MAN ON MEGAPHONE: Alright, how’s everybody feeling this morning?
[crowd cheers]
MAN ON MEGAPHONE: I can’t hear you, how are you feeling this morning?
[crowd cheers louder]
MAN ON MEGAPHONE: Fantastic. Did everybody sign in?
On November 1st, surrounded by signs, honking horns, and an inflatable union Scabby Rat, over 200 food and hospitality workers at Northwestern took to Sheridan Road in their first informal picket in three years.
MAN ON MEGAPHONE: Alright, let’s make a single-file line.
CROWD: Who are we? Local 1! Who’s in the streets? Local 1! Who’s in the fight? Local 1! Who’s gonna win? Local 1!
After the workers’ contract with Compass Group expired on August 31st, workers refrained from picketing for two months while their union, Local 1, tried to work out a new contract with the foodservice company. However, as that time ran out, no deal was reached. Among the workers’ chief demands: a better pension plan, better healthcare, job security, and higher wages.
Hugo Lemus has been working at Northwestern for 20 years. He is currently a lead cook and at the kosher station in Allison Dining Hall.
HUGO LEMUS: We feel like everything went up. The rent, the food, everything went up. So, I think we deserve more than what we get paid.
The need for better treatment became even more important after October, when the University announced the closure of the Kellogg School of Management’s James Allen Center. For years, there were internal rumors that the center would close. But workers said that once the closure was announced, more than 80 employees were left without a reassignment, placing them in limbo for months. Eric Brown worked at the Allen Center for 11 years. Eventually, he was told he’d be starting at a new job at the Kellogg Global Hub on December 2nd. But Brown says that wasn’t necessarily the case for everyone there.
ERIC BROWN: I think there are definitely a handful or a couple handfuls of people who haven’t been offered a job, especially people with less seniority.
Therefore, advocating for job security in their new contract has become more vital than ever.
BROWN: Job security hits us really hard, being that we just, you know, are currently going through the closing of a building where some of us have worked. I’ve been there 11 years, some people have been there 30-plus years and it’s a feeling that hits, it’s a feeling that feels too familiar.
It feels all too familiar, since workers found themselves in a similar situation in 2021, when they had a contract dispute with Compass Group over low wages. And while the workers did succeed in getting higher wages and averting a strike, the win was only temporary. For example, Lemus finds himself in the same position he was in years ago.
LEMUS: I was getting paid at 16 an hour and then we got a raise. I’m 24. 68 right now. And I used to do two jobs and I didn’t do two jobs for two years. And now, everything went up. I’m back doing two jobs.
But these issues aren’t unique to just Compass Group. Despite changing food providers in 2018, resulting in the current partnership with Compass, Brown says things haven’t really changed.
BROWN: It was very similar, you know. I worked for Aramark from 2013 through 2018 and now with Compass 2018 through 2024. It’s just the same greedy corporate greed.
MAN ON MEGAPHONE: I said what do we want?
CROWD: Contracts!
MAN ON MEGAPHONE: When do we want it?
CROWD: Now!
MAN ON MEGAPHONE: If we don’t get no contracts…
CROWD: You don’t get no peace!
The workers aren’t alone in their fight, though, as they were joined last Friday by dozens of student demonstrators, including members of Students Organizing for Labor Rights, aka SOLR. Weinberg senior Julian Fefer was one of the members present and says students can play a vital role in supporting workers during this negotiation process.
JULIAN FEFER: We have the positionality and the privilege as students to take actions that can put pressure on different aspects of the university than the workers themselves are positioned to.
SOLR collaborates directly with the workers and helps on outreach to make students aware of events like November 1st’s picket and with opportunities for mutual aid events such as quarterly packages for workers containing requested supplies and cash contributions. Fefer and other students on campus aren’t going anywhere.
FEFER: We’re not going to stop organizing until the workers’ demands for fair wages and just working conditions are met. Regardless of what narrative Compass tries to spin, talk to your campus workers and they’ll tell you that they need student support more than ever.
Because, as Fefer argues, workers are and should be included in the care and good treatment that is expected for the rest of the “campus community.”
FEFER: Our entire college experience would be impossible without the work of campus workers. They make our meals, they clean dining halls, they take meticulous care of academic buildings and our dorms.
As contract negotiation continues on between Local 1 and Compass Group, the workers are hopeful for the bright future they deserve. It’s a rough road to a fair contract, but it’s a familiar one they are willing to tread again. Here’s Brown:
BROWN: Going through this before, it’s like, when we stand together, fight together, we organize and mobilize, we win.
Compass Group responded to WNUR News’ requests for comment on Friday November 8th, and wrote the following.
Compass Group has been actively negotiating in good faith with UNITE HERE Local 1 since May 28, 2024, in an attempt to reach an agreement prior to the existing agreement expiration of August 31st 2024. While we have made meaningful progress during our nine negotiation sessions, we have yet to finalize an agreement.
Compass Group has requested dates to negotiate with Unite HERE Local 1 for the entire months of November and December, however Unite HERE Local 1 has only agreed to meet on two dates. In addition, Compass Group approached Unite Here Local 1 with a contract extension agreement and the extension was declined by Unite Here Local 1. We remain dedicated to reaching a fair and mutually beneficial collective bargaining agreement that provides meaningful increased wages and benefits to our associates.
As negotiations remain ongoing, currently no further pickets have been planned.
MAN ON MEGAPHONE: People wanna know…
CROWD: People wanna know…
MAN ON MEGAPHONE: Who we are!
CROWD: Who we are!
For WNUR News, I’m Sophia Casa.
MAN ON MEGAPHONE: So we tell them…
CROWD: So we’ll tell them…
CROWD: We are the union!
MAN ON MEGAPHONE: Mighty, mighty union!
CROWD: Mighty, mighty union!
