New York
This March, actress Brooke Shields made a reservation at a Mexican restaurant in Denver, Colorado referred to as Casa Bonita underneath a pretend title – however to not keep away from paparazzi
It was so the restaurant’s administration workforce and homeowners Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who’re additionally the creators of South Park, wouldn’t know she was coming.
“The place is so big it took a while for management to realize we were there,” Shields informed NCS. “And then word got out because, you know, I didn’t have a hat on and mustache or anything,” she stated.
She was there to ship a letter asking for higher wages for Casa Bonita’s performers. The restaurant doesn’t simply serve Mexican delicacies; performers present leisure from breakfast to dinner. Cliff divers bounce and twirl into a blue lagoon, puppeteers put on tableside reveals and magicians make the rounds. The dwell leisure is why so many folks know Casa Bonita.
But in April 2024, for the first time, Casa Bonita’s performers unionized, with about 80 of them represented by Actor’s Equity, led by Shields.
Shields stated she’s escalating after extended negotiations over not simply pay, however elementary questions of safety.
“It was slightly an ambush… you try doing things respectfully, and then you’re not met with equal respect… so you have to resort to other tactics,” stated Brooke Shields, of her go to to Casa Bonita.
Since April of final 12 months, Shields and Casa Bonita performers have been locked in negotiations with administration. The group is asking for higher protections for performers who say they obtained hypothermia and chlorine toxicity from the diving pool, in addition to safety for costumed performers who say they’ve been grabbed sexually by patrons. The group can be asking for a increase to deliver them extra consistent with the servers, who they are saying make extra. The union says it’s already made concessions at the bargaining desk however with little provided in return to enhance present conditions and wages.
Casa Bonita’s administration stated in a assertion to NCS that “we value all of our team members and their well-being. As a policy we do not comment on ongoing labor negotiations.”
Parker and Stone didn’t reply to repeated requests for remark.
Casa Bonita has been a Denver establishment for greater than 50 years. Set in a strip mall, it has a palatial bubblegum pink exterior with a jungle-esque inside.
Up to 3500 patrons dine on Mexican delicacies each day, however a massive a part of the attraction is the present. Every twenty minutes cliff divers, costumed characters, and magicians put on performances and work together with diners.
Five years in the past, the restaurant was saved from the brink of chapter and closure by Stone and Parker, the workforce who created South Park and the Broadway present Book of Mormon. Stone and Parker grew up in the Denver space and have been going to the restaurant since they have been youngsters. They beloved the restaurant a lot that it was featured as the crux of a South Park episode in 2003, and so they named their workplaces “Casa Bonita,” too.
“You could see what this place was in the 70’s when they built it. They were trying to make a little Disneyland here,” Trey Parker informed NBC’s “The Today Show,” in 2023.
Parker and Stone have frequented the restaurant not too long ago however have not attended one among the 14 bargaining periods with Actor’s Equity, based on Shields. She says performers are paid between $21 and $26 an hour, about $10 per hour lower than servers who additionally get ideas and who got a increase shortly after the restaurant reopened.
Shields and union performers inform NCS they lack protections, as there is no such thing as a energetic shooter coverage, no emergency motion plan and no safety for performers who work together with patrons.
And whereas the union has already made concessions on paid day without work, vacation pay, additional pay, and wages, administration has provided a lower than a $1-an-hour wage improve, based on Shields.
“It’s just so disheartening because they’re putting their lives at risk, and they’re not being looked after,” stated Shields.
And, Shields says she has not heard from Parker and Stone.
“It’s just silence, radio silence,” she stated.
Alleged concussion, hypothermia, and sexual harassment
When Stone and Parker re-opened Casa Bonita in the summer season of 2023, diver Bethel Lindsley was introduced in to construct a squad of pros. Lindsley, who each performs at Casa Bonita and oversees the dive workforce, is a former gymnast and circus performer with dwell water present expertise on cruise traces like Royal Caribbean and The Han Show in China.
A local Denverite, Lindsley was drawn to the distinctive attract of Casa Bonita. But she additionally had considerations.
“It’s been a very long and challenging fight to get safety procedures at Casa Bonita in any meaningful form. When I first came in, the very first question I asked my management team was, what’s the safety protocols for the dive team? And there were none,” stated Lindsley.
She says the divers at Casa Bonita are both division one collegiate divers or have circus and water efficiency backgrounds.
Casa Bonita’s dive arrange is exclusive. Performers dive from a number of cliffs as excessive as 16 toes into a small pool, 12.5 toes deep and 22.5 toes sq.. They dive solo and in tandem and are required to rock climb to exit the pool.
According to Lindsley, one diver suffered a concussion underwater after a dive. At one level the pool temperature wasn’t regulated correctly, and she or he claims a diver obtained hypothermia. The workforce obtained chlorine toxicity as a result of the chlorine pool ranges weren’t getting checked usually, she additionally stated.
Some of her colleagues have stop. She says divers on her workforce are paid 35% lower than business requirements.
Joshua Emerson is a part-time costumed character actor at Casa Bonita making $23 an hour. Three occasions a week, for 4 hours at a time he clothes up as Moko the gorilla. He says he “loves the character,” and calls Parker and Stone heroes. Emerson can be a standup comic who says the South Park duo encourage him to be a higher author.
When diners purchase a ticket at Casa Bonita they’re notified they’ll’t contact performers at the venue, however there is no such thing as a signal saying as a lot when patrons arrive on website, based on Emerson.
“I’ve been grabbed sexually 20 plus times since working there,” Emerson stated. He added that there is no such thing as a safety to guard performers, and perpetrators aren’t held accountable.
“It’s tough cause like all I want do is make people laugh and be entertained, and this process has made it difficult,” he stated.
Casa Bonita didn’t reply to NCS’s questions relating to the particular accusations being made by performers.
In May Parker and Stone appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live and talked about Casa Bonita. They stated that they had hoped to pour $7 million to $8 million {dollars} into the restaurant venue, however as an alternative it’s been nearer to a $50 million renovation and improve.
“It is going really well, and we think we might make our money back sometime, like 2040, 2045,” Parker informed Kimmel.
“We’re almost breaking even to this point,” stated Stone.
The performers say the restaurant is continually packed and consider Parker and Stone have the cash to extend wages.
“The point of unionizing is to permanently fix and correct these problems for every single entertainment individual who is going to walk in and work for this company for however long it continues to stay open, which we hope it’s another 50 years, another 100 years, like, we want the business to succeed,” stated Lindsley.
In the final 12 months, Actor’s Equity has filed at least seven labor complaints in opposition to Casa Bonita with the National Labor Relations Board for retaliation and refusal to discount.
For Shields, who oversees a lot bigger negotiations between 51,000 Actor’s Equity members and teams like Broadway League, which represents Broadway reveals, the Casa Bonita combat is small however private.
“It doesn’t take long to feel how disparaging it is when you visit a place and you see young people excited to perform at the top of their game doing these crazy stunts, or entertaining people… (and) you go personally see them not being cared for,” stated Shields.
“I’ve been on Broadway enough to know that it’s the ensemble, it’s the people that are there day in and day out… that are really sort of the backbone of what we do.”