Cynthia “Cyn” Carranza meticulously scavenged for a shady parking spot in the car she called home.

The overnight custodian at Disneyland has to sleep during the day - a difficulty for anyone, let alone when you’re living in your car with two dogs. Ms Carranza says she makes $20.65 an hour (about £15.99) at the park but last summer, she couldn’t afford rent in this Southern California city where the average apartment can run more than $2,000 (about £1,550) a month.

Ms Carranza, like others who work at the park, detailed to the BBC the financial hardships that come with working at what’s supposed to be the “Happiest Place on Earth”. About 10,000 union workers at Disneyland - the first of 12 parks created around the globe - are threatening to strike over the wages and what they say are retaliatory anti-union practices.

Hundreds of workers protested outside the park this week, with an array of signs and pins showing Mickey Mouse’s gloved fist in defiance.

“Mickey would want fair pay,” workers chanted outside Disneyland near the park’s gates.

They voted almost unanimously to authorise strike action on Friday, just days before union contract negotiations for workers are set to resume.

  • @voracitude@lemmy.world
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    185 months ago

    she probably never had the means to support those animals

    Speculation, and baseless at that.

    she never should have had them in the first place

    Things change, bud. I have a stable job now, have had it for over five years, but I might not in a month or a year. Dogs live for longer than that.

    I think a pretty good rule of thumb is that if you find yourself speculating about someone else’s life or the future, there’s probably a lot you don’t know, so dial down the judgement.

    • Dran
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      -105 months ago

      I’m just operating on the information I was given. In a vacuum, all other things being equal, animals are a net cost, one she clearly cannot afford. I’m not speculating any more than that.

      • @voracitude@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        One she clearly cannot afford now, but that doesn’t mean she couldn’t afford them when she got them.

        I’m not speculating any more than that

        It is this exact speculation I’m telling you is the problem. You don’t know so you default to saying she’s irresponsible, despite having no evidence other than she fell on hard times while dogs were under her care. You don’t even know what you’re blaming her for, just the result, which is fucked up yo.