Casa Bonita Performers Vote to Unionize

Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s giant pink novelty restaurant has been generating a lot of news stories this month — from the announcement that Casa Bonita would be selling Christmas candles that smell like Casa Bonita, to reports that the venue was forced to evacuate diners due to a “nauseating” sewage odor, which presumably didn’t help with candle sales.

But more consequentially, there has now been a major development concerning Casa Bonita employees’ efforts to secure better wages and the right to not be put in danger while entertaining children/drunken South Park fans. 

As we mentioned last month, Casa Bonita’s resident performers (meaning the cliff divers, puppeteers, musicians, actors, magicians etc.) were beginning the process of unionization, citing the need for “fair pay” and the unaddressed safety concerns, which ranged from carbon monoxide levels in certain rooms, to “insufficient training” for staff members.

Now, according to a recent press release, Casa Bonita’s “onstage and backstage workers” have “to unionize with Actors’ Equity Association and IATSE Local 7, respectively.” And the vote wasn’t close. In fact, it was unanimous. “We love Casa Bonita,” the workers noted in a public statement, “and already give our all to providing our guests with an unforgettable experience. When it is a safer, fairer place to work, we will be able to better focus on doing our jobs knowing we are protected, respected and valued."

If that didn’t sound fair enough already, workers’ demands arguably just line up with what Parker and Stone have been saying publicly about Casa Bonita for a while now. The recent documentary ¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor! made a big to-do about how much safer the restaurant would be following the duo’s exhaustive renovations. But as one Casa Bonita actor, William “Riley” Holmes, told Denver7 news, there were still issues, including that the cliff divers had no “emergency action plan” in place in case of an accident. 

Holmes also disclosed that Casa Bonita performers are “assaulted pretty routinely” while on the job, and explained that the behind-the-scenes push for a union gained traction when a “particular management team” ignored employees’ concerns.

And while Parker and Stone got a lot of publicity for promising to pay servers a living wage (minus tips) prior to the restaurant’s opening, Holmes also pointed out that “the average entertainer makes $23 an hour,” which is even below the living wage rate for a single adult with no children.

Plus, Parker has repeatedly likened Casa Bonita to Disneyland. So it should really come as no surprise that the performers are now joining the same union that represents Disney’s theme park actors. 

Now the contract bargaining between the union and management will begin. Hopefully Casa Bonita’s workers will get a fair deal from the restaurant that sells $43 candles.