ORLANDO – A union made up of Walt Disney World restaurant workers wants a Florida federal court to compel and remand its case against the popular theme park to an arbitrator.
In 2023, an arbitrator issued a decision and an award, granting a grievance and ordering Disney to make Local 737’s members “whole.”
“Making union members whole” refers to the process of restoring members to the financial and professional position they would have been if they had not suffered a loss due to an employer’s actions.
Typically, this happens when an employer has violated a collective bargaining agreement or labor law, resulting in harm like lost wages and benefits.
Local 737 AFL-CIO filed its complaint to compel arbitration in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Orlando Division, May 23. Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, or U.S. Disney, is the named defendant.
The union, in its seven-page complaint, argues that Disney refuses to make its members whole.
“By August 3, 2023, Disney had failed to make Local 737 whole as mandated by the Decision and Award and Local 737 reached out to the Arbitrator to invoke the Arbitrator’s jurisdiction to resolve the remedy pursuant to the Decision and Award,” attorneys for the union wrote in the complaint.
“On or about April 22, 2025, Disney sent email communication to Local 737 titled Le Cellier Remedy Proposal, raising its procedural arbitrability objections, but offering the lump sums of $1500 for each Full-Time server and $900 for each Casual Regular (part-time) who continuously worked at Le Cellier from October 21, 2023 through July 4, 2023.”
In November 2021, Local 737 filed a grievance over the station sizes at Le Cellier. According to its website, the restaurant is described as the “cozy cellar of a Canadian château,” featuring “exquisite steaks and seafood specialties.”
Station size refers to the number of tables a server or waiter is assigned to during his or her shift. This area is often called a “section.”
Local 737 and Disney’s collective bargaining agreement, which covered the period from Sept. 24, 2017 through Oct. 1, 2022, governed the wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment of its union members. Part of the CBA also established a grievance-arbitration procedure to resolve disputes.
In March 2023, Sheila Mayberry was selected as the arbitrator. Mayberry conducted a hearing regarding Local 737’s grievance. Soon after, in June 2023, she granted the grievance.
“The Company violated Addendum B-1, Table Service (2) of the collective bargaining agreement by failing to maintain the current station size of 14-16 at Le Cellier restaurant for the life of the current CBA,” Mayberry wrote, according to the union’s complaint.
“The Company is ordered to immediately return the station size at Le Cellier to 14-16 and to make whole all employees who were affected by the violation, retroactive only to fourteen calendar days before November 9, 2021.”
Mayberry returned the matter to the parties to negotiate the details of the remedy and retained jurisdiction for 90 days after the date of the decision and award “in the event the parties [were] unable to agree on a remedy.”
“In general, the remedy should be tips the affected servers lost as a result of the violation,” Mayberry instructed, according to the union’s complaint.
When Disney failed to make Local 737 whole, the union reached out to Mayberry in April 2025 asking for a hearing on the remedy. She provided hearing dates and requested Disney confirm.
Disney quickly responded, consenting to a hearing but arguing that the arbitrator’s jurisdiction expired and the request for a remedy “has been abandoned.”
The company said it is “not willing to waive jurisdiction” and does not want to appoint an arbitrator to hear the remedy issue.
“Local 737 has not abandoned the remedy; Disney has simply failed to comply with Decision and Award in that it must make Local 737 members ‘whole,’” according to the union’s complaint.
“Any issues of procedural arbitrability raised by Disney or any alleged abandonment of a remedy, should be resolved by the Arbitrator.”
According to its website, Local 737 is the “proud union of workers in Walt Disney World Food & Beverage and Housekeeping, Palmas Services, Patina Restaurant Group, the Hilton Buena Vista Palace Resort & Spa, the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel at the Entrance to Universal Orlando, and Sodexo at the Orange County Convention Center.”
The Orlando firm of Egan, Lev & Siwica PA is representing the workers union.
