Less than a year after the employees of Casa Bonita, the beloved Colorado Mexican eatery owned by South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, went on strike, Actors’ Equity president Brooke Shields—yes, that Brooke Shields—claims very little has changed. Complaints about workplace safety, particularly for the restaurant’s famed cliff divers, as featured on South Park, remain abundant. In addition to a safer environment to perform stunts that have already resulted in concussions, hypothermia, chlorine toxicity, and sexual harassment from patrons, the workers would also like to make as much money as the servers.
The staff organized in April 2024, unionizing under Actors’ Equity. Per CNN, there have been 14 bargaining sessions, none of which were attended by billionaire owners Stone and Parker, who currently stars in Minions & Monsters (“It’s just been silence, radio silence,” says Shields of the South Park guys). Shields tells CNN that the union has made concessions that have yielded a pay raise of less than a dollar an hour. Divers currently make $10 less per hour than waiters.
In the last year, Actors’ Equity has filed seven labor complaints through the National Labor Relations Board. “It’s just so disheartening because they’re putting their lives at risk, and they’re not being looked after,” Shields says. Bethel Lindsley, the head of the restaurant’s dive team, would just like to see any safety measures for the divers. Currently there are zero.
Casa Bonita rose to national prominence through a 2003 South Park episode in which Cartman schemes his way into Kyle’s birthday party at the restaurant. Rescuing the restaurant’s final location from bankruptcy in 2021, Parker and Stone restored Casa to its former glory, spending $30 million in the process. Their efforts became the subject of an acclaimed documentary, ¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!, which might be due for a sequel.
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