Striking SAG-AFTRA actors plan to join Medieval Times performers on the picket line Sunday, Oct. 1 as the strike by dinner theater workers nears its eighth month.
About 30 of the queens, trumpet players, chancellors, knights and squires at the Buena Park castle voted in November to join the American Guild of Variety Artists but say management has consistently blocked their efforts to secure a “living wage” and provide improved safety measures.
Performers currently average $18 to $19 an hour but would like to see that boosted to $25 an hour to keep pace with the high cost of living in Southern California.
They launched an unfair labor practice strike against the company Feb. 11, claiming it has given substantial pay hikes to workers at other Medieval Times castles while their wages remain low amid unsafe work conditions.
“It’s the same thing everywhere,” said Rachael Perrell Fosket, a SAG-AFTRA strike captain who plans to join the Buena Park picket line Sunday. “Everyone in this country deserves a fair wage and fair working conditions and I believe unions are the cornerstone of that.”
Striking actors will join the Medieval Times picket line in front of the venue at 7662 Beach Blvd. from 12:45 to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Erin Zapcic, a castle performer and strike captain with Medieval Times Performers United, said little progress has been achieved in labor negotiations, although a new development with Starbucks offers hope.
A National Labor Relations Board judge said Thursday that Starbucks Corp. broke federal labor law when it boosted wages and benefits only for workers in non-unionized stores across the US last year.
“We have the exact same charge against Medieval Times, but it’s still being investigated because it’s lumped in with our complaints of online harassment and harassment on the picket line,” Zapcic said. “I’m hopeful.”
The two sides last met Sept. 13 in a virtual call.
Officials with Medieval Times and attorney Daniel J. Sobol, who represents the company, could not be reached for comment Friday.
The unionization in Buena Park came on the heels of another union victory at Medieval Times’ Lyndhurst, N.J. castle where workers also secured AGVA membership.
Susanne K. Doris, AGVA’s executive secretary-treasurer, said after Buena Park unionized, management started giving pay hikes to performers at every castle except Buena Park and New Jersey. Knights got a 25% raise, she said, while others in the show cast got a 15% to 20% raise.
The Dallas-based company operates a total of 10 castle dinner theaters, with additional locations in Dallas, Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Myrtle Beach, Orlando, Scottsdale and Toronto.
Zapcic, who also works as an administrator for a music company, said most of the striking performers have secured other jobs during the strike but hope to return if a satisfactory labor agreement is reached.
Meanwhile, the picket line continues although it’s been reduced to weekends only with five to 10 striking performers on site at any given time.
A Medieval Times employee earlier this year said the company is flying in performers from other castles to fill needed roles at the Buena Park location.
“The general consensus we hear from guests leaving the theater is that the shows are not as good,” Zapcic said. “They had to cancel five shows in August, which is pretty unheard of, although things do typically slow down this time of year.”
Zapcic said some knights at the Buena Park castle are making $18.50 hourly while similar performers at Disneyland make $33 an hour for 15-minute shows with breaks in between.
The Writers Guild of America voted Tuesday, Sept. 26, to lift its five-month-long strike following a tentative deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, but the actors guild SAG-AFTRA is still on a walkout and scheduled to resume negotiations with the alliance next week.
Fosket said SAG-AFTRA members are happy to lend support to the Medieval Times performers.
“When one union is fighting for fair wages and working conditions they need to be seen and supported,” she said.
