‘ I WANT TO BE RESPECTED’
Minimum- wage protesters take fight to O’Hare
When Ethel Poindexter began working downtown at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in 1973, street parking was 10 cents an hour and she made $ 4.75 working in food services. Forty- three years later, she still works in the vast hospital complex, making $ 22.13 as a surgical assistant.
Poindexter says she loves her job, but that didn’t stop her from standing with about 100 protesters at Huron and McClurg as they demanded a minimum of $ 15 an hour.
“I want to be treated with dignity and respect,” said Poindexter. “I do a lot of back- breaking work.”
That’s what she and hundreds of other protesters were trying to prove in rallies across the country on Tuesday. The national “Day of Disruption” was planned by labor organizers in the Fight For $ 15, a movement to raise the minimum wage to $ 15 per hour. Strikes were planned by low- wage workers at 20 airports across the country, as well as walkouts at fast- food restaurants and a work stoppage by some Uber drivers.
At O’Hare Airport, hundreds of protesters lined the sidewalk between Terminals 2 and 3 holding signs, including one that read, “Taking off for better wages.” The crowd was a solid band of purple and gold — the colors of the Service Employees International Union, which backed the effort — right down to their hats, scarves, shirts and gloves.
An early morning demonstration outside a McDonald’s restaurant at 2005 W. Chicago led to several people being ticketed after they filled the intersection at Chicago and Damen, disrupting traffic.
Downtown, outside Northwestern Memorial, Poindexter and the other protesters marched along Huron to Lake Shore Drive, before ending on Chicago Avenue, where buses waited to take them to further protests at O’Hare, where a one- day strike of workers began at 10 p. m. Monday.
As many as 500 workers at O’Hare were expected to skip their shifts as janitors, security guards, baggage handlers, wheelchair assistants and other low- wage, non- union jobs at the airport to join picket lines outside the terminals, organizers said.
Kisha Rivera, an airplane cabin cleaner, said the protest was about more than money.
“I want to be respected. I deserve to be paid more. It should be $ 15,” Rivera said.
Sue Dyke, waiting in the American Airlines wheelchair services center in Terminal 3, found that although service was a little slow, it was not an inconvenience.
“I usually have to wait about 15 minutes,” said Dyke, who usually flies twice a year. “Today it’s been about a half an hour.”
Just then, an American Airlines attendant approached with Dyke’s wheelchair.
“I think attendants need moremoney,” said Dyke.“I’m happy to have them strike for it.”
Elizabeth Satern, 27, arrived back in Chicago Tuesday morning after spending Thanksgiving inPalm Beach. She had no complaints about her return trip.
“We got here early,” Satern said.
Airlines at O’Hare said theywere ready for the strike.
Ald. Anthony Napolitano ( 41st) addressed the striking workers and said he recognized some fromhis ward.
“You need to listen to these people in order for this economic engine to function,” Napolitano said, as workers chanted “We Are American” and “Organizing is a right.”