American University students in Washington, D.C. are staging multi-day sit-ins and protests to stand in solidarity with campus employees who are contracted under Aramark. The protests are spearheaded and organized by the Justice for AU Workers Coalition and AU Student Worker Alliance, an on campus organization under the national coalition of United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS).
The movement is in a response to the multiple worker’s rights abuses that have taken place under Aramark at American University. Over the years, both Aramark and American University had many worker’s rights scandals that were met with pushback from the students, including cutting employee’s hours—that were later restored—to managers using racial slurs, to overworking janitors and housekeepers to the point of serious injury, and to forgetting to acknowledge the death of a well-liked dining employee.
On September 6, American University students gathered at the steps of the Mary Graydon Center, the building that holds the Aramark management office. The protest was originally to be centered around addressing the recent hospitalization of Alba Vigil, a housekeeping staff member and to demand that Josselyn Ebanks, who works in the food service sector of Aramark, get her hours back after being forcibly removed from campus on January 28.
However, Ana Ebanks, Josselyn’s mother, was fired for missing 40 minutes of work due to attending class at Washington College of Law only a few days after the original protest was organized.
According to an article in The Eagle, American University’s student run newspaper, Ana Ebanks was a public defender in Honduras who fled her country due to a violent political climate. She is currently studying at American University’s Washington College of Law in hopes to become an attorney.
This is not the first time the Ebanks family has faced trouble with Aramark. When Josselyn was removed from campus, many student activists believed it was because she was targeted by the company supervisors for filing a complaint against another supervisor, Jackie Wilson.
Wilson allegedly threatened Ebanks multiple times and slashed her tires. Ebanks was later reinstated after students and activists pressured the university, but she has yet to receive her schedule.
Liberation interviewed attendees before the official rally began. Jake Flum, a Junior at American University attended the protest because he is interested in learning more about the issue and meeting the people who organized the protest in hopes to start his own activist organization on campus. He found that it was “incredible” for AU students to be speaking out about these issues, “[For AU student activists] to say ‘this doesn’t affect me personally, but it affects the people around me and I have a social responsibility to get out there and change that’, I think that’s incredibly awesome and admirable.”
The rally started with both students and workers—including Ana, Josselyn and her son—standing on the steps holding signs that said “Justice for Ana” and “Fight For a Better Contract.”
Emma-Claire Martin of AU Student Worker Alliance opened up the rally. She pointed out that Aramark’s contracts are up for negotiation all across the country and stressed on the necessity of the negotiations of American University, stating “Right now we are a university where at least 15 workers cannot retire because they weren’t given pension.”
Ana and Josselyn Ebanks both spoke at the rally. “Today is for me, tomorrow will be for other workers,” stated Ana. Josselyn acknowledged that Aramark may be using intimidation tactics to silence the workers. “This is an attempt to shoot us down” she said. She asked for support since both she and her mother are unemployed, “Aramark is evil, they are evil, they are the most evil company I have ever seen” Ebanks said. “They will continue to fight me and I will continue to fight too.”
Other workers spoke at the rally including Ms. Christine Hamlett-Williams who is a cashier at the P.O.D. minimart. She has been working at American University for 35 years. She also acknowledged the possibility of intimidation tactics, “We can’t speak out or say anything unless we get retaliated on.”
Hamlett-Williams stood in solidarity with Ana, arguing that Ebanks begged to get the day that she had class off, but her request was not approved. She then stressed the importance of Ebanks getting her job back. “Her daughter needs her job as well. Like each and every worker does here. Students, your parents are working for you to come to school and get a good education. So when you come, we’re here, giving you are all that we have. But we stand between management and you all. Because we are here to give you all that you deserve.”
Carlos Vera, an AU alum who started the #ExploitedWonk campaign that went viral to raise awareness about worker’s rights violations at AU acknowledged that there has been a lot of progress. “One of the reasons why I think Aramark is fighting back is they got their ass kicked last year,” he said.
After the rally closed, students and workers marched through MGC to the office of Kenneth Chadwick, the resident district manager of Aramark at American University to read the delegation’s statement demanding justice for the Aramark workers. Chadwick was nowhere to be seen so the students and workers spontaneously staged a sit-in until Chadwick arrived.
Instead, there were two Aramark managers in the office. Students attempted to take photos of the managers but they promptly blocked their faces with spare T-shirts and sweatpants. Shortly after, they declared public safety to clear the crowd. Students refused to move, but were ordered to make space for fire safety reasons.
While waiting for Chadwick, the students demanded justice for Ana. One student pointed out that if they are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to attend American University, Aramark should at least treat their workers right.
On the third day of the protests, September 8, the students gathered again at MGC steps in smaller numbers but still militant and full of passion. They marched through MGC again to Chadwick’s office chanting “No justice, no peace” and “If we don’t get it, shut it down!” Many food service workers cheered them on.
Upon reaching Chadwick’s office they found that it was closed, with no one in it and the sign designating who the office belonged to was taken down. Instead they went out into the general dining area and handed out petitions demanding justice for Aramark workers.
Aleisha Bynum, a sophomore at American University who has been attending the multi-day sit-ins, said that when they were freshman they lived in a dormitory hall where the residents would not clean up after themselves.
“Learning about how much the workers have to do already and then the added work that we give them just by not caring about the mess we leave behind, that was just really infuriating to me.”
Bynum also mentioned the stories that came out last year of custodial workers being injured on the job, including a woman who had a miscarriage because she was overworked by her managers.
What made them want to get involved in the movement was the presence of student apathy and how managers used that apathy to further abuse the workers.
“I think people of tired of the AU administration not caring. It’s kind of a frustration because you think ‘if we do a lot of stuff eventually it will culminate in some sort of action’ but unfortunately nothing has happened.” Bynum believes this is why students are becoming more active so they can rally more support.
Students and workers plan to sit in the office of Kenneth Chadwick everyday until Ana Ebanks is reinstated.
