By Nyla Andrew
I’m a New Yorker to my heart and I don’t want to be forced to move. I work for Levy as a concessions lead at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and I ask myself, “How long can I live in New York making this wage?” I might be forced to go somewhere else because what I’m paid by Levy at Barclays is not doing it.
I was born and raised in Brooklyn to parents from Trinidad and Tobago, I’m a proud first-generation New Yorker. Unfortunately, Brooklyn is like Manhattan now. It’s scary seeing the difference in the people coming in. There’s no middle class in Brooklyn anymore. You only see the rich and the poor, and it’s sad. A lot of people I know are moving down south or even upstate because the cost of living is lower. With one job, and even with two jobs like me (I also do background work in TV which has slowed down due to the writers’ strike), we aren’t seeing the benefit of our labor. I want to hold on to my dream of staying in New York, but my rent has gone up to $2000 for a one-bedroom apartment.
The thing is, I like to fight for the underdog. I like to see everyone have an equal opportunity. I go to church, and it’s important to me. It means I like to be a leader if possible.
Barclays is a beautiful arena and I’m proud to have served thousands of fans as a concessions stand lead for four years. It’s not an easy job to keep up a high service standard at an arena that has as many as 19,000 seats, and we make sure everything is running properly and smoothly and make a happy experience for everyone. When employees are happy, everyone else is happy. I do my job to 100% of my ability and a lot of us do. But people want to be valued, and that value should show up in our paychecks.
Staffing the Barclays Center makes your life difficult. The only time we get to work consistently is during sports seasons and there’s one less now that hockey has left Barclays. We only get to work when there are events, and if an event gets canceled like LL Cool J, we don’t get paid. That’s why it’s so important we have proper living wages because we’re not guaranteed the work.
Even with my second job, I rely on getting health insurance help from the state. Health insurance is a basic need, not a want. Even though I’m healthy now, you never know what can happen to you. Preventative care is a necessity and working people deserve to get problems diagnosed and dealt with early. That’s why we’re fighting for more food service workers at Barclays to get employer-paid health insurance.
My coworkers and I are really serious about getting this raise. We’re not going to back down. We want the company to hear us because we’re not asking for anything that’s out of bounds. All we want is to come to work happy and afford to live in our homes. I want that satisfaction of coming home from work without worrying about paying for the train and how I’m going to pay for food or my credit card bills. I work so hard to keep up with the minimum payments because I cannot afford to pay for the interest rate.
Levy workers at Barclays need a raise! The only way people like me can stay in our great city is if we can afford the cost of housing, food and our bills. One way forward for me is joining with my union family at Barclays to demand higher wages. As food and beverage workers at Barclays we work for Levy and are members of UNITE HERE Local 100, the biggest food service union in the city. Together, we know we can achieve our goals because it’s what’s best for Brooklyn to thrive.
With our union, I know that we can win what we need. We don’t really want to strike, but we have no choice but to consider this step. We can’t afford to settle with what the company is offering because we won’t be able to live with those wages in New York City. This is why we’re taking a strike vote on July 17. Especially for people who’ve worked in the building since it opened, the “day 1” workers, this is a matter of respect and our livelihoods.
What happens here will have a big impact on all of us who work and live in Brooklyn. We deserve jobs that are enough to live on and stay in our neighborhoods. With so many upcoming games and concerts, we hope to have the support of the fans, performers, and athletes who make Barclays what it is. And should we have to go on strike, please come support our picket lines.
Nyla Andrews was born and raised in Brooklyn. She works as a concessions stand lead for Levy at the Barclays Center.
