Caleb Jennings

Caleb Jennings is a union organizer who helps out with the community and helps other people to improve with their jobs. He’s been working for 13 years. Caleb is a  hard worker who works for the community and has seen a lot of changes around the communities, which is that a lot of families now have health insurance. He is a proud father and was raised by a single mom and has kids who he truly loves. He had a lot of heroes but the only hero who stands out for him was Sonia.

As a union organizer he works hard for the communities he organizes in, and he fights against big corporations. We asked him what would he change if he was president, he said, “I would go after corporate america, the big rich ones who don’t pay their fare share of taxes.” He tries to give back to the community through organizing. Some of the things he’s done was to try to engage the community. Last year what he did was to connect with students at KP who were interested in art and made banners and different signs to fight with justice.

His views on education are that he doesn’t think it is fair, and he sees that education is not equal. He said, “Education is key,” but the problem is the education system is unequal. He’s been working for thirteen years as an organizer. He’s been most recently working on the “Fight for 15” campaign and that means its organizing for undocumented worker and being exploited at work. They were fighting for $15 an hour, which is a livable wage, and wants the workers to have a contract so they can have health insurance and benefits for their family. He’s seen a lot of changes including that a lot of workers didn’t have a union, they didn’t have health insurance, and they were working for minimum wage but hopefully they will soon.

When Caleb went to college he went to UIC, and he was interested in labor issues. He never knew he was going to work as a union organizer. Then he discovered the Organizing Institute, which its an internship program that give him an opportunity to focus on become what he is today. He decided to leave college to become a union organizer and doesn’t regret it.

Another thing he was a part of was the McDonald’s marching at downtown where all workers walked out of their jobs and marched down with other people who walked out. They were fighting for better wages at work because they get payed less than other fast food restaurants. That’s where he saw a great leader who was part of the marching. Her name was Sonia Acuna, she’s an older woman who has 4 children and works at two different McDonald’s. Sonia Acuna is a hard worker. She works for like 80 hours a week, works in two jobs and doesn’t really get to spend time with her family. But on April 24, Sonia walked out of work to join to strike which took a lot of courage to do something like that. Now managers treat her with respect and her daughter looks up to her now.

Caleb was a great guy who will change communities to make everyone around safe and happy. Interviewing him was a change for everyone because I never knew about union organizing. Probably one day I'll work with Caleb to make a better community and become a better person in life.