REHIRE ADAN NOW: Workers and students organize after Pitzer fires DACAmented dining worker

On Sept. 23, 2024, Pitzer rejected Adan Campos — former dining hall cook of 9 years — for the third time after he applied for an entry-level position as a cook in McConnell. The reason why they dismissed his applications? He’d be “overqualified” for the job.

In February, Pitzer’s management agency Bon Appetit fired Campos while his DACA work authorization was in the process of being renewed. But by September, despite having all his documentation and the support of 70 of his former coworkers, Pitzer still refused to give him a fair chance to reapply for work.

Campos receives work authorization through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program, which protects immigrants who arrived in the U.S. under the age of 16 from deportation, which needs to be renewed every 2 years. Campos has been DACAmented since his high school graduation 10 years ago.

But after his DACA status expired in Dec. 2023, the renewal process took longer than expected. In February, just a month before the renewal process would eventually be completed, Bon Appetit fired Campos due to his DACA being invalid.

Campos’ former coworkers were shocked by his sudden dismissal. Many felt his treatment was unjust, and the union of dining, maintenance and facilities workers at Pitzer rallied in support of him. On Aug. 1, they led a delegation to Pitzer’s Human Resources office and delivered a petition with 70 signatures from Pitzer staff members. They demanded that Pitzer give Campos a fair chance to reapply.

After the initial petition received no response from HR, Campos asked for student support to get him a fair chance to reapply. Within a week, students gathered over 1,200 signatures, and on Sept. 27, a delegation of 40+ students accompanied Campos to HR to deliver the petition for his rehiring.

Being able to work at Pitzer means a lot to Campos, he told Undercurrents. He grew up in Montclair, “down the street” from Claremont, and Pitzer dining workers had become like his “family.”

“I grew up down the street. I would always run around the corner, from my house all the way to Foothill [Boulevard], all the way around the Colleges. So I’ve always been familiar with [the area]. I’m like, oh, I would like to work there when I grow up. And I finally got the chance,” Campos said. “It just sucks that after being here for like nine years, it all ended just like that.”

“I grew up down the street. I would always run around the corner, from my house all the way to Foothill [Boulevard], all the way around the Colleges… It just sucks that after being here for like nine years, it all ended just like that.”

The man behind the mac-and-cheese bar: Campos’ decade at Pitzer

For the past 9 years, Campos had worked as a chef at Pitzer. He started off in 2015 as an entry-level Chef I, and worked his way up gradually up to Chef III, the highest chef position available at McConnell. He was then encouraged by management to take a promotion to Sous Chef to further his career. 

Campos took the promotion in the hopes of learning new things and being able to cook more; however, the job actually focused more on managing the staff. Additionally, due to the shift from chef to management, he was no longer under Pitzer employment, and instead was now under the management agency Bon Appétit.

Even after being promoted to management, where he was expected to interact less with the staff, Campos helped out in any way he could.

“I see [dining staff] running around, if I can help, I’m gonna help them out, you know? It’s not fair. If I see them hustling, I’m gonna help ’em out,” he said. 

Working at Pitzer since he was 20, Campos had found his community amongst the 5Cs. He recalls discovering that family members and friends — including multiple uncles — were also spread across the Claremont Colleges and recognized him at work.

In his nine years at Pitzer, he saw the construction of several dorms and buildings.

“It’s pretty much like a community for me, like a family, you know? I pretty much saw the whole college grow little by little,” said Campos. “I feel like I’ve been growing with the college.”

Campos spoke proudly of his contributions to the McConnell menu — among others, he was behind the idea for the mac-and-cheese bar, the french toast bar, and the poke bar— and of his connection with the kitchen. The unrelenting pace of preparation and cooking suited his determined personality well, and he enjoyed the fast-moving pace of the kitchen at college dining halls.

Campos spoke proudly of his contributions to the McConnell menu — among others, he was behind the idea for the mac-and-cheese bar, the french toast bar, and the poke bar— and of his connection with the kitchen.

