Disney workers approve contract

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Members of Walt Disney World's largest union group, representing 40 percent of the resort's 51,000-person work force, late Thursday approved a three-year contract proposal as the current contract was set to expire.

The vote -- the fourth attempt at passage -- was 3,771 for the contract, 2,669 against.

Disney officials had refused to extend the current contract, as they had previously. The contract would have expired at midnight.

Union members rejected three previous contract proposals since talks began in May.

Under the contract proposal:

-- Nontipped workers who currently earn top scale, about $11.12 an hour, would receive a 20-cents-an-hour increase and a lump-sum bonus of $1,500 to $1,700 during the contract's first year. In the second year, they would receive another lump sum, and in the third year they would get a 25-cents-an-hour wage increase.

-- The starting minimum wage of $6.70 an hour increases by 10 cents an hour for each year of the contract. Other workers in between the minimum and top scale wages would have received a 4 percent annual increase.

-- The company will guarantee 32 hours of work a week, up from 30 hours.

-- Employees must work 30 hours per week, up from 25, to be eligible for benefits.