Magic Mountain Asian workers

[philobat]

I do not want to come off racist- which I am not. However my last trip to SFMM two weeks ago, nearly every employees in the park was asian. Many of us in line couldn't understand what they were saying over the intercoms! It was so strange- it seemed to be a mix of Chinese, Korean and Phillipino kids- And I do mean mean kids! One of the girls checking safety restraints on Deja-Vu couldn't have been more than 14 years old. She could not speak a word of English and had to have another employee, who only spoke slightly better English, do a broken interpretation of what a passenger was tring to say. It was bizarre to say the least. Nearly every shop and food stand had one of these employees and it made it very difficult to place an order.

 

Many of us were commenting on it- then a lady in line for funnel cakes at the exit was convercing in Korean with another employee and they were discussing that the land in front of the park was been cleared to make room for employee housing.

 

So I thought maybe that day had offered training for asian amusement parks and that it might be some kind of education co-op between Six Flags and Asian park owners sort of thing. So I asked another employee about it and he said, nope they are all full-time seasonal employees!! He also said it was his last week as an employee- he was being layed-off.

 

I don't mind who works where as long as I can communicate with them- but I did find the massive change something to wonder about- as did many people milling about discussing a noticable difference in staff- we shared jokes about the little Asian girl at Deja-Vu who had to litterally jump up high to pull down restraints that she could not reach- then we took a moment of pause on the safety of that.

 

Can anyone on here verify this and the employee housing situation?

[SharkTums]

A bunch of them live in our Apartment Complex. They are loud, annoying, and have no respect for 'apartment living'. That being said, SFMM does this every year. It's pretty much the only way they can get enough staff to keep the park open midweek while all the locals are still in school.

 

I'm pretty sure the majority are actually from Thailand.

 

Other than that, don't really have much to say. Most of them are better than the local workers, but annoying in their own way.

[Homer]

Wait, Asian workers?

 

I thought California was home to illegal immigrants that "habla de espanol?"

 

 

[Erik Johnson]

A bunch of them live in our Apartment Complex. They are loud, annoying, and have no respect for 'apartment living'. That being said, SFMM does this every year. It's pretty much the only way they can get enough staff to keep the park open midweek while all the locals are still in school.

 

I'm pretty sure the majority are actually from Thailand.

 

Other than that, don't really have much to say. Most of them are better than the local workers, but annoying in their own way.

 

There has been a HUGE influx of Thai employees that have started working for Universal and the Busch parks in Florida this past month.

[Mr.Six]

Yup, all the asians are from Thailand. We actually have quite a few from Ecuador and India now too. But compared to how many Thais we got this year, it kinda goes under the radar.

 

I can also tell you that most of them are at least 20, despite their looks. There is a HUGE language barrier with them, but Six Flags has actually taken the ones who speak the best english and placed them at locations that they're alone at. Maybe such as a Food Service cart or a Gotham City ride and have the 'not so good' at speaking ones check the restraints at a place where there's many workers.

 

I actually love my internationals this year, too bad their going back in a month or so.

_six

[Jew]

So I asked another employee about it and he said, nope they are all full-time seasonal employees!! He also said it was his last week as an employee- he was being layed-off.

 

There's no such thing as a full-time seasonal employee at SFMM. Or being "layed-off" for that matter.

 

If I remember right, SFMM has a contract with some company that specializes in finding international college students studying in fields where working in an American theme park can be beneficial to them. They come from different countries every year, though Thailand seems to be more common now (mine were from Russia when I worked there). The agreement basically says "we'll give them at least X amount of hours a week and provide them housing (which they pay rent for)." But the hours are really no different than what a "normal" employee would get.

[carolinacaniac]

I think you will find that working at any amusement park with housing will charge rent for the housing. Usually it is cheaper, (like between $16-32 a week at Cedar Point), but it isn't free.

[SharkTums]

^^Hurricane Harbor employees are offered other work at the end of the season or else they get a 'lay off' letter.

 

But yeah, they wouldn't lay off the internationals.

[DenDen]

 

But yeah, they wouldn't lay off the internationals.

 

Two words...

 

TAX BREAK.

 

[philobat]

I appreciate your comments in addressing this issue. Its very scary what is going on in the world right now with slave labor taking American jobs. On this particular Thursday I could not understand what the employees were saying at all and it was just weird.

 

The girl working Deja-Vu was not 20, not 18, not 17, not 16, not 15. They were all very friendly and polite. It was just strange for me after having read all these news articles on slave labor and human trafficking!

[Mr.Six]

^ Slave Labor?

Ok...so maybe she was 19?

_six

[Jew]

^Working at SFMM basically amounts to slave labor. Especially if they really rip off the internationals for rent like they did when I worked there.

[shepp]

I appreciate your comments in addressing this issue. Its very scary what is going on in the world right now with slave labor taking American jobs. On this particular Thursday I could not understand what the employees were saying at all and it was just weird.

 

The girl working Deja-Vu was not 20, not 18, not 17, not 16, not 15. They were all very friendly and polite. It was just strange for me after having read all these news articles on slave labor and human trafficking!

 

 

Wellll..."human trafficking" usually refers to prostitutes and the like, not ride ops. And most of the loss in American jobs doesn't have to do with Six Flags or imported "slave labor," but with the movement of international capital, outsourcing, and NAFTA, CAFTA, and the like. For evidence of that, just leave SFMM and head for the nearest WalMart (where the employees, by the by, are treated no better than at most theme parks) and see what proportion of goods are now made in China...often, in fact, by prisoners of a totalitarian system. Happy shopping!