“We want to take these to legislators and say ‘Fix this!’” said Rebekah Ricks of Florida Moms for America.
People have varying reasons for declining to take the vaccine, group members told The Epoch Times. They are tired of facing abuse and discrimination as a result of their choice, coalition organizers say.
Ricks and her group plan to take their campaign beyond Florida. They are developing an app anyone can use to file a complaint.
The group has collected affidavits from Disney employees, who say on-the-job persecution of the “unvaccinated” has created a two-class system at the resort, which subjects them to humiliation and abuse.
One young person freshly hired for her dream job with a pharmaceutical company was told she hadn’t received the preferred brand of vaccine and would have to start the series over as if she'd never been vaccinated, Ricks said.
The more stories they collect, the more likely lawmakers will take action, group members believe.
“It has been a continuing source of frustration that the [Florida] laws passed last November don’t completely prevent discrimination against unvaccinated employees,” said Florida attorney Jeff Childers
Childers said he had worked on drafting anti-discrimination language and that it was not easy to do.
Disney Affidavits
Disney employees have filed many affidavits, says Nick Caturano, who works in food service at Walt Disney World. He loves his job, and he says most of his colleagues consider their employment at the iconic company to be a dream come true.But he’s willing to risk his job by speaking up, because “enough is enough,” he says.
At Disney, vaccine exemption requests were accepted. But policies were put in place, he says, that have created two classes of cast members, as all Disney employees are called.
Disney did not respond to requests for comment on the matter.
There are “the vaccinated and the unvaccinated,” Caturano says. “We’re getting kind of used to the two-class system. But what’s next? We don’t know.”
Exact policies vary by work location within the company. For some unvaccinated employees, those policies require that they remain a certain distance from others. For others, policies say they can’t remove masks, even to eat or drink, unless they are in areas completely isolated.
Those who remove their masks often are turned in by fellow workers and fired, Caturano said.
And unvaccinated employees often face embarrassing questions from guests.
It’s common for guests to ask masked cast members why they’re wearing face coverings, when others aren’t.
And that’s a violation of privacy that’s getting out of control, he says.
He tries to deflect the questions politely. But it’s not right for employees to endure that day after day, he says.
Disney and other companies irked by unvaccinated employees “continue to drive policies that create second-class citizens at work,” Caturano says. “And these policies, many of us fear, are stepping stones to much worse things.”
One Disney colleague weary of the inquiries from resort guests tried to conceal she was “different,” Caturano said, by stretching a cloth Disney mask over the clunky respirator mask she was required to wear in her work area.
“She got reprimanded for not letting everyone clearly see her [unvaccinated] status,” Caturano said. “She was told to take off the cover-up mask, or she would be required to wear more PPE,” short for personal protective equipment.
“Something many of us have been warning about … has been the discrimination that would result by leaving the door open for companies to have their own vaccine policies,” Caturano said.
He’s helped organize rallies to illustrate the frustration of unvaccinated workers at Disney and throughout the state.
Even when they allow workers to be unvaccinated, company policies can make the workplace intolerable, Childers said. His office has been inundated with calls from unvaccinated people.
