Leigh Shelton was hoping Toy Story 3's Oscar dreams would be blasted to infinity and beyond.
Instead, the Disney/Pixar megahit was nominated today for five Academy Awards: Best Picture, Animated Feature,
Original Song, Achievement in Sound Editing and Adapted Screenplay.
“The race is on now,” says Shelton, spokeswoman for UNITE HERE Local 11, the union representing the Disneyland Resort's hotel workers in a bitter labor dispute. While they expected the Best Picture nomination, she and a group of about 10 union members dressed as Buzz Lightyear and marched around the offices of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills at 2 a.m., handing out literature on the union's cause.
See the pamphlet UNITE HERE Local 11 sent to Academy members and read about the union's next steps after the jump.
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UNITE HERE Local 11 accuses Disney of underpaying and stripping away the health insurance of the hotel's dishwashers,
bellmen, laundry attendants and housekeepers. The group has created an anti-Oscar campaign video, held guerrilla protests and created the website No Toy Story 3 in an effort to stop the Academy from voting for Toy Story 3 as Best Picture.
“We'll spend the next month leading up to the Oscars telling every
Academy member, 'Please, vote with your conscious. Don't reward Disney's
hypocrisy,'” Shelton says. “We want to show Academy members who Disney
really is and keep up the pressure publicly.”
Shelton says the union plans to continue protesting at screenings and Academy events in Los Angeles, and members will even show up in costume at the Oscars.
