In the media: “Advocates urge Disney to investigate alleged use of prison labor to make character balloons”
Disney World has long been known for putting effort into making every family’s visit to its Orlando parks magical. The multinational entertainment giant sells its fill of merchandise at its world-renowned parks to appease eager children and adults alike, and offers various guest services to accommodate the needs of guests with all abilities, plus their service animals.
Disney even recommends specialty character balloons through an online vendor that guests can buy and have personally delivered to their hotel room at a local Disney World Resort hotel.
A jumbo Mickey Mouse-shaped balloon, for instance, will cost you $45 plus a delivery fee. But what isn’t disclosed, by neither Disney nor its third-party vendor, is the manufacturer who produces those balloons — and how much workers are paid to fold and package them.
Anagram International, a licensed manufacturer of decorative Disney balloons, is based out of Minnesota and is one of the Minnesota Department of Corrections’ largest contractors for prison labor. Its contract with the state’s corrections system — a recent subject of scrutiny by state auditors — allows Anagram to use prison labor at certain correctional facilities to fold, add ribbons to, and package their products. Allegedly, this includes Disney character balloons.
That’s why advocates with the Minnesota Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee and Central Florida Jobs with Justice joined forces outside Disney World Tuesday to voice their concerns.
Dontania “Nina” Petrie, 35, who served three years’ time in Minnesota’s Shakopee Women’s Prison from 2017 to 2020, is all too familiar with the balloon production process. She told Orlando Weekly that, while incarcerated herself, she was directed to fold 300 to 500 hundred Anagram-branded balloons per hour for an hourly wage of just 50 cents.
“One of the tasks that I did was folding balloons with Disney characters on them,” she recalled at a press conference Tuesday. “I remember that some of them had characters from Frozen and the fork from Toy Story 4 – I remember because my other daughter really loved Frozen, so it stuck with me.”