While many were markedly unhappy with the changes made when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis disbanded the Reedy Creek Improvement District board and put in place the new Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board in its place—specially hand-picked by the Florida Governor himself, no less—there was one party that was optimistic about the new voices and the change: the Walt Disney World Resort Firefighters’ Union.
Union leader Jon Shirey openly expressed hope at the “fresh start” and commented that the board “[built] bridges that were long burned.”
However, recently, it came to light that the hope that the firefighters’ union once had for a new contract that addressed their staffing and payment concerns seems to no longer be on the table. The CTFOD board had said they would vote on the new contract at last month’s meeting—a vote that notably was never scheduled.
While not a good look for the new board at all, in the meanwhile, Disney World’s firefighter union leader, Jon Shirey, shared his frustrations with fellow members for the contract falling through.
Per Shirey’s message reported by Florida Politics, Shirey expressed, “We just shot ourselves in the foot to the tune of millions of dollars that this agreement would have put into the pockets of our members.”
Shirey insisted that the union members had leaked the contract to “every outlet they could find,” thus putting pressure on board administrator Glen Gilzean.
“This contract got into the hands of city and county leaders across the state of Florida,” Shirey wrote to his members. “Glen had been receiving calls left and right yelling at him that he couldn’t sign this agreement, and how it was going to screw all of the taxpayers in those areas bc they would have to raise taxes just to be able to recruit and stay even somewhat competitive with the new market.”
Per the news outlet, Shirey also added that he did not know when a contract would come to fruition, sharing, “I know it won’t be in June and we would be lucky to have it done by the July board meeting.”
