Jim P’Pool, a former Signature Room server, stands in front of 875 N. Michigan Ave., the former home of The Signature Room, in the Streeterville neighborhood on July 30, 2024. CHICAGO — Irene Luna, a former pastry cook at The Signature Room, had worked at the restaurant near the top of the former John Hancock Center for nearly 30 years.Luna was preparing to head to work that September morning, she said, when she received an email stating The Signature Room was closing down.
Luna, for one, is still looking for a job, but the positions she sees available are often too far away or don’t pay well enough, she said. “Anytime you’re talking about a company that has become insolvent, you are inherently talking about a situation where there’s not enough money to pay everybody what they are owed,” said Brook Gotberg, a law professor at Brigham Young University who studies bankruptcy. Unite Here says it is continuing to seek payment of the $1.52 million a judge said workers were owed.
Illinois also has its own WARN Act, which has slightly different parameters than its federal counterpart and is enforced by the state’s Department of Labor. FAQs provided to former staff in the wake of the closures said they would be paid only through the date the stores close. Three lawsuits alleging violations of the federal WARN Act were swiftly filed in federal court.
“I feel that it’s only just for there to be some kind of payback,” said Julia Harlos, who used to work as a barista at a North Side Foxtrot. Harlos found out she was out of her job during her shift on the day Foxtrot shuttered; she said her manager told her and her coworkers to kick customers out of the store and close down immediately.Meanwhile, some Foxtrot stores are expected to begin reopening in the fall.
An attorney representing Outfox Hospitality in its bankruptcy proceedings did not respond to requests for comment. When companies file for Chapter 7 bankruptcies, experts said, there often isn’t any cash leftover for unsecured creditors, including employees. “When employers close without notice and then file for bankruptcy, their low-paid workers who are the least likely to have any savings, are in danger of extreme economic disruption — not being able to pay for rent, medication, or food for their families,” the workers’ group said in a statement. “Putting workers first would help stabilize communities and prevent economic crises for thousands of families.