Delegations

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This afternoon, campus dining workers at Loyola University Chicago delivered petitions to their general manager demanding a fair process to form a union.  A worker organizing committee, which includes worker leaders from locations across Loyola and across shifts and departments, had been training and organizing underground over the recent months in preparation for today. The committee had about 70% of their workers signed on the petition they delivered.

“I am here because I want to have a voice on the job and to get more respect,” Carolina Aguilar said recently about why she is a member of the worker organizing committee. .

Danielle Wisnasky, a Loyola senior who has worked part-time in the cafeterias since she was a freshman and who is also part of the organizing committee, said, “As a student at Loyola, it is discouraging to work in an environment where the Jesuit mission is abused and overlooked.”

The campus dining workforce at Loyola comes from all over the world, with 16 different countries of origin. There are over 180 workers total, many of whom are immigrants and most of whom people of color. 

The committee leaders see their organizing not just as a way to change their jobs but also as a way to prepare to change the rest of their lives. “I want to be part of the organizing of the union because it will be something that will give us, all who are part of it, more life experience to know how to fight for anything we want,” said Eva Rangel.

Students and faculty have quickly begun mobilizing support for the workers. If you are a student at Loyola, you can sign a solidarity letter here. If you are a professor at Loyola, you can sign one here. There will also be a gathering of support on Wednesday, October 20 at 4 pm at the “Ashtray” on Loyola’s Lake Shore campus. [UPDATE 10/19: The event has been moved to St. Gertrude's Church at 6214 N. Glenwood, a short walk from campus.]

If you don’t go to Loyola at all but want to show your support for these workers as well as workers at all Catholic universities, sign our national solidarity letter here. 

We’ll keep you up to date as the organizing and solidarity efforts unfold.

Last Friday the food service workers at Sarah Lawrence College were officially recognized as UNITE HERE Local 100 members. 75% of the workers, employees of AVI Foodsystems, signed a union authorization card. This is a great victory for the workers who, along with food service workers at Hunter College and the University of Southern California, had to struggle to get it.  Next up for the Sarah Lawrence workers…contract negotiations. We’ll keep you up-to-date as that unfolds, and we’ll post video of worker and student reaction to the initial Sarah Lawrence victory soon.   

In the meantime, here's a repost of the student-worker delegation at Sarah Lawrence that preceded the workers winning a neuatrality agreement from AVI by one day: