How Two Years Of A Pandemic Sparked Action Among Cicero’s Essential Workers: “I Didn’t Feel Safe”
Illustration by Paintbristle
By Ankur Singh
Since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, essential workers across Cicero have engaged in strikes, walkouts, press conferences, and more advocating for safer working conditions as they worked throughout the pandemic while risking their and their family’s health.
Over the past two years, Cicero Independiente has reported on several of these actions. Early in the pandemic workers and allies at Bimbo Bakeries had a walkout and car caravan after two people at the factory died from COVID-19. Fast food workers at Chipotle spoke out about unsafe working conditions at the restaurant. Cafeteria workers at Morton West High School demanded wage increases after working throughout the pandemic. Nursing home workers at City View Multicare Center went on strike for stronger protections and higher pay.
In addition, workers at United Scrap Metal walked out of work demanding more safety after one of their co-workers died of COVID-19. On December 22, 2021 workers at Cicero’s Amazon warehouse staged a walkout shortly before Christmas that garnered national attention. Amazon workers shortly won pay raises after the walkout.
Nearly 110 workers at Breakthru Beverage located on Laramie Ave who are represented by Teamsters Local 710 were on strike fighting for higher wages, better benefits, and improved safety.
What’s happening in Cicero is historic, and it’s not just happening here. Workers across the country have been taking action since the pandemic started in huge numbers. The Industrial and Labor Relations Worker Institute at Cornell University documented 265 work stoppages in 2021 involving about 140,000 workers across the country.
In April 2022, Amazon workers at a warehouse in Staten Island won the company’s first union election. Over 100 Starbucks stores have also unionized this year.
Below meet three workers in Cicero who helped organize their workplaces during the pandemic, as part of the larger wave of worker actions happening at this moment.
Shantonia Jackson, CNA at City View Multicare Center
Shantonia Jackson stands outside of City View Multicare Center in Cicero,Ill on February 23rd, 2022 (Photo by Ankur Singh).
When Shantonia Jackson was 16 years old her grandmother passed away from colon cancer. Jackson said she’s always sought out a grandmother figure around her because she never had that grandmother image growing up.
“I always felt like it feels good to hug somebody and call them grandma,” Jackson said. “But it also feels good for an older person to know - if their loved one is not there to call them grandma, to hear that word grandma come from somewhere else. It's very important.”
That is why Jackson became a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) where she helps take care of the elderly. Since 2015 she’s worked at City View Multicare Center on Cermak Road.
During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, City View garnered headlines for having one of the largest outbreaks of the virus in the state. In May 2020, NBC Chicago reported that nearly 200 residents tested positive for COVID-19 and nine residents had died, sparking several lawsuits against the center for its lack of safety precautions.
Throughout this time, Jackson worried for her own health and the health of her daughter.
“We lived in a house together. I stayed upstairs on the second floor while she stayed in the basement because I worked on the COVID unit…she was scared like I was scared,” Jackson said.
After months of working on the frontlines of an unprecedented pandemic, Jackson and her co-workers went on strike on November 23, 2020 demanding higher wages and stronger pandemic protections such as PPE.
“I came to do that strike just to show that we are essential,” Jackson said. “People need us because everybody is going to get old. Everybody might get sick and everybody needs that proper care to die with dignity and respect.”
Nearly 800 workers, who are members of the Service Employees International Union, went on strike at 11 nursing homes owned by Infinity Management Management across the Chicago area including Ambassador Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Albany Park and Southpoint Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Longwood Manor.
According to SEIU, the new contract the workers won included significant wage increases, an additional 5 days of COVID-19 related sick time, PPE guarantees and other safety protections.
Prior to the strike Jackson made about $13 an hour. Today she’s making about $16 an hour.
“Just because we get paid low wages people don't think we are essential,” Jackson said. “We really are the most essential. We matter.”
Marissa Mills, teacher at Unity Junior High School
Marissa Hills outside of Unity Jr. High School on March 1st, 2022 (Photo by Ankur Singh).
In early January 2021, Marissa Mills, a 7th grade language arts teacher at Unity Junior High School, and hundreds of her fellow teachers at District 99 disobeyed their employer’s demand to return to teaching in-person and continued teaching remotely. It’s not that she didn’t want to return in-person. She did, but she also wanted her, her students and her co-workers to be able to return safely.
