The breakfast and lunchtime rush at DreamWorks Animation’s campus commissary is looking a little different on Thursday.
Dozens of dishwashers, cooks, cashiers and other cafeteria workers at the animation studio’s Glendale campus went on strike Thursday morning as they remain in a standoff over ongoing union contract negotiations. Their union, UNITE Here Local 11, announced the work stoppage on Thursday while alleging that the workers’ employer, Bon Appetit Management Group, has “failed to come to a fair agreement” with the labor group.
Bon Appetit’s parent company is Compass Group, which through subsidiaries provides food services to businesses (including Sony, Paramount, Disney and NBCUniversal), school campuses, sports stadiums and senior living centers.
“DreamsWorks Animation Studios cafeteria workers are the backbone behind the scenes of Hollywood. Compass Group and Bon Appetit need to value that labor and agree to a fair and dignified contract that provides livable wages and benefits,” said UNITE Here Local 11 president Susan Minato in a statement.
The union states that workers have been calling for higher wages, improved healthcare and benefits since negotiations began in the summer of 2024. The lowest-paid workers in the union earn $17.75 an hour, or $1.25 over minimum wage.
“I am on strike because we are underpaid. I travel more than an hour to and from work, and on my own pay $2,500 in rent,” said catering and front of house server Ingrid Lopez in a statement. Lopez has worked for DreamWorks for more than 20 years. “I am struggling to keep a roof over my head, and my rent is only going to go up.”
The picketing will last until 2 p.m. The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Compass Group for comment.
One of the major perks for employees at the Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon and Shrek studio is free breakfast and lunch at its 4,000-square foot commissary. The perk is left over from the founding of the studio, which was established by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen in 1994.
“Don’t underestimate how great [the free food] is in building a team,” one former employee told THR in 2024. “At lunchtime, instead of going our separate ways, our crew would walk over to the commissary, grab food, sit around the lake and chat, eating together, laughing together.”
DreamWorks Animation cafeteria workers on strike
Courtesy of Unite Here Local 11