Career Opportunities
In the fall of ’23, back when I made my less than triumphant return to Universal , the Team Lead position didn’t even exist for Citywalk employees. See, at the time, this position only existed through Universal Park employee’s membership into the B192 IATSE union.
However, due to some contrived and convoluted corporate rationale, City Walk employees were NOT actually part of B192 IATSE. This sneaky legal technicality meant that Citywalk employees (while fully employed by NBCU and carrying out the exact same job responsibilities as any retail employee inside the park) were excluded from all IATSE benefits and protections. This included overnight pay-rates, job security, welfare, and yes, even the existence of the Team lead position, which at its core functioned as an intermediary leadership role meant to liaison between employees and managers.
My first Fall back within the fold the evil Universal empire, rumors began circulating that Citywalk would finally be joining the Union. Soon after, our own management team began to nudge certain team members to consider this future role, pitching it as a good career opportunity for those of us showing ambition and potential for growth. When this idea was first brought up to me, I figured the role wouldn’t necessarily be a bad Plan Z.
Plan A-Y of course, involved me quitting that place as soon as possible and starting my actual career in the film industry.
As a writer, editor, executive assistant, mailroom clerk, PA, or gofer.
Assistant to the assistant’s dog-sitter.
But with the industry apparently still at a standstill since the start of the strikes, I figured that the extra cash and consistent work schedule didn’t seem like the worst thing imaginable. Especially as an unlikely last resort.
Never in a million years did I imagine that this unionization process would take as long as it did. And much less that I would still be stagnated behind that register by the time the team lead position finally rolled along.
This long and drawn-out process occurred for many reasons, including the typical legal gridlock brought by Universal’s corporate lawyers. However, a significant factor to this delay was the fact that the Citywalk employees spearheading the unionization efforts consisted of an eclectic and opportunistic group of individuals who, despite claiming to represent the interests of Citywalk employees, rarely took the time to even communicate with team members about the benefits of forming a union.
Hell, when unionization was finally approved and implemented, half of my team members didn’t even know what unionization meant.
Among this group of opportunistic “union advocates” was actually one of my trainers; the rude and condescending Citywalk veteran who seemed far more concerned with finding new ways to ease their workload and securing seniority benefits rather than advocating for their team.
The other main union advocate was a wormy little guy with several allegations of sexual misconduct whom a team member and I took to calling “Jimmy Hoffa” due to his increasingly shoddy reputation and more than aggressive approach to pushing for unionization.
I’d only been in Universal for a few weeks when Hoffa first requested my signature to join the union (months before I even knew about his laundry list of controversies and alleged crimes). At the time I eagerly signed the request, always in favor of empowering employees even if I didn’t plan to work there long enough to reap the benefits. Alas, it wouldn’t take long for me to discover how self-driven Hoffa’s motives actually were.
Now I was never in the room when these union negotiations eventually took place. However, when word started to spread about negotiations stalling out due to this group of advocates’ bizarre demands for free Citywalk Food, more lockers, free Peacock subscriptions, and other self-driven scheduling demands, well lets just say the the rumors didn’t seem farfetched.
And so, with these cast of players set in place to represent all the Team Member’s needs and demands, it wouldn’t be until early 2025, nearly a year and a half after the initial union conversations were brought up, that Citywalk would officially join IATSE.
And though the pages of the calendar had changed, the emptiness of my savings account remained. And so, I began the needlessly arduous process of applying for this role. For weeks I shadowed my managers, rehearsed my interview answers, and even filled out those stupid team lead packets about “why I wanted to be a lead.” All in preparation for this newfound career opportunity.
And I did it all.
I did the whole fucking song and dance with the promise that I would actually be empowered to address the myriad of issues that had plagued our Citywalk team for the past year and a half.
But mostly, that pay bump and consistent schedule sounded pretty good.
Who am I kidding, of course that was the main incentive.
After nearly two years working without a consistent weekly schedule, getting my hours arbitrarily cut due to “company needs”, then working through peak seasons without 2 off days in a row, of course the promise of a consistent 40 hour schedule was a godsent.
So, yes, in that moment, hearing the news of my promotion in the back of office of the Universal Studio Store, I had no sudden desire to break out running from the store. No impulse to scream profanities at the top of my lungs. No urge for death nor even the slightest itching for arson.
In fact.
I was excited. Hell, I was happy.
This promotion, after months of preparation and advocating for myself and my fellow team members for fair working conditions, was the only positive news I’d gotten over the past two years. And with a pay bump to 25 dollars an hour, well, it was the most well paid I had been in my entire career. I would finally have a semi-stable 40-hour work week, and to top it all off, I genuinely felt I could be a stabilizing figure among our leadership team.
But even in that moment of supposed celebration, I couldn’t ignore the surging feeling of dread. Buried in the back of my mind, festering in the pit of my stomach, a claustrophobic feeling which would grow into a full-blown existential crisis by the end of the month.
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