Sixty-five Northwestern students met at Foster-Walker Complex and walked the half mile to 2020 Ridge Ave., where Procurement and Payment Services and Facilities Management are located, to deliver a petition with more than 550 signatures Wednesday, according to Weinberg senior Julián Fefer. 

The petition was organized by Students Organizing for Labor Rights in support of Northwestern dining hall workers, who authorized a strike last week in hopes of securing a fair contract with Compass Group to guarantee job security, fair wages and an acceptable pension.

“I think it’s definitely important to recognize that we as students have privilege and we need to use that privilege for the betterment of our Northwestern community because our workers are, of course, a part of our community,” Weinberg sophomore and SOLR member Zeta Whitmer said. “Without the workers, we wouldn’t be able to have our life as students because they are such an integral part of the Northwestern community.”

Whitmer recently joined SOLR after hearing about the group during one of her classes.

Having been involved in activism throughout her time in high school and college, Whitmer said this was one of the most exciting moments of her activism career so far, “100% because of the workers.”

“(The workers) brought up that they can see us as their kids, this is their family,” Whitmer said. “As students, we don’t often appreciate the stuff that the workers do for us and I think that moment really put that into perspective for a lot of students.”

Prior to delivering the petition, the students had the chance to listen to workers share their experiences and the importance of presenting a united front amid contract turmoil. 

Medill senior and SOLR member Sam Bull said being able to hear directly about workers’ experience with mistreatment was very powerful. 

“It’s really tangible because these are people that we see everyday,” Bull said. “They were reiterating through their experiences and the things that they’re fighting for. You can see the faces of the people that you’re trying to do anything you can to be in solidarity with and support.”

After listening to the workers, the students walked to 2020 Ridge Ave. There was “motivation and anger” on the walk, Bull said, but also “positive energy and people supporting each other.”

The students intended to deliver the petition to Chief Operating Officer Luke Figora but weren’t able to find him, so they delivered the petition to another individual working in the office. 

The petition emphasized two messages: that SOLR wanted to hold NU accountable for allowing the mistreatment of workers on campus and that SOLR would not place blame on dining workers if they were to strike but would rather blame the University.

“There’s just such an obvious contradiction between what Northwestern claims to value and how it’s actually treating the workers that make up the foundation of its community, of our community,” Fefer, who is also a SOLR member, said. “As students, we’ve demonstrated that we won’t tolerate that, and we’ll continue to stand by workers as they demand their rights.”

Other students are also supporting the rights of dining workers. At Wednesday’s Associated Student Government meeting, the Senate voted in favor of passing emergency legislation to support campus food service workers.

With exciting developments this week, Fefer said, there are no plans to slow down advocating for dining workers. 

“We want to keep on taking actions that show just how much students care, because they do,” Fefer said. “We want to make sure that the people who are making decisions at this university get the message.”

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Twitter: @lmschroeder_

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