• Disneyland performers voted over the weekend to unionize with the Actors' Equity Association.
• Mai Vo, a performer at the theme park, was part of the union push.
• She told BI that in the past her eye was stained by a costume, and her colleagues struggle with low pay.

Mai Vo began her career as a lookalike performer at Disneyland in 2004. She returned to the role in 2021.

In September 2022, she became involved in Magic United, culminating in an overwhelming vote by the Anaheim-based performers last week in favor of unionizing.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

I realized that people felt unhappy at the happiest place on earth, which didn't make sense to me.

Initially, I was just seeing things that affected my colleagues: costume pieces that hurt them and being told that they needed to go out and perform anyway.

I'm doing partner work with another performer, a female who may weigh less than 100 pounds. Her costume includes a four-pound weight strapped to her back near her tailbone.

I don't understand why it has to be so heavy or why it's attached with just a waist strap instead of a harness. This is something we need to monitor, as it could cause injury over time.

My costume stained my eyeball

I have my own injury from a costume, which involved wearing sclera black contact lenses.

If I lift my eyelid, you can still see a gray stain around my eyeball.

When I show this to others, it really shocks some people, and it certainly doesn't make me feel very pretty.

I feel fortunate that it was just cosmetic and didn't leave me with vision damage, but I could still be injured by something else.

I feel like I've been relatively unscathed, but people around me haven't been, and that hurts.

Disneyland performers often push through pain and work really, really hard.

'Financial independence would be nice'

I've seen colleagues work extra hard, doing overtime and working six-day weeks just to survive in Southern California.

If I had to live on my own, I don't know if I'd survive on that salary.

I live at home, about 15 minutes from Disneyland, which is very fortunate. But living with my family as an adult isn't always easy.

Financial independence would be nice.

For many Disneyland performers, this is their dream job. They often say, "This is my dream job. I'm here, but I'm struggling."

That's really sad.

'We get to create magic for guests'

However, there are great aspects of this job — we get to create magic for guests, which is unique.

As a lookalike performer, I aim to create change in the world one person at a time, whether a child or an adult.

I typically have 45 to 75 seconds with guests, and in these fleeting moments, I try to teach them something historical or something about culture or values.

That could make a difference in the world, so I might as well try.

The push for unionization was driven by several factors, including a shift in opinion on unions across the US.

I also think people in the Characters and Parades department began to see their peers speaking up, saying things they'd been too scared to say before because Disney can be scary.

I'm hoping that people maybe just got inspired to be brave, finally.

Since we voted to unionize, I've felt less unhappy because I've put my energy into doing something about it. I'm using every talent I can think of to steer this group toward a better working environment.

It makes me happy to support my colleagues and listen to them.

I'm also just happy to perform.

• European nations say they're planning a $4.3 billion joint air and missile defense system.
• Creating an Iron Dome similar to Israel's 'is necessary," Poland's PM Donald Tusk said.
• The European Sky Shield Initiative involves 21 countries and aims to enhance NATO's defenses.

European countries are preparing to reveal plans for a $4.3 billion Iron Dome-style air and missile defense system, Poland's prime minister announced on Monday.

Donald Tusk told Polish broadcaster AVN that the proposal, which involves the cooperation of 21 nations, will be presented to the European Council in a matter of days, the Kyiv Post reported.

The European Sky Shield Initiative, or ESSI, is conceived as a means to jointly procure ground-based interoperable air defense systems.

"The recent attack on Israel showed how essential such systems are. There is no reason for Europe not to have its missile defense shield," Tusk said, per The Telegraph.

"Creating an iron dome against missiles and drones is necessary," he added.

In a not-too-subtle reference to Russia, Tusk also said that it doesn't take much imagination to figure out where a potential attack on Europe might come from, the Telegraph reported.

Israel's Iron Dome has long been seen as one of the world's most advanced air defense systems, protecting the country's skies from rockets and other projectiles.

In April, Iran launched a barrage of missiles and drones against Israel, which Israel's air defenses almost completely shot down, with the assistance of US and UK forces.

While a direct hot-war attack by Russia on NATO Europe is not considered an immediate likelihood, many countries — particularly those that border Russia — are deeply alarmed. Many are also beefing up their defense spending in ways unimaginable before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

ESSI was first mooted by Germany's chancellor Olaf Scholz in 2022, not long after Russia had begun pounding Ukraine's civilian infrastructure with rockets. It's been led by Germany ever since.

