties, but anyway) So Iger’s compensation for THIS YEAR will amount to 1,500x their pay. Chapek’s, if he gets the full amount, is 300% of his 3 million base pay, or $9MM. 288x the front liners’ 11/

— 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

Acc to Mr Chapek, “Our ability to do good in the world starts with our cast members . . . who create magic every day. Our commitment to them will always be our top priority.” If even a whiff of this is sincere, none of this compensation bullshit is possible. 13/

— 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

Back some of those millions given how they’ve managed cash. Between March 31, 2018 and June 30 of 2019 the company made $11.5 billion of stock buybacks. ELEVEN. POINT. FIVE. BILLION. Now no one could have foreseen this crisis. That is an absolutely fair thing to say. 15/

— 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 whom do buybacks enrich? Well, shareholders, and again, that’s great for people on fixed incomes, sure, but who gains the most? Well if you are being compensated in shares and you drive the price up in buybacks that works out really nicely for you, doesn’t it? 17/

— 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

I don’t have a role at the company, which is fine with me. I’m just a citizen who cares and I think that makes me free to say what I believe. But I am an heir. And I do carry this name with me everywhere. And I have a conscience which makes it very difficult for me to 22/

— 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

Analysts will shout and scream and have little temper tantrums. Who cares. You are bigger than they are. And as the biggest, most exceptional, most iconic guy in town, you could CHOOSE TO LEAD. If you do, who knows who would follow you. We have a moment here. A crisis24/

— 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

Many of us are Disney fans. We want the company to survive and the parks to open and the movies to come back. But the company keeps raising prices on guests and already have been raising prices on menu items BEFORE Walt Disney World reopens, stating that they need the money to keep building and keep open. Yet, they keep bragging about all their over $1 billion box office hits and “successful” new expansions. Stock buy backs keep happening and now executives will still get their bonuses while the majority of furloughed employees have to figure out how to survive.

Stocks are king and we’ve been saying it.

Sorry, but this isn’t what a company that leverages “family” for sales should be doing.

Source: Twitter, the general news,

Featured Image: CNN