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Two dozen Chicago Public Schools’ lunchroom workers and their supporters were cited for obstructing traffic Thursday during a rally to draw attention to protracted negotiations over pay and staffing levels.
UNITE HERE Local 1, the union representing roughly 1,700 CPS lunchroom workers, planned the rally and civil disobedience outside district headquarters as negotiations over a new union contract have surpassed 10 months. Now, both sides have agreed to get a federal mediator involved, CPS and the union confirmed.
The rally attracted more than 200 participants.
The group first gathered at Daley Plaza around 4 p.m. and chanted slogans such as, “Overworked and underpaid, that’s how your kids’ food gets made.”
By 5 p.m., the large group walked a couple of blocks to CPS headquarters at 42 W. Madison St., where people held up signs, played drums, and chanted while filling up a bus shelter and sidewalk outside of the building. Pedestrians looked on as roughly two dozen people set up metal chairs in the middle of Madison Street and sat down.
After a few minutes, Chicago Police ushered each person away with their hands behind their backs behind a nearby building, where police wrote tickets.
One of the people cited was Stephanie Martin, a lunchroom manager who has worked in CPS schools for 27 years. She said she earns about $1,200 every two weeks. After she pays her bills, she typically has nothing left. As of Thursday, she had 10 cents in her bank account, she said.
“I’m not hopeful about what CPS is going to do,” she said.
The contract negotiations are happening as CPS faces a possible $520 million deficit next school year. In a statement, the district said it values its lunchroom employees and is committed to reaching “a fair and sustainable deal.”
About 60% of lunchroom workers work fewer than eight hours a day and are not full-time, according to CPS.
UNITE HERE has said its workers are the lowest paid in CPS, and starting pay for their lunchroom attendants is just under $17 an hour, which is about $4 less than starting pay for custodians. The union is pushing for hourly pay that at least matches that of custodial workers.
The union is also trying to beef up staffing. A WBEZ analysis found the district has 20% fewer lunchroom workers compared with five years ago. About half of lunchroom workers surveyed by the union last fall said they have trouble paying for basic needs, and about one-fifth said they have visited food banks.
During her daily six-hour shift, Laura Najera, a lunchroom attendant at Ella Flagg Young Elementary School, prepares bags of breakfast and other snacks for the kids. Sometimes she helps take out trash or does the dishes if other employees are out, even though that’s not in her job duties, she said.
In order to make ends meet, Najera said she works at a dog shelter some days after she gets off work at school. Some weeks she only has about $20 left for groceries after paying her other bills and buys instant noodles for meals.
“I do (the job) because I like being with the kids,” said Najera, who attended Thursday’s rally. “But obviously it would be a lot more helpful if I could also live off of that paycheck.”
Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.