At the time the country was facing a winter surge in COVID-19 and vaccines were not widely available. Over 11,000 Cicero residents had tested positive for the virus, 164 people had died and the town had a positivity rate of over 12 percent, according to Cook County Public Health data.
“We cited a lot of CDC regulations that weren't being followed. We were asking for [safety] mitigations that weren't in place yet,” said Mills, who last year became the president of the Cicero Council, the union that represents nearly 1,100 teachers, nurses, clerks, and other District 99 employees. “We're not coming back until those things happen.”
Mills has been a teacher for 22 years and she loves her job. “The kids are, especially here in Cicero, pretty fantastic,” she said. “They're just funny. Every day is different. It's never boring.”
It was the relationships she had with her students that motivated Mills and many teachers like her to risk discipline rather than return to schools in what they determined were unsafe conditions.
Almost immediately District 99 filed an unfair labor practice charge against the teacher’s union, claiming the action was an illegal strike. The union filed charges against the district as well for failing to negotiate a safety agreement before demanding teachers return to in-person school.
During this time teachers and parents spoke at board meetings and spoke to the media about their demands for safer schools. They were demanding clear metrics of when it would be safe for teachers and students to return to school, regular cleaning, improved air filtration and adequate PPE.
“One of the things that I said over and over again, is that we can't have one person die, we can't lose one person,” Mills recalled. “I thought quite a bit about my own child, right? If something happens to me there's no one to take care of her, because it's just me.”
On January 27, 2021 a Cook County Circuit Judge ruled in favor of the teachers, saying that their action wasn’t an illegal strike and that the district can’t force them back in-person teaching. The ruling had ripple effects across the state, including in the Chicago Teachers Union battle with Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
Soon after District 99 put in the safety protocols the teachers had been demanding. HVAC systems were installed throughout schools across the district. Custodians and maintenance staff worked hard ensuring regular cleaning was happening, according to Mills.
After the safety mitigations were put in place, the teachers returned to school in-person in March of 2021, nearly a year after online learning had begun.
“Part of being a teacher, I think, is so much giving and service to other people that we have to stand in solidarity together, you have to stick together,” Mills said. “The fact that we were able to do as much as we did, and continue to do is pretty extraordinary.”
Yvette McCallum, Packer at Bimbo Bakeries
Yvette McCallum outside of Bimbo Bakeries factory in Cicero, Ill. on June 4th, 2022 (Photo by Ankur Singh).
Yvette McCallum remembers the early days of the pandemic in March 2020. She had been on medical leave for several months due to an underlying health condition. McCallum's doctor had recommended her employer Bimbo Bakeries provide her with a mask, frequent breaks to wash hands and to remain six feet away from others. When she asked for a mask, Bimbo Bakeries did not provide her with one right away.
McCallum originally shared these details in an article published by Cicero Independiente on April 7, 2020, where she and other Bimbo Bakeries workers shared stories and documentation of how the company was failing to follow Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) guidelines.
“I didn’t feel safe,” McCallum said.
After the Cicero Independiente article on April 7, 2020 was published, two workers at Bimbo Bakeries had died from COVID-19. Workers allege that the company attempted to retaliate against workers for speaking out instead of increasing safety procedures during a rapidly escalating pandemic.
“They [Bimbo Bakeries] called me and they asked me questions,” McCallum recalled. “They questioned everybody that was in the article.”
Shortly after two workers featured in the story, Gerardo Mello and Dennean Paul, were fired. On June 29, 2020 McCallum was fired too.
She immediately filed a grievance against the company, but according to her there has been very little progress and it has yet to go to arbitration.
McCallum believes her union is a corporate union that has close ties to management.
“It’s not a union for the people,” McCallum said.
This has led many Bimbo Bakeries workers to organize with an organization named Black Workers Matter who led many actions such as a car caravan and also hosted a vaccine clinic outside of the factory in spring 2021.
According to Black Workers Matter, safety has improved at the company since the pandemic started and workers continued organizing. There are more COVID-19 protection measures in place and wages have increased to attract more hires.
McCallum says she has no regrets and is still fighting to get her job back. She says she enjoyed the work and is ready to return as soon as she can.
“Most people don't do things because they are afraid of what may happen. But you can't live your life in fear,” McCallum said. “You cannot worry about what may happen, because there's always going to be a reaction to something that you do. You can't let it stop you from doing something, especially when you're pursuing something that's right.”
Ankur Singh is a co-founder and steering committee member. He is focusing on our efforts to become a 501c3 and developing our internal organizational infrastructure.
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