Medieval Times performers who fought long and hard to unionize the Buena Park dinner theatre and another Medieval Times location in New Jersey were handed a defeat this week when other performers succeeded in removing union control of the castles.
The move comes after a majority of actors backed petitions for the National Labor Relations Board to hold elections on whether to remove the American Guild of Variety Artists.
They received free legal aid from the National Right to Work Foundation in navigating the NLRB’s union decertification process. The NLRB is the federal agency responsible for administering elections to install or remove unions.
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“Decertification removes a union’s power to represent workers,” foundation President Mark Mix said.
The actors sought union control in an effort to secure higher wages and improved safety conditions. Local performers in Buena Park say they average $18 to $19 an hour but want that boosted to $25 an hour to keep pace with the high cost of living in Southern California.
Performers opposed to unionization complained because it required them to pay union dues to keep their jobs. They were also wary of AGVA’s control, as union bosses have power over the working conditions of every employee in a unionized workplace, including those who don’t support the union.
Union opponents said AGVA opted to abandon union control of the Buena Park and Lyndhurst, N.J. castles as opposed to fighting attorneys at the National Right to Work Foundation.
But Susanne Doris, AGVA’s executive secretary-treasurer, said AGVA pulled away because many pro-union employees grew tired of the fight and left for other jobs.
“We lost at least 19 members who had voted us in,” she said. “And Medieval Times was hiring new employees who didn’t necessarily want or need a union. They had no allegiance to us, so we lost that support.”
Representatives with Medieval Times could not be reached for comment.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said Erin Zapcic, who portrays a queen in the Buena Park shows and lobbied hard for unionization. “This was pretty much my life over the last two years. You don’t make that kind of investment in something you don’t love.”
The move to unionize the Buena Park location began in November 2022, when about 30 of the castle’s queens, trumpet players, chancellors, knights and squires voted to join AGVA. But other performers were firmly against it — particularly after the union ordered an unfair labor practice strike that began in February 2023 and lasted nine months.
Striking performers allege management consistently blocked their efforts to boost wages and improve safety measures. They also claim the company gave substantial pay hikes to workers at other Medieval Times castles, while wages in Buena Park and New Jersey remained low.
The Dallas-based company operates a total of 10 castle dinner theaters, with additional locations in Dallas, Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Myrtle Beach, Orlando, Scottsdale and Toronto.
Zapcic said performers backed away from their push to remain unionized when they saw no clear path to victory.
“We didn’t have any bargaining leverage left,” she said. “The point of all this was to get a labor contract, but management was making that difficult. We were staring down the barrel of another year of negotiations.”
Doris said performers at other Medieval Times castles have expressed interest in joining AGVA but have been intimidated by management and the long-fought battles that occurred in Buena Park and New Jersey.
“This is heartbreaking,” she said. “We only wanted to give them industry standard wages and working conditions.”
Decertification petition filings have gone up by more than 40% since 2020, according to NLRB data.
“AGVA union officials treated each Medieval Times castle as their own personal fiefdom,” Mix said. “But their actions led to an uprising of the rank-and-file they purported to represent.”
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