the village free press Vol. III No. 36
Explore The 1619 Project, PAGE 9
Triton employees threaten to strike Classified workers, mid-managers pressing administration for 4% pay raise By MICHAEL ROMAIN
SEPTEMBER 4, 2019
theVillageFreePress.org
Hair stylists flock to Broadview, PAGE 5
STEPPING UP: Bernice Sykes, 84, looks at photos of her grandchildren and other family members. Sykes raised two of her grandchildren into adulthood. She’s among the nearly 300 grandparents who have been inducted into Sen. Lightford’s Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Hall of Fame.
Editor
On Aug. 27, a few hundred mid-managers and full-time classified employees packed the small second-floor conference room on the campus of Triton College, where a Board of Trustees meeting was in session, to demand a 4 percent pay raise. “I feel valued within my department, but not by you,” Ruby Hilker, a financial aid specialist, told board members, adding that classified workers are “treated as disposable” and that the board and administration “should be ashamed” of themselves for how they’ve handled the negotiations. The two union contracts covering 145 See TRITON on page 3
SHANEL ROMAIN
The real unsung heroes? Grandparents raising grandkids
Inductees into Sen. Lightford’s Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Hall of Fame share stories of ‘forever love’ By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor
Aleatra Jackson, 59, described with
reverence the moment her grandson, Zion, 14, came into her home permanently. “He and his siblings were all sleeping on the floor,” Jackson recalled. “One of
them woke him up and said, ‘Zion, your grandmother’s here.’ He jumped off the See GRANDPARENTS on page 6
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