To some disney fans, please show some support for cast members of disneyland as we will be voting if we'd like to strike or not on July 19th. I will provide a link for the petition as people are being written up for supporting their union and union signage is being taken down behind the scenes. Since April, there have been negotiations and disney wants to give 25 cents more and refuses to budge. We are asking for a safe working environment, better attendance policy, and better wages.
Disney has $1.9billion to spend on a new land instead of fixing what is broken. They have enough to buy a soccer/football team (Angel City FC) , but they don't have enough to pay their cast member working less than a liveable wage.
We are over 13,000 Disney cast members who come to work every day to bring your family a magical experience. We are protesting Disney’s unfa
hey so disney is actively hiring graphic designers in the wake of the VFX strike, so in solidarity with your comrades, don’t accept any of their interview invites or apply to their jobs
if the current staff is replaceable and insignificant to them, so are you
Walt Disney drove across the picket line every day, and on one occasion got out of his car to try to attack Babbitt.
Eventually, after five weeks, the strike was settled by mediators who ruled in favour of the union on every issue, and the workers received pay increases of nearly 50% in many cases. Babbitt also won his job back following a lawsuit. Walt Disney was bitter about his defeat until he died.
This legendary Sign came from May 1941 when the OG Disney Artists went on strike for the very first time after years of Classism and unfair treatment, And I think now is a very appropriate time to bring this sign back. I wish we could find the original maker and holder of this sign because, honestly, it fits even more so now
Is fundamentally unsalvageable and deader than disco. A combination of non-apologies, screw-ups and unintentional revelations of bigger scandals (that has essentially sickened many people and shattered pristine images) in response to the document of grievance known as “Not So Awesome”. As we wait for confirmation of the total demise of Channel Awesome, I would like to give out some thoughts:
Admittedly, I had been aware of their problems since around 2016 (or maybe even 2015, I can’t remember for sure) at least on the TV Tropes’ YMMV page of their anniversary movies, where new additions under Harsher in Hindsight and "Funny Aneurysm" Moment have made mention of grievance by many former CA producers, Phelous in particular. After all the high praises and acclaim from fans (and TV Tropes pages) of what a cinematic masterpiece To Boldly Flee during the heyday of 2012, it is stunning to hear how the behind the scene production is the antithesis of what the movie was defining itself to be. I had always thought that these projects were a collaborative effort and that the only trouble are the usual ordeals one might face in a professional film production. But then again, I was young high schooler at the time and did not work for the film industry at all.
This was also the first time I heard about Mike Michaud and his unpleasant behavior, especially towards women. Apparently, he was the boss managing things behind the scene of CA, and sounded like a very awful person (almost incomparable until I got back into US politics later that year). Looking back at it, Michaud was always the perfect scapegoat to avoid confronting a unpleasant possibly: That Doug Walker was not what he made himself to be. How much did Doug Walker know? How much he didn’t know? He was involved or was he kept in the dark? The early accounts seem to depict to Doug as the least complicit of the head management (keyword: least), but his brother Rob Walker came off as rude and almost as bad as Michaud in regards to his attitude towards Obscura Lupa over mid rolls. Given that even in videos, Rob seems to be a dominating personality, I was not surprised but disappointed nonetheless by this side of Rob.
However, by this point, I did not find myself as emotionally invested with the new Nostalgia Critic episodes as I had in the past (NC’s comedically over-the-top behavior works best when he’s usually the only person in the room). Occasionally, I would watch an episode here and there, but only out of curiosity of what opinions he had on certain works (And what obscure works I have not encountered yet). And while the recent allegations made the Nostalgia Critic videos feel a bit uncomfortable to watch, I was hoping (perhaps beyond hope) that this was all in the past and Channel Awesome had improved by then since I cannot imagine them lasting much longer if these allegations get bigger and the site had not addressed them immediately.
And sure enough, that’s what exactly happened. Within two-three years, the allegations have exploded into revealing details of what was going on behind the scenes. For me, it began when noticed one of my followed CA producers, Suede, was talking on Twitter about about Marzgurl and Obscura Lupa’s issues with Channel Awesome. And then Linkara jumped and talked about in a more direct manner. Though it started off small like any other Twitter feed chat, I cannot help feel this was going to snowball and land on CA’s face because the topic they are talking about is potentially brand tarnishing if not outright creator killer if got bigger attention. I did not wish to see CA burn to the ground, so I hoped they know how to address (and apologize) for this scandal.
But when I read the Twitter feed, it reminded me of how horrible Michaud was as CEO. And that his personality is not the forgiving type and is unlikely to change. Additionally, I learned that the Nostalgia Critic is actually owned by him, which means that Doug Walker, even if he wants to leave, can’t take the Nostalgia Critic with him. And Michaud’s actions tells me he would stupidly destroy the Nostalgia Critic brand out of spite, so Doug threatening to walk out will not have as much of an impact as I would hope it will. And again, that is if Doug Walker is an innocent performer oblivious to everything around him. According to the tweets, he was apparently involved with some of the most crucial and cruel decisions made by CA.
It reminded me of the situation regarding Walt Disney and Disney’s personal attorney, Gunther Lessing, during the Disney Strike. For many of the Disney workers on strike, Lessing was the worst adversary. He was an anti-unionist, made a phony in-company union to prevent workers from seeking outside unions, launched a smear campaign over the strikers, insisted that nothing was wrong and encouraged Walt Disney’s worst impulses at his own employees. Yet despite that, Gunther Lessing was the man who helped Walt Disney (and his brother Roy) climb back on their feet after they lost Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and for that, Disney greatly trusts his attorney moreso than he did with his fellow employee animators. It is surreal to see parallels between that old event and the current event unfolding faster than I can type. If Gunther can offer us a lesson to this mess, it’s that CA would most likely dug into their heels, try to make amends (without them conceding anything major) and would eventually accuse the opponents as being greedy opportunists and liars, using the employees that remained as good “counter-argument,” before ever admitting defeat when the money finally comes to pinch them. And Walt almost never recovered from this spectacle as the media talks about it like it was his downfall (and would have been permanent had Disney not made Cinderella). This means that Channel Awesome would go into a fiery stage of anger and denial would inevitably backfire on them as it did with Walt. It increases more attention towards the scandals and, if no recover backup plan is made, likely blacklist Doug and crew in the eyes of the fandom.
And that’s what happens. Quite frankly, it is astonishing that they’ve ignored everyone’s advice and arrogantly post the replies they did. It was the easiest and dumbest mistakes anyone amateur could made and they’ve blundered right into unironically.
I have more thoughts on CA, but I think I should wrap it up soon. Overall, Channel Awesome had the chance to become known as a grand website that pioneered the early online video world and a place where critics and Internet reviewers from across the globe gather together and rise into stardom. Instead, Channel Awesome shall be remember as a cautionary tale of letting greed, pride and incompetence rule your management, and an embarrassing Old Shame for those who had religiously watched their content in their nostalgia youth as well as the famous reviewers who had their careers started on the website once innocently called “That Guy With The Glasses.”
