According to Garza, there was little security and event staff in early 2022, leaving workers on Perform the strenuous jousting act several times back-to-back, which In These Times spoke to say understaffing leads actors to “We never have enough people,” Bowman says. “There are very obvious safety measures that are overlooked,” says Garza.Ĭhronic understaffing further increases the safety risks, This training practice has been discontinued. Since then, workers say, the only improvements to the safety measures is that female performers, such as queens, now wear helmets when they ride a horse - if there are enough helmets. Quigley, who says he was provided no helmet or protective gear, landed fully on his back and bruised his spine. Sean Quigley, a former “lord marshal” at the Lyndhurst castle (he left in January), says his Medieval Times instructor allowed a horse to throw him off during his knight training in 2017. Workers say management’s training methods also expose them to risk of injury. Jonathan Beckas, a knight at the Medieval Times castle in New Jersey who goes by J.C., recounted a recent incident when he was tossed from a horse because management scheduled extremely noisy construction during rehearsals - a nail gun went off and startled the horse. “You’re working with live animals in a live show, where real weapons are swung at you,” Bowman says. In addition to low pay, workers who spoke with In These Times all named serious safety concerns as one of their top grievances. So much more - we’re backstage helping the queens set up, doing radioĬommunications - but they don’t see that.” Mind, we play a few calls ,” Gibson says.
Jessica Gibson, a trumpeter with the New Jersey location. Trumpeters were initially not offered raises at all, according to In the face.” Further, they say, some job roles are being undervalued. Multiple workers called this figure “a slap While union castles were offered 2% to 3% in negotiations, which worked The five workers interviewed for this articleĬonfirmed that in January, nonunion castles received 20% to 25% raises
Instead, the largesse of the kingdom is being doled out to Medieval Times management did not respond to multiple email requests for comment. 66.Īccording to Monica Garza, who works as a queen at the unionized Medieval Times castle in Lyndhurst, N.J., as well as Erin Zapcic, a queen and union steward in Buena Park, in bargaining sessions, the company told workers at each castle that it does have money - it just chooses not to spend it on workers. The union demands wages be increased to the hourly living wage minimum for Orange County, which is currently estimated to be $ 23.
According to a post by on Twitter, stable hands - who take care of the horses essential to the show - make so little that they qualify for food stamps. “One of our knights is sleeping in his car right now,” Bowman adds. 50 an hour in one of the highest cost-of-living regions in the country, a wage he says is almost impossible to live on. “I absolutely love my job, and the people that I work with,” says Jake Bowman, a knight speaking from the picket line in California. In 2022, workers at two of Medieval Times’ ten castles unionized, claiming that the medieval-themed dinner theater was paying them peasant wages to enact lordly feats of strength - jousting on horseback, with real weapons. The protest is part of an indefinite unfair labor practice strike that comes after three months of stalled negotiations between newly unionized workers and Medieval Times management. Outside the Medieval Times castle in Buena Park, Calif., a sudden Monty Python-like spectacle emerges - twoscore knights, queens, squires and trumpeters, all marching on the boss to demand a fair contract.
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