Repression, corruption, subversive action… while this may sound more like an authoritarian regime than a dining hall, these are all words used to describe the workers’ conditions in the last Aramark Worker Student Alliance (AWSA) meeting at the University of Chicago. Though the thousands of University members that frequent the dining halls daily normally don’t perceive the conflict, many students are trying to bring visibility to the workers’ struggle for a better working environment. Roughly a third of the campus dining hall workers have met with a group of students for the last three Saturdays, forming a basis of support for the workers in the renegotiation of a new contract with Aramark Inc., the university’s food service provider. Read the rest of this entry »

On October 30, campus workers voted not to accept the University of Chicago’s (UofC) new contract proposal. This decision prompted a plethora of witches, painful political impersonations, and other Belmont-bought costumed individuals to gather in front of the Administration Building on Halloween to protest the failure of the University to provide a fair agreement. Meanwhile, most UofC students seemed too consumed completing midterms and ditching their regularly chic outfits for “costumes” to notice the event’s chalkings and correspondingly were severely confused by the decorated crowd. In any case, the campus workers’ struggle exemplifies a continuing critical commentary on the University and the modern relationship between the employer and the employed. Read the rest of this entry »