EDIT, 5:30 P.M.: New updates and info emerge from the afternoon's press conference. Please see this post for more details.
EDIT, 1:30 P.M.: We're live Tweeting from the press conference! Follow us at @OCWeekly for all the latest developments.
Disneyland officials must be rubbing their temples today at the stress UNITE Here Local 11–which represents its hotel workers and has staged many massive, ingenious protests against the Mouse over the past two years because of a contract dispute–causes them. First, the protests I mentioned; now, allegations of religious discrimination.
Imane Boudlal, who works at the Storytellers Restaurant within the Grand Californian Hotel and is a UNITE HERE member, will hold a press conference today to announce she's filing a discrimination complaint
against Disneyland with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
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She claims the Mouse won't let her wear her hijab on the
job, and have sent her home without pay three times for doing so. Today,
she'll try to go to work for the fourth time. Fun times!
The press release by UNITE HERE says the immigrant “decided to challenge the law after winning United States citizenship in June and learning her constitutional right to freedom of religion.“
“The Constitution tells me I can be Muslim, and I can wear the head scarf,” Boudlal is quoted. “Who is Disney to tell me I cannot?”
Editor's Note: We'll be at the conference this afternoon, stay tuned for developments…
