Time Is Running Out For Yamabuki

According to the OC Register’s Around Disney blog:

Saturday is the last day for Disney’s Yamabuki restaurant, inside the Paradise Pier Hotel.

The doors will officially shut to customers at 9 p.m. A few reservations are still available between 5:30 and 9 p.m. today and Saturday.

The closure of the Japanese-style-cuisine restaurant affects 39 hourly employees and a handful of salaried employees.

Those salaried employees who can not be relocated will receive a 60-day severance package and extended heath benefits.

Because of a misunderstanding in the original announcement, Around Disney erroneously reported earlier that the same severance package would be offered to those 39 hourly employees.

No such package is being offered, said Suzi Brown, a spokeswoman for Disneyland Resort. Instead, Disney netotiated with the union to place all of those hourly employees on shifts among the five other hotel restaurants or four other food-and-beverage locations.

Those employees will retain their same pay.

Brown said: “The company has shifts available for all Yamabuki cast members at other hotel restaurant locations at Disneyland Resort. We expect all hourly Yamabuki (employees) to be redeployed as of next week.”

Brown said she was unsure whether all employees would be offered an equivalent amount of hours.  But she added, “We are committed to providing the most hours available.”

Victor Alvarez, 29, a server at Yamabuki, said workers at the restaurant had established strong bonds and are sad about the closing.

“We are more than co-workers, we’re like a family,” he said. “We’ve really kept a positive atmoshere at the restaurant and everybody’s been a part of that … It’s hard to see that go.”

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