Palermo's Pizza Sales Shut Down At UW-Milwaukee Campus Through The Summer

Photo: Courtesy of Valeria González

Student protest of Palermo's Pizza products at the UW-Milwaukee Student Union shuts down.

By H. Nelson Goodson

May 7, 2013

Milwaukee, WI - On Tuesday, a student protest at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) at the Student Union shut down a Palermo's pizza stand after UW-Milwaukee Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Jim Hill decided to close the vendor pizza sales through the Summer.

Voces de la Frontera in a news release stated, that a group of five students occupied the inside of the Palermo's Pizza stand at UWM on Tuesday at about 11:00 a.m. while a large group of 40-50 chanted slogans such as "No justice, no pizza!" and "mic-checked" the crowd. Student occupiers ultimately left the Palermo's stand at approximately 1:15 p.m., after a UWM administration official declared the stand would be shut down through the Summer.

Last month, UW-Madison students protested Palermo's pizza products being sold at the campus and took over the interim chancellor's office. Multiple students were later taken into custody and then released after they were cited. The students demanded for UW-Madison to stop selling Palermo's pizza products. Chancellor David Ward refused.

More protests at UW-Madison are expected from the UW-Milwaukee protest to spread to Madison. The protest in UW-Milwaukee was successful to temporarily shut down a pizza stand selling Palermo's pizza.

Multiple Hispanic Palermo's employees have been on strike since last June after the Palermo Villa Inc. administration fired employees after attempting to organize a union for better wages, safety concerns and more sick time.