Campos’ bond with Pitzer dining hall staff showed in the way that one of his coworkers spoke to Undercurrents about him. He considers them a family away from family, and the sentiment seems to be returned.

“He was awesome. Honestly, he’s very knowledgeable,” said one dining hall staff member. “Whenever you asked Adan a question, he didn’t hesitate for a second to help you out, and he always had an answer, and when he didn’t, he would make sure he got one for you. But he was on top of everything. He knows his work, he knows his coworkers, he knows his team, and he knows what he’s doing.”

“They didn’t care”: Campos terminated without notice

In February, Bon Appetit fired Adan Campos without any notice during a normal workday citing his expired DACA.

Campos’ DACA usually took him two to three months to renew, but this time it took five. Campos told Bon Appetit that he was in the process of renewing his DACA, but they were unwilling to accommodate.

“They didn’t care. They’re just like, ‘Well, we gotta let you go, you know?’ And once I got it fixed, which was like a month and a half after I got terminated, they just didn’t wanna take me back.”

In Pitzer’s union contract, workers are provided a one-year protection from DACA expiration. Unfortunately, by getting promoted to a chef position, Campos was technically employed by Bon Appetit, not Pitzer, and did not have contract protection.

In Pitzer’s union contract, workers are provided a one-year protection from DACA expiration. Unfortunately, by getting promoted to a chef position, Campos was technically employed by Bon Appetit, not Pitzer, and did not have contract protection.

Some of Campos’ co-workers viewed his discharge as bizarre and shocking. When Bon Appetit terminated Campos in February, there was no explanation to his co-workers as to why he was fired. Management only said that Campos was fired due to “personal reasons.

“Nobody knew why he was let go. We saw him coming into work and then he was gone,” said Jose Ochoa, a Cook II at McConnell Dining Hall. “And then we have a super short meeting with the management and they let us know that he had to go because he had personal issues that he had to take out.”

Since Campos’ firing in February, he has worked through Instawork doing temporary jobs that pop up. He expressed his frustration with the lack of stability in his current employment status.

“It just sucks ’cause it’s not consistent,” Campos said. “Work is sometimes close by, sometimes it’s far. It just sucks. And sometimes it’ll be three times a week that I work, sometimes there’s nothing going on. So sometimes I go like a week without working and nowadays it’s expensive, going that long without working. I got my car payment and I got rent and I got bills.”

“I’m not getting a fair opportunity”: Campos’ three attempts to reapply

Campos attempted to apply as a cook three times in the span of 10 months, but Pitzer rejected for all three attempts — even though dining workers told Undercurrents that Pitzer dining halls were understaffed.

Campos first attempted to reapply in December 2023. He was still in his sous chef position in Bon Appetit at that time, but he expressed dissatisfaction with the job. A manager rejected his application, telling Campos he was “overqualified.”

“[They told me], ‘You’re too overqualified for the position. Your workers won’t wanna want you back. They’re gonna look at you weird because you used to be their manager.’ I’m like, I doubt it.” said Campos.

Campos reapplied again in May. Campos was working in the Pitzer dining hall through Instawork as a temporary cook, and Ochoa, who was planning to go on leave at that time, asked General Manager Miguel Menjivar if Campos could get his permanent job position back because the kitchen was understaffed and in need of more cooks.

Menjivar denied Campos’ request for the same reasoning as the first time — that Campos was overqualified.

“Jose [Ochoa] said,’ Hey, here’s your solution [referring to Campos]. You don’t have to teach him anything. He already knows how everything works.’ And that’s when we talked about if I could get my position back again and [manager] said the same thing, I’m too overqualified, this and that.”

“Hey, here’s your solution [referring to Campos]. You don’t have to teach him anything. He already knows how everything works.’ And that’s when we talked about if I could get my position back again and [manager] said the same thing, I’m too overqualified, this and that.”

The next day, Pitzer banned Campos on Instawork indefinitely from working at McConnell.

Most recently, in mid-September, Campos reapplied a third time, submitting his application to a job posting that was open to the public for a Cook I position.

