Copyright Westword
In the latest movement in Casa Bonita entertainment workers’ fight for fair treatment and wages, actress and Actors’ Equity Association president Brooke Shields has called out Casa Bonita and its owners, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The Actors’ Equity Association represents the Casa Bonita performers, who voted unanimously to unionize in November last year. Despite these efforts, entertainment workers at Casa Bonita are still fighting for fair wages, safety measures, benefits, scheduling and PTO and more, as outlined in a recent bargaining petition delivered to Casa Bonita management. Earlier this month, Casa Bonita eliminated its roaming characters, including Amazon Annie, Black Bart, Captain Isabella and the Sheriff. “Management gave us two weeks’ notice and left it up to us to figure out how to deal with the loss of income,” Casa Bonita performer Joshua Emerson wrote in an October 6 op-ed for Westword. “They broke the law when they did it. The Casa Bonita Entertainment cast voted to have Actors’ Equity represent us as our union twice, both times unanimously. Management is required by federal law to bargain with Equity over making changes to working conditions during ongoing contract negotiations. Actors’ Equity has filed an unfair labor practice over the issue.” And now the Actors’ Equity Association is stepping in. “You probably know that we’ve been in bargaining for their first union contract in quite a while now,” Shields says in a video posted on the Casa Bonita United and Actors Equity Instagrams after introducing herself to Parker and Stone. “But maybe, you don’t know that your restaurant management has been playing really fast and loose with this bargaining process, and it’s just not respectful to the performers who put their all into making Casa Bonita the one-of-a-kind destination that it is.” Shields goes on to say that the entertainment workers are not making a living wage, “like, actually not.” Casa Bonita United’s bargaining petition states that while the living wage calculator puts living in Denver at over $30 per hour, many members only make $21 per hour. “They’re being paid less than their coworkers who are actually serving the food, and you know, that’s before you factor in tips,” Shields says. (Casa Bonita actually moved to a no-tip structure in 2023.) “So they’ve not only been hard at work entertaining Casa Bonita guests and spending their volunteer hours in bargaining — they’ve also been putting their names on a petition,” Shields continues. The Equity Casa Bonita bargaining unit includes cliff divers, actors, puppeteers and magicians. The Casa Bonita performers got in touch with the Actors’ Equity Association through the “Organize Your Workplace” form on the union’s website last year. Equity represents 51,000 professional actors and stage managers on Broadway, at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, and in live theater across the United States. Shields ends the video with a plea to Parker and Stone to look at the petition and take it seriously, “so that we can all put this chapter way behind us. Because without the performers who bring Casa Bonita to life, it’s just a big pink restaurant.”
