Pablo Lázaro has worked at the Smithsonian Institution for two decades. He is a cook at the National Museum of the American Indian and was hired through Compass, the national catering company under contract with the Smithsonian since 2000. Despite his long tenure, Lázaro earns $20.22 an hour, or two dollars less than Washington, DC. living wage for a single person (according to calculations by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and $30 less than the living wage of $55.51 for a person with two children. Lázaro has two daughters, aged 11 and 19. He has a second job as a night cook.
Now, the 119 Compass employees at six Smithsonian museums – the National Portrait Gallery, the National Museum of African American History, the Natural History Museum, the National Air & Space Museum, the National Museum of the American Indian and the National Museum of American History – bargaining for a new collective agreement. Since 2014, they have been members of UNITE HERE Local 23, a union representing Compass workers at other DC institutions, including the World Bank and the National Institute of Health. Contracts are specific to the hiring institutions but negotiated with Compass, not the contracting organizations. (The Smithsonian said Hyperallergic he did not comment on the negotiation between Compass and UNITE HERE. The six museums do not hire food workers directly – all are contracted by Compass.)
Smithsonian cafeteria workers are full-time and receive benefits, but are paid hourly. Lazaro said Hyperallergic that he is often given less than 40 hours and only 27 hours a week when museum attendance is slow.
“The cost of living in DC is insane,” Lázaro said. The union’s biggest push is for higher wages and raises to match inflation, which was on average 4.4% in the region last year. Salaries at different museums vary, but the lowest-paid cook at the Museum of the American Indian earned just $17.31, above DC’s minimum wage of $16.10, but well below the cost of city life. Lázaro also wants more working hours.
The Smithsonian Compass workers’ contract expired on January 31, and while no action is planned at the museum, Compass workers at the World Bank are holding a protest on April 12. Senate picketed (and 17 people were arrested during a protest) to finally get a minimum wage of 20 dollars, pension contributions and health care for family members.
These standards are higher than what Smithsonian cafeteria workers currently have.
After 20 years at the museum, Lázaro said he felt good there and didn’t want to leave. He said his colleagues had been there for a long time too. “It’s like a family,” he said, and he mentioned that employees at the non-food service museum know and recognize him as well.
Back then Hyperallergic spoken with Lázaro, he was leaving his second job.
“Nobody should have to work two jobs to pay the bills,” he said, and mentioned his family back home. “I have no time to waste.”
