HOUSTON—In early March, Denise Anderson, a Disneyland employee of 31 years and Disney stockholder, went to her very first shareholder meeting. Security was intense: A squadron of guards flanked the doors, complete with a bomb-sniffing dog. After a meet and greet with Disney characters, the small crowd—a few hundred people—was ushered into an auditorium.

The workers weren’t there to hear about box office receipts or Disneyland’s new Star Wars expansion. They came to ask Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger why a company whose parks and resorts brought in $18 billion in 2017 pays its employees so little that many live in their cars or skip meals.

They didn’t get a chance. When executives finished their reports and the question period began, employee-stockholders weren’t among the chosen few who were called on. The most substantial question was about Iger’s exercise routine.

Then, Iger announced the meeting was over. The stage lights went down, the house lights went up, and the executives fled the scene. Annual shareholder meetings often last hours; this one wrapped in one. “As a stockholder, I should have a right to ask my question,” Anderson says. “They’re so high above us, they can’t even hear our questions.”

Several dozen workers outside were determined to be heard anyway. The protesters represented a 17,000-member coalition of workers from 11 union locals who make the world-famous theme park in Anaheim, Calif., run, as well as UNITE HERE! and Teamsters union workers from Disney World in Orlando, Fla. They included the hair and makeup professionals who style the characters, the people who operate the rides, the food service workers who ensure visitors are fed and the janitors who keep everything clean. (Missing were the character actors, who aren’t unionized at Disneyland and face a greater risk of retaliation.)

The signs they struggled to hold in the wind lamented some recently published statistics: “11% Recently Homeless … 68% Food Insecure.”