Independent UK: The dark side of Disneyland Paris

[marmar]

The dark side of Disneyland Paris
To its European visitors, Disney sells fairytales. But the recent suicides of two park workers have exposed more sinister stories of a staff driven to breaking point

By John Lichfield
Thursday, 6 May 2010


In a Magical Kingdom not so far away, somewhere between a place where you wish upon a star and dreams come true, Disney heroes and heroines live, once upon a time, in fairytales that are, happily, never ending. This is the candy-coloured introductory promise of the official website of Disneyland Paris, the most visited tourist site in Europe. Over 15.4m people flocked to the park last year, a new record. For most of them, the candy-coloured promise was fulfilled (so long as they didn't mind queuing for 50 minutes to be hurled around inside Space Mountain).

For many of the 14,500 people who work at the site, 20 miles east of the French capital, there is another, less magical side to the Magic Kingdom. "What we sell is something wonderful. We sell smiles. We sell the happiness of children. We all love our jobs, or what our jobs represent," said Hervé Saumade, 37, a maintenance man and union activist at the park. "But in the last few years, there has been a new management approach, which has, in many cases, made our working lives intolerable."

Since the beginning of the year, two Disneyland Paris employees have committed suicide. One of them, Franck, a cook at Disneyland for 10 years, killed himself on the day that he was supposed to return to the park after a long period of sickness. According to his father-in-law, he scratched a message on the wall of his home which read: "Je ne veux pas retourner chez Mickey" (I don't want to work for Mickey any more).

Disney – and the majority of unions on the site – say that there is no clear evidence that Franck's suicide was linked to his work. His father-in-law, Pierre-Louis Neut, says that Franck, a gastronomic chef in one of the more upmarket Disney restaurants, was depressed by staff cuts and a policy switch away from "freshly made food" to frozen produce. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-dark-side-of-disneyland-paris-1964505.html

[leftstreet]

1. 2 suicides out of 14,500, is that high?

Not being snarky, just don't really know.

:shrug: