REHIRE ADAN WIN: A retrospective on the semester long campaign

On Feb. 26, students across the 5Cs celebrated the long-awaited announcement of the rehiring of Adan Campos, a former Pitzer College dining worker of over nine years who Pitzer had unceremoniously fired during the renewal period of his DACA status in February 2023. Now, after a year of actions put together by the Claremont Student Worker Alliance (CSWA), including a boycott and picket line during Pitzer’s family weekend, Pitzer administration agreed to rehire Campos into the next open-to-public dining position at McConnell.

Soon after the announcement, CSWA organized a party to celebrate the hard earned victory, in honor of Campos and everyone who had fought for the rehiring. During the celebration, Campos thanked all the attendees in a heartfelt speech.

“Whenever we work together for what is right, we’re unstoppable,” he said, to cheers. “So thank you guys. For the support, for showing up, for those delegations, for being there.”

Campos has received work authorization through the DACA program since graduating highschool a decade ago. As a DACA holder, he must renew his status every two years. However, in 2023, when he began his usual renewal process, the process moved slower than expected, and he was left without valid documentation for an extended period of time. One month out from when his renewal would be complete, Pitzer dining services’ management agency, Bon Appétit, suddenly discharged Campos. 

Campos had been a worker at Pitzer since 2015. Having grown up around the 5Cs, he had always felt connected to the schools, and considered his coworkers and Claremont community his family.

Over the years, he pitched the idea of many student favorite meals at McConnell including the mac and cheese bar, french toast bar and poke bar while working his way up from the entry level position of Chef I to the highest chef position available, Chef III. 

Eventually, after encouragement from management, he took a promotion, hoping to learn new skill sets to be even more useful in the kitchen. However, after being promoted, his employer shifted — instead of Pitzer College, it was now Bon Appétit. Campos was now at risk without contract protection, which only applied to Pitzer union workers. This came to be a problem once issues with his documentation arose.

Campos’ co-workers were baffled by his sudden absence from the kitchen. None of them were given any concrete information as to why Campos had been fired.

“He moved from Pitzer to Bon Appetit, and he was a sous chef for about two years,” said Jose Paso Ochoa, one of Campos’ coworkers. “And then he was let go and nobody knew why he was let go. We saw him coming into work and then he was gone.”

Over the next 10 months, Campos reapplied for entry level positions at McConnell three times and was denied outright every time for a variety of reasons: including that he was “overqualified,” that his past as part of the management team constrained him, or that the positions were internally filled already — despite the fact that McConnell was at the time (and continues to be) understaffed.

Students and workers got together to protest Campos’ firing, putting together a yearlong escalation campaign to put pressure on Pitzer to rehire Campos.

The campaign began to come together on Aug. 1, when a group of Campos’ coworkers pressed for Campos’ rehiring by delegating to Pitzer’s Human Resources office. They delivered a petition with 70 signatures from Pitzer staff members in support of Campos. Despite this, Pitzer denied Campos once more. This was when Campos contacted CSWA for help, and the alliance began to mobilize, launching the Rehire Adan campaign on Sept. 2. 

“Pitzer has claimed they are concerned about the future of DACA if Trump is elected, and has said that Adan is overqualified for the role, as reasons for not rehiring him. We know these are BLATANT ANTI-IMMIGRANT LIES.” CSWA said in an Instagram post calling for petition signatures.

Still, Pitzer College refused to respond.

On Dec. 3, CSWA tabled outside of Pitzer’s Giving Tuesday event. Tabling members handed out flyers and recapped Campos’ story, asking parents, alumni and graduating students alike to withhold donations to Pitzer until the administration agreed to rehire Campos.

CSWA also led a boycott of the McConnell dining hall for a combined five days, including during Parent’s Week, creating a picket line to put financial pressure on Pitzer College. 

CSWA posted on Instagram to explain the reason behind this targeted boycott.

“We are BOYCOTTING because Pitzer still hasn’t rehired Adan. With an impending anti-immigrant presidency around the corner, it’s more important than ever to get Adan the protections of a union job,” read the post. “By costing them money, we let them know we’re not going to let them keep making the same excuses over and over again. Let’s show them what community looks like!”

Students and workers involved in the Rehire Adan campaign made continuous delegations to Pitzer administration. There were a total of five delegations, with one of the biggest being on Feb. 7, when 19 students delegated to the Pitzer Board of Trustees during their meeting. 

Campos saw the boycott combined with the disruption to the Board of Trustees as the tipping point of the campaign.

“Once students started boycotting and they saw that they were losing money, I feel like they took us more seriously. Because at the end of the day, you know, money talks,” Campos said. “With the Board of Trustees, that was the last straw. I feel like they were like, oh, have you guys not fixed that? […] It’s been almost a year.”

Finally on Feb. 25, Pitzer announced that Campos would be rehired into the next open-to-public entry level position at McConnell. 

After this decision went public, Campos received an outpour of support from the 5C community at large. On March 6, CSWA hosted a celebratory party of food and live music at Pitzer’s Grove House, where students, organizers and Campos himself gave speeches.

In a heartfelt speech, one organizer detailed the timeline of events, laying out the motivations behind CSWA becoming involved. 

“Everybody around [Adan] could just see what this was. Plain and simple. It was unjust, it wasn’t right. And this is not a community that’s gonna let that stuff slide,” they said. “And so as students, we knew that we had to use our voices, use our privilege, use our position.”

Attendees reaffirmed their commitment to CSWA’s mission and reminded each other of their reason to continue fighting for workers’ rights.

“We’re building and maintaining our relationships with workers and students on campus to ensure that we’re ready to respond and support whatever comes ahead,” they said. “This fight has made it clear that when we refuse to accept the narratives from administration, and we organize, we can create action, and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”

Throughout the evening, people enjoyed the live band performances and spread of good food. 

“Get with your community and have fun together […] while you’re also fighting for shit,” said one party attendee.

In an interview after his speech, Campos explained how much of a relief it was to finally be able to put an end to his year of hardship after hardship.

“I feel so much relief. It was a long battle, but after almost a year fighting against administration, [it] feels good to finally have that victory,” he said.

However, this victory is only one pitstop in the longer, continuing battle to protect all workers involved in the Claremont community. 

Pitzer painter Tommy Morales, who attended the party and gave a speech of his own, explained his hopes for how worker-administration relations can be improved.

“The win is a relief, but doesn’t mean it’s time to sit down: we’re still in the middle of things. I mean, it may seem like it’s all good, but there’s still issues that [need] to be addressed between the workers [and] management,” he said. 

“My goal as a union member, as a shop steward here at Pitzer is to get management and the union together on the same page,” Morales said. “We’re so aligned. It’s ridiculous. […] We could be facing each other and working together, but instead our backs are to each other and we’re making everything so difficult.” 

Throughout the past year of employment uncertainty, Campos has been seeking jobs with various different employers.

“I’m working right now at Cal Poly Pomona [and] at [Azusa Pacific University] as a cook. So I have two jobs right now. I gotta pretty much make up for the whole time that I wasn’t working, because I maxed out my credit cards and everything. I gotta do two jobs right now, but I’m catching up. I’m catching up,” he laughed. “Hopefully by the end of the month I’m good with everything and just have one job. [Having two], it’s a lot of work on the body and the mind.”

At the date of writing this, Campos is still awaiting a new cook position to open up at McConnell. 

Despite this, Campos reflected on how touched he was by how many people came together and bonded over this fight.  

“Instead of [the administration] separating us, this brought us together stronger,” he concluded.