Aramark Food workers arrested during demonstration for better pay and health benefits

Philadelphia, PA – Members of UNITE HERE Local 274 gathered outside Aramark’s headquarters on June 12 for a civil disobedience demonstration to draw attention to their fight to secure new contracts with better pay and health benefits.

Workers were joined by community allies and union members from other cities, including Boston, Washington, D.C., and New York.

Aramark cooks, bartenders, servers, dishwashers and concessions workers have held multiple pickets and rallies in recent months over the company’s treatment of workers and as part of a campaign to win improved health care coverage and family-sustaining wage increases. Food service workers at the Sports Complex in South Philadelphia — which includes the Wells Fargo Center, Lincoln Financial Field and Citizens Bank Park — earn significantly less than stadium food service workers in other major cities and only a few of the staff at the Sports Complex are eligible for employer-sponsored health care despite the fact that hundreds work for Aramark year-round.

At least 45 Aramark food workers were arrested during the demonstration.

“I feel good,” said Samantha Spector, who works several jobs at Philadelphia sports arenas, about her decision to get arrested. “We have people from other cities come down here supporting us. Other Aramark workers are going through the same thing that we’re going through. Aramark is a billion-dollar company and can afford to pay workers a living wage and [provide them with] health care.”

(AFL-CIO)