PHILADELPHIA — “We want to be treated fairly and with respect,” Lori Gibson, one of hundreds of UNITE HERE Local 274 members on the picket line here on strike against Aramark April 25, told the Militant. They were picketing at the gates leading to the Wells Fargo Center where the National Basketball Association playoff game that night between the Philadelphia 76ers and the New York Knicks was taking place.
The union announced it would be picketing “until further notice.” Strikers protested outside the following playoff game April 28.
Some 400 concession staffers, bartenders, cooks and maintenance workers voted 92% in March to strike after their contract expired. This giant sports complex in South Philadelphia has three venues — Wells Fargo; Citizens Bank Park, where the Phillies play; and Lincoln Financial Field, the Eagles’ football stadium. Many of the workers are part time and work jobs at two or all three of the venues.
Workers told the Militant they should get the same hourly rate no matter which venue they are working, and all those hours should collectively count toward getting health care and overtime pay.
They also described harsh working conditions. One of the favorite chants on the picket line is, “My neck, my back, my paycheck is whack!”
Aramark has only offered a 25 cents pay increase. “That’s what I’m talking about when I say no respect,” said Gibson, who has worked as a prep cook there for three years. “Are you kidding me?”
Aramark is also in negotiations with UNITE HERE over contracts at CBP and the Eagles’ stadium. Local 274 is demanding that workers with 750 hours a year across all three venues should be eligible for health insurance. Aramark is demanding 1,500 hours.
Elizabeth Plepis has worked 20 years as a bartender and server at CBP and picks up hours at Wells Fargo, where she makes less per hour. “I’m working part time because I was taking care of a family member with cancer and Alzheimer’s. What else could I do?” she asked, passing out union flyers to drivers through the gates. “The truckers always honk in support,” she said.
“I have been getting fist-bumps,” said Makel Bevins, a 28-year-old student at the Community College of Philadelphia who works at a concessions stand. “They ask me why we’re on strike. To me, the demand for health care coverage is the most important.” Fewer than 20 of Aramark workers at Wells Fargo have year-round health insurance.
UNITE HERE put up a billboard on I-95, a major interstate running parallel to the sports complex, with a “countdown” to the strike deadline.
“People shouldn’t have to choose between paying bills, for groceries or seeing a doctor,” Gibson told the Militant. “But as my grandmother used to say, ‘We can have a pity party, or we can do something about it.’”
The strikers need solidarity, from the other 1,900 workers at Wells Fargo, represented by another 11 unions, and working people elsewhere. For information on picketing or to send messages of solidarity, contact UNITE HERE Local 274, 1415 N. Broad St., Suite 219, Philadelphia, PA or call (215) 232-3145.