Most Levy workers at Barclays don’t qualify for employer’s healthcare; majority Black and Latinx workers demand new union contract with raises to afford life in Brooklyn

WHO: Hundreds of mostly Black and Latinx suite attendants, concessions cashiers, bartenders, cooks, and other food service workers at the Levy-operated Barclays Center. They are members of the hospitality workers’ union UNITE HERE Local 100.

WHAT: A rally for a new union contract that addresses the wage crisis and inability to work enough hours to qualify for healthcare from Levy

WHERE: Dean Street between Flatbush Ave and 6th Ave

WHEN: Thursday, June 22 from 3:30-5:30 pm

WHY: Many of the Levy food service workers at Barclays Center who make NBA games, WNBA games, and concerts possible are paid less than $19 an hour, and the vast majority of workers don’t qualify for healthcare from Levy. Now Levy workers, whose contract expired August 31, 2022, are in negotiations for a new union contract, and are demanding wage increases and healthcare from their employer.

A majority of food service workers at Barclays Center are Black and Latinx Brooklynites, and many hoped a Levy job in the building would bring family-sustaining wages and benefits. As of April, only 66 Levy workers at Barclays got health insurance from Levy.

“Because I’ve been at Levy at Barclays since 2012, I’ve been able to see everything come together — a lot of it was off the back of the Brooklyn workers. I live in Brooklyn, I work in Brooklyn, I raise my daughter in Brooklyn. Based on the hours I put in, I don’t qualify for insurance from Levy. I receive Medicaid from the state. Being at a job for so long, I should have insurance for me and my daughter from Levy,” said Lashawn Saunders, who has worked at Levy at Barclays since it opened.