On Sept. 23, Pitzer rejected Campos for the third time. An email that Pitzer’s Human Resources office sent to Campos claimed that the position was filled internally “as we are required to adhere to the CBA which specifies the prioritization of internal candidates.”

Undercurrents reached out to Pitzer College to ask whether McConnell Dining Hall was understaffed, why Pitzer had filled the Cook I position internally after opening it to the public, and how the Human Resources office took Campos’ workers’ petition into account.

In response, Pitzer spokesperson Wendy Shattuck provided a one-paragraph statement on behalf of the college.

“Adan worked with Pitzer from September 2015 until October 2022, when he accepted a position with Bon Appétit as a Sous Chef. Since then, he has had multiple opportunities to apply for available positions with Pitzer. In line with the union contract, the available roles he applied for at Pitzer were filled internally by other current employees. As always, Pitzer is committed to a fair and consistent hiring process for staff, while always adhering to the terms of the union agreement.”

Campos said the reasoning didn’t seem to make sense, as the listing was already public. The Pitzer union contract requires that Pitzer first post job postings to internal staff members; only when no one takes the job among the staff within a certain period, then are they open to the public for application.

“If they’re gonna open this to the public, that means no one actually took it,” Campos said. “So if you apply and then they want to offer back to the internals, it makes no sense.”

Campos said he just wanted to go back to his job as a cook in Pitzer, regardless of the work position or title.

“I’m just trying to go back and do what I need to do,” said Campos. ”You know, just cook. Even if I have to start as a Cook I. I’ll start from the bottom and work my way up again.”

Another dining staff member, who spoke to Undercurrents on condition of anonymity, said they hoped the College would make the right decision by giving Campos a fair chance.

“[Pitzer wants to] put themselves out there as being the best place to work,” the staff member said. “Okay. Well, show everyone, show students, show employees, and show everyone around the area that they are living up to their name. That they do give people a fair chance, that they don’t discriminate, that there’s no negativity involved when someone wants to apply.”

The sentiment was shared by Campos’ other coworkers. On Aug. 1, several of Campos’ coworkers led a delegation to Pitzer’s Human Resources office, delivering a petition signed by 70 Pitzer staff members urging Pitzer to rehire Campos.

“He has all of that experience. You would think that they would want to have someone that has all of those qualifications so that they don’t have to worry about a job being done, or to worry that maybe they might have to replace this person at a later date because they didn’t work out,” the anonymous staff member said. “When in Adan they have all of that, you know, they have that trust and they know that he has the ability to come in and do any task that they give him. I just feel like he should have been given a fair chance.”

But the delegation didn’t prevent Pitzer from refusing to rehire Campos for a third time. That’s when Campos asked students to step in.

“People are paying attention”: 1,200 students sign petition for Campos

On Sept. 21, the Claremont Student Worker Alliance announced an emergency meeting to organize for Campos’ rehiring. By the end of the week, students had gathered over 1,200 signatures in support of Campos, and on Sept. 27 over 40 students accompanied Campos to HR to deliver the petition.

In their speeches, the students acknowledge the power of student protesting and community action. They affirmed their allyship to Campos and the workers at the 5Cs. 

“[This] is completely anti-immigrant behavior, that is language that is completely unsuitable and not in line with the values that this college claims to care about,” said Francisco Villaseñor PO ’25 at the delegation. “As students who have friends that are DACAmented and undocumented on this campus, it is disgusting that a member of the leadership on this campus would dare to try and use Adan’s legal status as a way to intimidate him or try to act as if he doesn’t deserve to be here.”

“As students who have friends that are DACAmented and undocumented on this campus, it is disgusting that a member of the leadership on this campus would dare to try and use Adan’s legal status as a way to intimidate him or try to act as if he doesn’t deserve to be here.”

In 2023, Pitzer rehired three workers that Bon Appetit terminated, allegedly due to their support for the union, after a semester-long student campaign. That campaign also involved several delegations, and escalated to an eventual boycott of McConnell Dining Hall.

Campos has been pleasantly surprised by the outpouring of support from the student population and was grateful for the momentum the campaign has received.

“You’d be surprised what students can do,” he said.