Service + Solidarity Spotlight: Organizing Drive at Medieval Times Gains Momentum

Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our regular Service + Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.

Fed up with dangerous working conditions and low wages, the actors, stunt performers and stable hands at Medieval Times castle in Lyndhurst, New Jersey, overwhelmingly voted this month to form a union with the Variety Artists (AGVA). Their organizing win inspired their counterparts at the castle in Buena Park, California, who announced on Friday that a supermajority of workers there have signed union cards and are prepared for a union election.

“Broadway does eight shows a week, and we do 16,” Erin Zapcic, one of the actors at the Buena Park Medieval Times, told HuffPost. “You’ve got people who are working every single show. They’re tired. The horses are tired….Even professional athletes have an off-season. We don’t have an off-season.”