Obama Foundation workers are organizing a union over rolled-back benefits and ignored complaints months after the Chicago center opened, citing the former president’s pro-labor record.
Dozens of Obama Foundation employees have signed a letter seeking to form Obama Workers United, accusing leadership of hiking workloads while rolling back benefits and offering only vague replies to workplace concerns.
Fox News Digital reported the organizing drive, which would cover more than 250 staff across the Chicago campus, Washington offices, and remote roles nationwide. The committee is working with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31. The push lands months after the Obama Presidential Center opened in Jackson Park on Chicago’s South Side.
Workers framed the move as a direct response to conditions inside the foundation that operates the center. High turnover has already drained institutional knowledge, they wrote, leaving remaining staff uncertain about their future.
In the letter reviewed by reporters, the employees stated their case plainly.
"Amidst increasing workloads we have seen our benefits rolled back and support from leadership to be minimal. When we voice concerns we are met with vague responses, leading to uncertainty about our future with the foundation."
They also warned senior leaders against spending resources on anti-union messaging, lawyers, or meetings, and urged them to honor the legal right to organize. The same letter invoked a 2016 message from Barack Obama himself.
"If I were looking for a good job that lets me build some security for my family, I’d join a union. If I saw a problem in my workplace, I’d organize my coworkers to do something about it."
That earlier endorsement now sits beside a foundation whose total salaries and benefits rose from $18.5 million in 2018 to $43.7 million in 2024. CEO Valerie Jarrett, a longtime Obama confidante, earned $740,000 in 2024. The foundation has previously defended executive pay as competitive with other large nonprofits.
An Obama Foundation spokesperson responded with a statement of support for organizing rights.
"We are deeply committed to the fundamental right of workers to organize and make their voices heard."
The same statement added that the foundation approaches the process with gratitude for staff contributions, respect for unions, and a commitment to work collaboratively with labor partners. No further concrete steps, such as voluntary recognition, appear in the available reporting.
The timing sharpens the contrast. The presidential center recently opened with museum space, gathering areas, athletic facilities, and foundation offices. Staff complaints about benefit cuts and minimal leadership support arrived after that public debut, and after earlier scrutiny of the organization’s compensation totals.
Similar questions about priorities have followed other Obama-linked efforts, including earlier coverage of foundation workplace strains that surfaced around the same project.
Workers say experienced colleagues have already left, taking knowledge with them. The proposed Obama Workers United aims to give the remaining team a formal voice on workloads, benefits, and day-to-day support that the letter describes as lacking.
The center’s construction side has produced its own labor fallout. Adamson Plumbing owner Mike Owen said his firm suspended operations and laid off 25 union workers amid a nearly $4 million payment dispute tied to work on the Obama Presidential Center.
The New York Post detailed how delays, rework, and unpaid invoices left the company with heavy losses. Owen filed a $1.72 million mechanic’s lien after a promised $100,000 payment failed to arrive before the opening. He described the shortfall as the final blow.
"Not getting that large sum of money just kind of pulled the brakes on the train. It was just the final death blow to the company."
Owen also said laying off close to 30 people is something no owner wants, especially when the work could still have been finished profitably. Multiple other subcontractors, including minority-owned firms the project highlighted, reported six-figure to multi-million-dollar shortfalls as costs climbed past $1 billion.
Those contractor disputes sit alongside the foundation’s internal organizing drive and echo patterns seen in prior reporting on unpaid bills at the center.
Breitbart noted the same shutdown and lien under the Marsh-Adamson name, along with earlier pressure from Obama to enlarge the original $850 million design, pressure that left the architect uneasy about the expanding scale.
Union tradesmen lost jobs on the build while foundation staff now seek their own union over benefit rollbacks. Both threads point to the same campus and the same leadership circle.
Inside the foundation, the compensation trajectory is clear from the figures already public. Total salaries and benefits more than doubled between 2018 and 2024. Jarrett’s $740,000 package sits at the top of that structure. Workers, meanwhile, describe benefits moving in the opposite direction and leadership replies that leave them guessing about job security.
Obama’s 2016 call to join a union and organize around workplace problems is now the language staff are using against the institution that carries his name. The foundation’s public reply affirms the right to organize and pledges collaboration. Whether that translates into restored benefits or clearer support remains an open question the letter itself raises.
Political alliances around Obama continue to draw scrutiny in other races, including moments when past progressive criticisms resurfaced ahead of joint appearances.
The organizing committee has kept its focus on concrete workplace issues: heavier loads, thinner benefits, high turnover, and answers that stay vague. Those are the conditions the letter puts on the record.
Campaign-season partnerships have also placed Obama on stage with progressive candidates, as when a Michigan Senate contender booked him for the final stretch alongside other left-wing figures.
None of that changes the numbers or the quotes coming from foundation staff and the contractors who built the center. Pay at the top rose sharply. Benefits for many others, according to the workers, moved backward. A plumbing crew of 25 lost their jobs over unpaid invoices measured in the millions. The center opened anyway.
For an institution that trades on the language of workers’ rights, the gap between soaring executive compensation and staff driven to organize, and contractors left unpaid, reveals where the real priorities settled.
