Veronica Reyes has worked as a food service cashier at Northwestern for 15 years. She thought the University would be her home for life. The hospitality workers’ union member planned on working there until retirement and raising her children in the calm of Evanston, a place that felt like home. However, as insurance, mortgage and utility bills rise faster than her salary, she has started to wonder if that dream is slipping away.

“I was told this would be a place for me to live until God takes me,” Reyes says. “But things are getting so expensive, and what we’re making is not enough.” 

As the cost of living in the Chicago area has increased in recent years, Reyes took it upon herself to join the fight for a fair living wage. It’s a battle not just for herself, but for her coworkers, her family and even the students who have become like a second family to her.

Late on Thursday, the workers’ union UNITE HERE Local 1 voted to authorize a strike for a contract that guarantees better wages, healthcare benefits and long-term job stability. In August, the workers’ contract with their employer, COMPASS Group expired; the lack of a new contract leaves workers’ financial security and well-being hanging in the balance. 

Reyes’ mortgage went up by $400 dollars in January. Alongside her son’s college tuition, groceries and other living expenses, she says her $21.68 wage has become untenable.  

“I have seen a lot of families who have moved from Evanston because it’s expensive, but now everywhere is expensive,” she says. 

She says it has been difficult to figure out how to pay for things, especially because her husband and many other hospitality workers are only employed by Compass during the academic year. Even with her husband driving Uber during the off-season, they have had to move money around to make ends meet. 

“I have to use my credit card sometimes to cover expenses, especially because we don’t work all year round,” Reyes says. “It really affects us a lot because it’s not just me, it’s my husband too.” 

With the increased cost of products, especially for essential items, workers like Reyes want an improved pension plan, increased wages and guaranteed job security to counter the negative impact inflation has had on their lives.

Reyes says negotiations had made no progress as of late January because the company refused to increase workers’ salaries to a livable wage. 

According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology livable wage calculator, the livable hourly wage for Cook County for two working adults with one child is $22.94. 

“We are very dedicated to our jobs,” Reyes says. “We’re hard workers, and I wish they appreciated this more.” 

The union is also demanding an increase in pension, as workers say the small amount allocated to retirement will not allow them a comfortable standard of living.

For most wage workers, the current amount is so little that many cannot even consider retiring as they approach their 60s and 70s. If they do choose to retire, workers are faced with the difficult decision of moving out of the Chicago area because their pensions are not proportionate to the cost of living. 

Reyes says seeing her older coworkers struggle is something that motivates her to fight for a better contract that will “protect our future.”

“They should be relaxing at home, watching a novella or a movie,” she says. “Working is a big responsibility: to go every day, especially when you’re aging.”  

Job stability is also top of mind. Union leader Valentina Espinosa has been working at Northwestern for 20 years. She currently works as a catering attendant on the downtown campus. She says she and her coworkers worry they will lose their jobs when there are changes within the company and Northwestern administration. 

“It’s a very grave stress that we suffer,” she says. 

On Feb. 24, the City Council passed a worker retention ordinance, indirectly securing job stability for Northwestern hospitality workers. 

Other contract demands from the workers may still be reached through negotiations. Health insurance, for example, is another issue of contention. Providing health insurance can be a heavy burden for employers, but many hospitality workers rely on the company-provided insurance for medical expenses. This is especially true as employees age and need increasing coverage for medication, surgeries and more. 

At a basic level, unionized workers see the fight for a fair contract as a fight for respect and recognition from the company and University. 

“We know that they make a lot of money. We aren’t blind. We see the construction they are doing,” Espinosa says. “They are making a new building and they’re building the stadium. The money is there. They have money to invest. Why don’t they invest in us?” 

In early November, a picket line of Northwestern food service workers could be seen alongside Sheridan Road. They brandished signs that read “NO CONTRACT” and “Unite Here” and repeated the call-and-response: “If we don’t get no contracts … You don’t get no peace.” This effort by the Northwestern hospitality workers union was aimed at pressuring Compass Group to bend to their demands for a new contract. 

Members of the student group Students Organizing for Labor Rights (SOLR), a student activist group that advocates for better conditions for campus workers, were also involved with the picket. SOLR recognizes the hospitality and food service workers employed by Compass Group and represented by UNITE HERE Local 1 are essential for the success of the University as a whole. 

SOLR member and Weinberg fourth-year Julian Fefer emphasizes the group is not directly involved in negotiations, but that members of SOLR are in a unique position to advocate for workers.

“As students, we see the immense wealth of this university, and also hold the ongoing mistreatment of workers against Northwestern and Compass both,” Fefer says. “They have the resources to properly treat workers, and we recognize that, and the community recognizes that … They have the power to stop this.” 

The fight for a fair contract at Northwestern is about more than wages and benefits; it’s about dignity, respect and solidarity. For workers like Reyes and Espinosa, whose livelihoods hinge on the outcome, the stakes are deeply personal. 

“We give our lives for the students and people that are coming from other countries. We deserve to be treated with dignity,” Espinosa says. 

Editors’ Note, March 3, 2025 at 11:52 AM: An earlier version of this piece did not clarify that certain aspects of the negotiations being discussed were characteristic of the situation in late January. The piece has been changed to reflect this, and we’ve also updated the language of “living wage” to “livable wage” for additional clarity.