Rosa Moreira started working in the concession stands at the United Center more than 20 years ago. She was happy to get a job at the venue where she was already a fan from bringing her own children to Chicago Bulls games and Disney on Ice shows.

“I want to give customers a great service and a smile just like I got when I used to come here and experience the whole United Center effect,” said Moreira, 54.

Today, she is one of about 700 concessions workers — cashiers, cooks, dishwashers and bartenders — preparing to go on strike at the United Center against Levy. The hospitality giant runs concessions at the United Center, Wrigley Field, Guaranteed Rate Field and numerous stadiums and venues throughout the country. Moreira and other employees are demanding higher wages and better healthcare benefits, especially after a pandemic that left many workers in precarious financial positions.

Workers in the Unite Here Local 1 chapter authorized a strike in a 98% “yes” vote last month. Last Friday members signed up for the $300-per-week strike benefit from the union just before a Bulls game that night.

Moreira said after not being able to work during the first year of the pandemic, she had to rent out her house. When the renters stopped paying rent and refused to leave, Moreira was forced to sell her home of 25 years. She makes just over $17 per hour selling pizza and fountain drinks at the United Center. She wants the next contract to include better healthcare benefits even for part-time and seasonal workers like herself.

• RELATED STORY
• Culture & The Arts

In Illinois, restaurant workers are taking aim at the ‘other NRA’

read more

Moreira said she knows of several colleagues without health insurance who have passed away due to health problems.

“We have a lot of people that have died because Levy [doesn’t] wanna give us health insurance,” she said.

A Levy spokesperson aid in a statement to WBEZ this week that “union leadership has not allowed [members] to vote on a significant package of health benefits and enhanced wages that is more than double the previous contract.” The company said its latest proposal includes wage increases of $4 to $5 per hour, with minimum starting pay at $20 an hour, and that it’s making it easier to qualify for health insurance. He added that the next bargaining session is scheduled for March 7.

Levy’s spokesperson also provided WBEZ with a letter to workers that said the union is stonewalling in part to get its way on issues unrelated to the contract.

A spokesperson for Unite Here Local 1 would not provide WBEZ with specifics on what it’s asking for from Levy.

Union steward Tawanda Murray said there are some parts of the contract proposals in which the parties have made some progress, but some in which they are “still far apart.”

“There’s several years of wages out on the table,” said Murray, who is part of the negotiating committee. “The wages that are currently on the table [are] not enough with these current times, with everything rising the way they are. Wage increase[s], health insurance and pension are major for us right now.”

She added that workers are worried about a recession.

Murray, an attendant at a grab-and-go market who has worked at the United Center for 28 years, said she currently qualifies for eight months of healthcare coverage.

“My medical conditions are all year round,” she said.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Levy runs concessions at McCormick Place and at hotels. Levy does not operate at those locations.

Esther Yoon-Ji Kang is a reporter on WBEZ’s Race, Class and Communities desk. Follow her on Twitter @estheryjkang.