On the fifth day of the Compass Group dining workers’ strike, members of Students Organizing for Labor Rights and the Chicago Federation of Labor assembled at The Arch early Friday afternoon to picket with the workers.
SOLR members arrived around 11:30 a.m. for a scheduled rally supporting the workers. Then, around noon, several local labor leaders spoke on the workers’ commitment to their jobs and Northwestern students as roughly 100 workers watched.
“You are such a special part of this school,” CFL Secretary-Treasurer Don Villar said to the crowd of workers. “This university can’t function — it’s not the same without you.”
Along with UNITE HERE Local 1 Executive Vice President Lou Weeks, CFL Chaplain Clete Kiley and Foster-Walker Complex dining worker Veronica Reyes, Villar took the microphone to laude the union workers and demand that Compass negotiate a new contract with them.
“Are you mad? Is it March?” Villar said. “It’s a different kind of March Madness here.”
Hundreds of NU dining workers employed by Compass Group, the University’s food service provider, began striking on Monday. Since then, the workers have picketed outside various dining halls and at The Arch from 6 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. each day.
Weinberg senior and SOLR member Julián Fefer joined roughly 20 students in a march with the workers Friday.
The group marched near The Arch, then past Foster-Walker and around the sorority quad. Students joined the workers to chant phrases such as, “Compass, Compass, rich and rude, we don’t like your attitude.”
“Their fight is incredibly inspiring, and they are the foundation of the campus community,” Fefer said. “This campus quite literally would not function without them.”
Fefer said he wants Compass to negotiate a new contract that provides the dining workers fair wages, decent pensions and job security.
The current strike is NU’s first ever foodservice and hospitality workers’ strike, according to Weeks. He also called for increased wages so workers could support their families.
“I know that lots of us would rather be at work feeding students and doing the work that we love than be on strike,” Weeks said. “But we are holding Compass to account.”
Weeks thanked the students in attendance for their support and said the dining workers and students were “chosen family.”
At a March 5 Associated Student Government meeting, the Senate voted in favor of passing emergency legislation to support campus food service workers.
Jacquelin Perez, who has worked for Compass for three years and currently works at Shake Smart, said Compass’s mistreatment and manager retaliation against some workers led them to strike.
“I have never, ever witnessed or endured any type of working conditions like I have working for Norris or Shake Smart,” Perez said.
She added that workers deserve increased compensation and a fair pension.
Sarah Lyons, the communications director for UNITE HERE Local 1, said the dining workers will continue to strike on weekdays, weekends and over spring break, until Compass negotiates a new contract with the union.
“Workers are still on strike for a fair contract,” she said. “The issues are still on the table. We’re still out here.”
Email: [email protected]
X: @IsaiahStei27
Related Stories:
— Dining workers go on strike early Monday morning in hopes of fair contract
— Dining workers reflect on their first day on strike
— Dining hall workers vote to authorize a strike late Thursday night
