Minnesota Labor Coalition Demands Disney Subcontractor Pay Incarcerated Workers Minimum Wage

On December 11, a coalition of formerly incarcerated workers and Minnesota unions gathered at the United Labor Center in Minneapolis to demand Anagram International, LLC, a Minnesota-based balloon manufacturer and subcontractor for Disney, increase pay for incarcerated workers to the state’s minimum wage. The workers are currently paid at a rate of 90 cents per hour, while Minnesota’s state minimum wage is $11.13. 

The coalition, led by the non-profit End Slavery in Minnesota, aims to reclassify prisoners as workers and ensure minimum wage pay and benefits for all incarcerated workers across Minnesota. 

“I stand here today not just for myself but for thousands of people inside still making pennies, choosing between soap and a ten-minute phone call to a loved one,” said Jermale Kling, a formerly incarcerated worker at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Stillwater, Minn., at a press conference. Kling worked at an upholstery shop and for Anagram, and explained that because of the low wages, he would average $7 per day of work—barely enough to buy a bar of soap.

While the 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution abolished slavery in 1865, the amendment includes one exception for forced labor “as a punishment for crime.” End Slavery in Minnesota’s goal is to amend the Minnesota state constitution to reclassify incarcerated workers to ensure the same labor protections as any other worker. 

According to a press release sent this week from the coalition, “Incarcerated workers are making just $0.90 an hour, while supporting a company worth nearly $200 billion,” in reference to Disney. 

A press conference was hosted by Central Florida Jobs with Justice earlier this month in Florida, also calling out Disney for its use of prison labor to produce its balloons. Other union and worker center coalition members of End Slavery in Minnesota include the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters (NCSRCC), Minnesota AFL-CIO, Saint Paul Federation of Educators, Minneapolis Federation of Educators (MFE), and the Minneapolis chapter of the Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP). 

Chauntyll Allen, an organizer with End Slavery in Minnesota, said at the press conference that paying incarcerated workers minimum wage would allow workers to better support their families, keep up with child support, restitution payments, and decrease recidivism rates. Allen added that many incarcerated workers spend years working without being able to save money. “This policy would allow them to pay for these things so that when they get out they can stand on their own feet,” she said. 

Thao Xiong is a formerly incarcerated worker at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Faribault, Minn. who worked for Anagram folding Disney-themed balloons and on the assembly line packaging the balloons. Xiong explains that the life-sized balloons required multiple workers to fold just one balloon. He was promoted to working on the assembly line, where workers had to meet strict quotas or face penalties. “There were no breaks,” adds Xiong. 

Since being released in 2014, Xiong told Workday Magazine that he applied several times to work at the Anagram facility in St. Paul, Minn. However, despite years working for the company while incarcerated, he said he “never got a job, never even a response.”

Darla Holland, a formerly incarcerated worker in the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Shakopee, Minn., and a former Anagram worker, emphasized the impact of these policies on children and families. “I vividly remember folding these balloons and how I couldn’t buy one of these balloons for my kids,” she said. The Disney character balloons are priced at $45 per balloon. Holland said that some incarcerated workers owe child support and the below-minimum wage pay makes it difficult to support primary caretakers. 

“It’s disappointing that a company whose target audience is children does not see the full-circle impact of this,” Holland said. 

Carson Starkey, an organizer with the NCSRCC states that the practice of paying incarcerated workers below minimum wage impacts workers everywhere—both in and outside of prisons, because it drives down wages overall. “Any employer that pays workers unfairly anywhere at all is a threat to workers everywhere,” said Starkey. 

Several speakers recalled folding balloons in the shape of famous Disney characters, like Elsa and Olaf from Disney’s Frozen franchise, as well as balloons in the shape of Minnie and Mickey Mouse. Marcia Howard, president of MFE, emphasized the pain many of the incarcerated workers experienced when faced with their children’s beloved characters as both “a source of joy but also a source of pain.” 

Howard, who says she has loved ones in the prison system, explains that prison administration claims that prison labor is not forced because incarcerated workers must apply to the positions. However, Howard describes the system as a “forced choice,” stating, “If you don’t work, you sit in your cell. You work or you rot in a cell.” 

Amelia Pedrego, a researcher with SEIU Local 26, spoke at the press conference and described the actions of Anagram as “not just a moral outrage but a clear workers rights issue.” Pedrego also pointed to a federal appeals court ruling from earlier this year in Tacoma, Wash., where a for-profit prison was ruled by a federal judge to be in violation of the state’s minimum wage ordinance and ordered to pay nearly $17.3 million in back wages to the workers and an additional $5.9 million in penalties to the state. The coalition also cited legislation in Colorado as a possible model for Minnesota to pay incarcerated workers minimum wage. 

Workday Magazine reached out to both Anagram International LLC and Disney for comment and did not hear back by deadline. 

The End Slavery in Minnesota coalition is organizing for a bill to be announced in the upcoming Minnesota legislative session in 2026.

Isabela is the Senior Associate Editor for Workday Magazine.