By Brendan O’Reilly
Early Monday morning when a Lackmann employee anxiously approached him asking for help organizing a rally, University student Jimmy Aquino knew he had to do something.
“Some of these workers are our parents,” Aquino said.
Other Lackmann employees, approximately 90 percent of which were born in countries other than the US, wanted to show solidarity with the national pro-immigrant protests underway around the country, but they could not take the day off.
The worker asked Aquino, who heads the University’s Organization of Latin Americans (HOLA) if he would help him organize an impromptu demonstration in the Student Center, joining the hundreds of thousands of people around the country that skipped school and work Monday as part of a national effort to stand for immigrant rights.
A small group of Lackman employees joined approximately 20 University students in the atrium for a midday demonstration.
In Spanish they chanted, “People united cannot be defeated” and “Our struggle doesn’t stop at the borders.”
Lackmann employees left the demonstration after about 10 minutes when public safety arrived.
The protest paused temporarily, and students continued without the employees after Aquino spoke with Ed Bracht, the University’s director of public safety.
“At first they were telling us no,” Aquino said. He reminded Bracht that they had a right to protest, and they were allowed to continue.
Employees working in places on campus other than the Student Center were not able to stray from their posts.
“I would have loved to participate in it,” said an eight-year Lackmann veteran, who asked to remain anonymous. “I didn’t want to risk my job.”
Another Lackmann employee who works in the Student Center said she immigrated to the United States 25 years ago because she needed a good job to afford to eat and support her family.
She became a citizen and raised her children in America. She said she would have liked to participate in May Day demonstrations, but she needs her job.
She has been working for Lackmann for eight years.
Watching Monday’s Student Center demonstration from afar was the closest she would get.
Only one of Lackmann’s 210 employees at the University missed work. That employee asked for the day off two weeks in advance.
“There was no single employee that missed work for any other reason than just personal,” said Eisa Shukran, the director of Lackmann Culinary Services at the University.
“I didn’t think it was going to be an issue because of the employees’ dedication and tenure,” Shukran said. “They are hardworking individuals and have a sense of loyalty and consideration for the campus.”
Lackmann has a no-strike, no-walkout clause in its contract with the employee union.
Shukran said he does not believe that the contract was why employees did not walk out.
Their contract does not bar employees from being a part of on campus protests on their own time, he said.
“I’m sure they weren’t on the clock,” Shukran said of the 15 Lackmann employees that participated in the Student Center demonstration.