There’s a little tunnel, sort of a covered bridge, in the walkway for employees between the main offices and the public area of Six Flags Great America in Gurnee. Filled with the usual notices and legal postings, it also features one sign proclaiming in large letters, “Smile, you’re onstage!”
Great America’s International Program swung into high gear in the mid-80s, when Jim Franz joined the human resources department and brought in the first group of “internationals,” a bunch of Irish kids. “When Six Flags Great America first started operations in 1975, we had a few inquiries from European students about working here,” says Franz, now the human resources manager. The park found they were ideal employees. “First we thought it would be neat for our employees to work with people from different cultures,” Franz says. “But after a while we found that when all of our American students go back to school at the end of August, the internationals can stay until October and November. When we saw how late in the season they were able to work, we said this is a perfect niche market for us.”
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It’s a hot and humid day in early August. The flow of people into the American Eagle roller coaster, Urbonas’s station, is never ending. Riders wait in narrow, mazelike walkways like cattle at the old Union Stockyards. It seems suburban families have been sprung from their ranch homes after a summer of cool temperatures and heavy rains. “Today’s going to be our busiest weekday yet,” a passing ride supervisor observes. Urbonas is covered with flop sweat as he makes sure the operators seat riders properly in the cars, placing the lap bars just so, warning them about keeping their hands inside, and cutting off the flow when the cars are full. “Safety is everything,” Urbonas says as the coaster pulls out.
On the other hand, everything American is fast becoming universal. “Everyone in the rest of the world watches American movies all the time,” Shave says. “So you get a pretty good idea of what America’s like. Personally, I watched American movies, I listened to American music, I watched American TV shows, so I was all over America before I came here anyway. But some things surprised me, like all of your policemen carrying guns. That’s something you have to get used to. Otherwise, it’s just exactly as I expected.”
Many of the internationals choose to work extra hours. “At the moment, I’m working about a 54-hour week,” Shave says. “It’s fine. I could have worked a shorter shift, but right now I’m working for money. Anything over 40 hours is time and a half. I’m happy with that.” Internationals earn the same rate of pay as U.S. citizens at Great America, starting at $6.15 an hour and earning 30-cent raises for each 200-hour increment they work. “I’m aiming to save two thousand bucks before I leave,” Shave says.
