PS Cities News

For Rachel Berey-Wingate, working at Shedd Aquarium is easy to love but hard to maintain—especially without a union. 

“Shedd Aquarium tends to draw in a passionate workforce: people who care deeply about the animals, conservation, and public education,” she says. “But that can also lead to employers taking advantage of that passion.” 

The 24-year-old started their aquarium employment two and a half years ago, making $15.40 an hour in guest relations. She balanced her job at Shedd with a second job as a Chicago River tour guide—usually working 50 hours a week. 

Six months ago, Berey-Wingate took a full-time job on the public engagement team directing activities like behind-the-scenes tours and “animal chats.” Their wage increased to $20 an hour. Because of the raise, she can survive off of one job. But Berey-Wingate is only eligible to stay on her parents’ health insurance plan for one more year, and she worries what will happen when she has to pay for it herself. “I also live in a two-bedroom apartment with three roommates and lead paint in the walls, so that’s where I’m at.”

Berey-Wingate is one of 180 Shedd employees now represented by Shedd Workers United and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31, after 75 percent of workers voted “yes” to forming a union on November 2. It capped off a yearlong anti-union campaign from management that spurred charges of labor law violations.

Shedd Aquarium is the ninth Chicago-area cultural institution to unionize with AFSCME Council 31 in the past three years. Now that they’ve won the union vote, members have set their sights on negotiating their first contract with Shedd leadership. 

The freshly unionized workers include 110 employees in guest relations, 50 in learning and community, and 15 in development and marketing. Some portion of workers are not yet unionized—like those in the animal care department—but are on track for a union vote soon. 

In a press release celebrating the win, the Shedd Workers United organizing committee said, “Shedd is an institution focused on sustainability for marine life. Together in our union, we can ensure an equal focus on making it a sustainable place to work.”

Johnny Ford, a Shedd spokesperson, said in a statement that the aquarium “commends its staff for navigating this unionization process with grace and respect” and is “now moving forward in working collaboratively with union representatives to outline the terms and conditions of employment.”

Employees also decry abysmal wages and high employee turnover. The starting wage for guest relations staff is $17 an hour and public engagement facilitators, like Berey-Wingate, make $20. Bilingual facilitators are not paid extra for translating services. Even wages for animal care specialists—who work directly with penguins, whales, and dolphins—start at $23 an hour. (In comparison, an entry-level zookeeper at the unionized Lincoln Park Zoo makes $29 an hour.) Bridget C. Coughlin, the aquarium’s CEO, earned more than $700,000 in salary and benefits in 2022, according to the aquarium’s tax filings. 

After eight years of working with aquatic creatures at Shedd, Michelle Nastasowski makes $28 an hour. She’s married, has two kids, and works full-time. She says the only reason she can afford to remain at Shedd is because her husband makes $10 an hour more than her doing maintenance. He is also a U.S. Marine veteran with PTSD whose disability payments total more than her salary. 

After the onset of COVID-19, the aquarium introduced a new policy that workers are no longer eligible for health insurance if they can be covered under their spouse’s policy. But Nastasowski says her husband’s health insurance is not the best quality, and his VA benefits are also poor compared to what Shedd would offer. 

Nastasowski is part of the nonunionized portion of employees, but she’s eager for their union campaign to also culminate with a “yes” vote. “In the eight years that I’ve been there, I have seen a myriad of different working conditions. At one point, we had to cover our own vacation time,” she says. “All sorts of logistical things that could be protected under a union contract that in the past have varied just because of who was in charge. I would like to see an agreement that both management and the staff can come to that’s protected.”

Kirby Garcia is the only hourly paid worker in the marketing department. After five years with the aquarium, they now make $24 an hour. Garcia also drives for Uber and DoorDash on the weekends. 

“The cost of groceries has been crazy for a long time. It’s something that I struggle with,” they say. “My rent keeps going up every year. I noticed pretty early on that my raises weren’t keeping up with inflation. And as far as I’m concerned, if my raise doesn’t keep up with inflation, then it’s a pay cut.” 

Garcia was on Medicaid when they started working at Shedd, and they jumped at the opportunity to enroll in benefits through the aquarium. “But now that I was paying for insurance and I didn’t have Medicaid and I didn’t qualify for SNAP anymore, I was actually coming out with less money at the end of the month.”

Employees describe a laundry list of anti-union activities during their 18-month campaign. Management told workers they couldn’t hang pro-union flyers or even discuss union matters at work. Garcia and others also say they received anti-union emails from management. 

“That was extremely disheartening for me,” Garcia says, “and what it showed me, really, was if we aren’t together as workers, then top leadership isn’t going to listen to us at all.”

In September, the union charged Shedd with violating federal labor law. The union claims management told workers that the aquarium’s policy against workplace solicitation barred them from talking about their union or asking others to sign union cards while at work. But they say that policy was not enforced if, for example, workers wanted to sell Girl Scout cookies or invite coworkers to a comedy show. The charge is still pending before the National Labor Relations Board, records show.

Ford, the Shedd spokesperson, argued in a statement that the union’s allegations are “inaccurate and misleading.” He added that “Shedd has a long history of honest, robust and bidirectional employee relations and communications – values we continue to hold ourselves to as this process continues.” 

Nastasowski and Garcia are both hopeful and excited for the future. Shedd joins eight other local cultural institutions that have unionized with AFSCME Council 31 in recent years, including staff at the Art Institute and the School of the Art Institute, the Newberry Library, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, the Field Museum, the Museum of Science and Industry, and the Museum of Contemporary Art. 

Anders Lindall, an AFSCME spokesperson, says these victories represent the raising up of an entire sector of workers who have been taken for granted for too long. “They have been told, ‘You are just fortunate to be in proximity to these great institutions. You’re lucky to work here. There’s a line out the door of people that will take your job, and therefore you should be willing to swallow not having health insurance or having to DoorDash because you don’t make enough money.’” 

Berey-Wingate wants workers who hear about their win to understand that unionizing is possible. “People shouldn’t be putting up with injustice at their workplace, even if—especially if—it’s a workplace that they care deeply about. Right? Work situations can get better.”