Strike Threat Nets Northwestern Workers Bigger Raises, Insurance

EVANSTON, IL — Food service and conference center workers at Northwestern University ratified a new contract Monday, nearly four weeks after they voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike.

Compass Group employees at Northwestern's Evanston and Chicago campuses had been without a raise since the expiration of their last collective bargaining agreement on Aug. 31, 2019. Compass began operating Northwestern's food service contract in July 2018.

The 364 workers are represented by Unite Here Local 1, which represents more than 15,000 hospitality workers in the Chicago area.

After about two dozen meetings, union officials did not send the company's "last, best offer" to its members for a vote ahead of a Sept. 1 ratification deadline, instead convening a strike authorization vote on Sept. 22 in which 95 percent of participants voted in favor.

Unlike the company's last offer, the new contract includes health insurance benefits for all workers, according to a statement from the union.

It said that Compass had not provided health insurance to 74 of 260 active, full-time employees in February — the first month where the 230 workers the company laid off when students switched to remote learning began getting hired back.

Evanston Patch has requested a copy of the new contract from union and Compass representatives and will update with any response received.

The company's previous offer included an immediate $2-per-hour raise, and by 2024, the average starting wage would rise above $18 per hour, according to Compass.

The recently ratified new deal includes a minimum hourly wage of nearly $20 an hour, according to the union.

“Yesterday, I only made $14.05 per hour. Today, I make $19.88,” Veronica Reyes, of Evanston, a dining hall cashier at Foster Walker Dining Hall with 11 years on the job, said in a statement. “I can finally help pay for my son’s college tuition.”

Compass employees at Northwestern previously earned an average of less than $28,000 a year, with an average hourly wages of less than $15.50 in the first quarter of the year, according to the union.

According to Compass' website, there are more than a dozen different types of unfilled hourly positions currently available at Northwestern's campuses.

“Now that these jobs pay much better," added Reyes, "we hope that Compass will fill all of their open positions so that we can better serve our students."

Related: Hundreds Of Workers On Northwestern Campuses Authorize Strike

Earlier this month, about a dozen students from the group Northwestern University Graduate Workers were initially confronted by private university security and prevented from entering the Kellogg School of Management, according to the Daily Northwestern. Another on-campus group, Students Organizing for Labor Rights, reportedly distributed about 2,000 "I ❤️ Campus Workers" buttons. And on Friday, about 15 Northwestern University students helped assemble more than 500 picket signs in anticipation of a potential strike, Evanston Now reported.

Compass workers expressed appreciation for the support they received from students ahead of the ratification of a contract.

“I want to thank all of our students who stood up for us like we were family," Lannete Smith, a food service worker and cashier at Norris University Center, said in a statement. "This has been a hard journey, but Northwestern students had our backs every step of the way.”