In July 2023, Austria and Switzerland — both traditionally neutral states — signed up to the initiative, and as of February this year the number of countries has grown to 21, with the participation of Turkey and Greece.

German think tank SWP outlined in a report last year some of the systems the German government is seeking to buy or replenish as part of ESSI. These included US-made Patriots, the IRIS-T SLM — a short-to-medium-range system capable of targeting drones, aircraft, and cruise missiles — and the long-range Arrow system currently in use in Israel.

SWP also noted that although it considers an attack on NATO countries from Russia to be unlikely in the immediate term, "improving air and missile defense in Europe could curb Russia's coercive power vis-à-vis NATO and thereby strengthen the cohesion of the alliance."

Despite Tusk's own championing of ESSI, it has faced challenges from Poland's own president Andrzej Duda, who has opposed joining it on the grounds that the country already has its own joint air defense agreements with the US and the UK.

• The US economy is headed for a recession and a wave of corporate failures, Jeffrey Gundlach said.
•  Several sectors are slowing and higher interest rates are squeezing people and businesses, he said.
• Higher prices and interest costs are spurring consumers to rack up credit card debt, Gundlach said.

Prepare for a recession to strike and companies to collapse as stubborn inflation and sticky interest rates take their toll, Jeffrey Gundlach warned.

The economy will suffer a prolonged downturn this year or next, the billionaire investor told Fox Business on Tuesday. Gundlach pointed to "quite concerning" data released in the past month showing the majority of economic sectors are declining and others are growing more slowly.

The DoubleLine Capital founder and CEO also underlined the pain caused by inflation — which soared to over 9% in 2022 and remains well above the Fed's 2% target — and interest rates, which have surged from virtually zero to over 5%.

Consumers have faced a double whammy of higher prices for basics such as food, gas, and housing, while also owing more interest each month on their car loans, credit cards, mortgages, and other debts.

"All of these things are up tremendously, the things you have to buy," Gundlach said, citing car insurance and homeowners' insurance as examples. "Those credit card bills are really starting to add up."

Persistently higher rates will drive some companies to ruin and tank the wider economy, he predicted.

"I think that higher for longer is going to lead to a recession," Gundlach said. "You're not going to take out Tesla necessarily — they might have other problems, but it's not going to be because of interest rates.

"What you take out is the people, small businesses, medium businesses," as they'll run out of cash borrowing at 10% instead of 4%, he said.

Gundlach did note that softening economic data has raised the probability of two Fed rate cuts this year, but he doesn't expect that to stave off disaster.

It's worth emphasizing that the veteran fund manager has been ringing the recession alarm for more than two years.

He predicted last fall that a downturn would occur in the first half of this year, which seems unlikely at this point. Yet Gundlach is one of several experts who see cracks forming in the economy.

• Cambridge University professor Thomas Roulet has hit back at the idea that Gen Z is lazy.
• He said younger people just have a different idea about what work means to them.
• JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said people shouldn't "feel so bad" for Gen Z and millennials this week.

Gen Z is often called lazy — but a Cambridge University professor thinks younger people just have a different idea about what work means.

Thomas Roulet, who teaches organizational sociology and leadership at the Judge Business School, defended the generation's work ethic in a video posted on the university's YouTube channel.

"All generations have been saying that younger generations are lazier at work — allegedly, even Socrates said that," he said, referring to the Greek philosopher's belief that the children of his day were vain and lazy. "If we look at motivational drivers, research shows that across generations, motivational drivers are the same."

Roulet added: "The expectations toward work have changed. Younger generations want growth, purpose, and, at the same time, a work-life balance — and organizations have to rise to meet those demands."

"The third element is the economic context. While a job 30 or 20 years ago would have provided further security, this is not necessarily the case, and it doesn't, for example, help younger generations get on the property ladder."

Roulet's comments are in conflict to some degree with the views advanced by several top executives including JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon.

The billionaire said at the bank's investor day this week that he had little sympathy for younger generations because they had better life expectancy and were likely to work fewer hours.

"I don't feel so bad for Gen Z and millennials," Dimon said, adding that his grandparents were Greek immigrants who arrived in the US with nothing but "a shirt on their back."

"Let's put things in perspective a little bit," the Wall Street titan added. "They're going to be working probably 3.5 days a week. They're going to live to 100. They're not going to have cancer. They're going to be in pretty good shape, provided the world doesn't destroy it all with nuclear weapons, which is the biggest risk in the world."