Insomnia Cookies Workers Strike, Cite Long Standing Safety Concerns 

Former employees of the Rogers Park Insomnia Cookies location have gone on strike after allegedly being forced to remain open by corporate level management after a victim of a nearby shooting took refuge in the store Oct. 28.

The shooting occurred near 1200 W. Arthur Ave., about 200 feet from the cookie store located at 6470 N. Sheridan Rd., The Phoenix reported. 

Since the beginning of the strike, Brenda Garcia, who worked as the operational manager of the store, has been terminated from her position. With the news of her firing, seven other employees have quit in solidarity, according to Garcia. She said she believes she was illegally fired for being a whistleblower. 

Garcia said she has a team of lawyers representing her, and they are in the beginning stages of examining the circumstances of her termination to determine next steps. 

Heaven Thomas, a fourth-year forensic science major who worked at Insomnia Cookies for two years as a shift manager, has since quit her job. She said she didn’t think a job should be causing her excessive stress. 

She said once Garcia was terminated, the work was less appealing and wasn’t something she was willing to continue doing. 

“I just can’t deal with all the stress that comes with so many needs,” Thomas said. “It’s really not worth the stress and the endangerment like that — way too much.”

Garcia, who worked at the store for around two years, said she was the only employee working in the store when the shooting victim came inside. She said she provided aid in the back of the store to the 24-year-old male who had been shot in the arm. Garcia called the police and then spoke on the phone with the mother of the victim as she attempted to help him.

“The way his mom reacted was just heartbreaking and it haunts me to this day,” Garcia said. “She thought it was a prank, and she kept telling me over and over, ‘This isn’t funny, please. Please tell me this is a prank,’ and I was the one that broke the news to her.”

Neither the victim nor his mother were available for comment. 

Garcia said after the incident, she called her district managers to inform them of the situation. She said they were dismissive and unwilling to let her close the store for the day. After talking further, she said they decided she could close the store so long as it reopened by 6 p.m. that evening. 

Following her conversation with the district managers, Garcia said she spoke with the regional trainer, who informed her she was responsible for cleaning up the blood from the floor before 6 p.m..

“I told her I didn’t have any training to clean up bodily fluids, and she told me to grab gloves in the rag and just clean up the blood,” Garcia said. “And I attempted to, but it was a lot for me emotionally — there was a lot of emotions going on. And my district managers, who were pretty dismissive of it all, they were pushing me to stay open and serve as many customers as I can.”

Thomas said she went to the store the evening of the shooting to help Garcia clean up the blood. 

Thomas said they requested a hazmat team to more thoroughly clean up the bodily fluids before reopening the store, and although corporate level management seemed willing at first, a cleanup team wasn’t sent as of Oct. 31. Due to them no longer being with the company, neither Thomas nor Garcia could confirm if a clean up team was ever sent to the store.

“For our back hallway, it has concrete floors and exposed brick, so that’s not easy to get blood off with just the towel,” Thomas said. “There needs to be an actual cleaning crew.”

The day after the shooting, workers went on strike, refusing to return to work until their demands had been met. They hung up signs in the window of the storefront, with phrases such as “COOKIES>LIFE” and “How many more years until corporate decides to treat us like HUMANS?” 

Garcia said they demanded corporate level management allocate more labor hours to ensure more than one person to always be working in the stores, install a panic button in the store for emergency situations and a front door buzzer for letting customers in late at night. The workers are also asking for a more prominent barrier to be set up between the guest space and the kitchen and a security guard to be provided for the store. 

Corporate level management removed the signs later in the day, but employees made more to replace them, according to Vivian Klosk, a former baker at the store who aided in making the signs and organizing the strike. 

A group of around 30 people gathered outside the store Oct. 29 and Nov. 9 for organized protests. Loyola student organizations including LUC Socialists posted on social media to share their support for the cause.

When employees of the store refused to return to work, corporate level management sent employees from alternate locations to reopen the Rogers Park store ahead of Halloween weekend, according to Garcia. 

Garcia said she has documentation which shows the store missed about five months of rent payments and hasn’t held a business license or had a health inspection in around two years. 

Mandy Banas, the property manager for the establishment, declined to comment.

Garcia said she’s in communication with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration regarding these issues. 

Garcia said she returned to work a few days after the strike and found corporate level management had removed her personal belongings from her desk, including a key chain given to her by her step-father just before he died. When she contacted her bosses to ask what had happened to the items and why they were removed, they didn’t respond. 

Garcia said generally, she felt unsupported by corporate level management, especially considering the trauma she experienced which she’s now processing in therapy. She said their first concern was calling customers who had ordered online and keeping the store open.

“He told me, and I quote, ‘I’m in the middle of something, I’ll call you later,’” Garcia said. “And just the call ended there. So nobody asked me if I was okay.”

Insomnia Cookies emphasized the company’s commitment to the safety and wellbeing of their customers and staff in an email to The Phoenix. 

“We want to clarify that our bakery was not the target of an active shooter, nor was our bakery an active crime scene,” they wrote in the email. “The incident occurred outside our premises, but out of an abundance of caution, we closed the bakery. During this time, we took steps to enhance security measures and thoroughly clean the bakery in accordance with OSHA standards.”

Garcia said she thought it was important to point out the shooter was arrested directly in front of the store, the gunshot victim received aid inside the store and the storefront was blocked off by crime scene tape. She also said they only allowed her to close the bakery for a short period of time after a lot of convincing.

The company also wrote they were accessible to employees during and after the incident. 

“We also provided paid time off to our affected employees and offered open lines of communication with them throughout this difficult period,” they wrote. “Insomnia Cookies stands firmly against all forms of violence and are committed to supporting our team members as we move forward from this unfortunate event.”

Garcia said she struggled to get in contact with anyone who was willing to hear her out and provide any support when she was struggling. She said they only provided paychecks after the employees began their strike. 

Although the shooting was the catalyst for the strike, Garcia said the strike was really brought on by a long list of issues with the company and the way they treat their employees, particularly when it comes to safety. 

Thomas said since August, she’s had to call the police around five times due to safety concerns. She cited one incident when a woman attempted to steal the promotional sign outside the store. She said when she asked the woman to leave the sign alone, the woman became verbally aggressive, prompting Garcia to lock the door to the store. The woman responded by spitting on and punching the glass of the entrance.

Tia Young, a baker at the store who has worked there for two months, said she has never had to call the police herself but did have a woman enter, saying she had just been sexually assaulted and needed help. Young said they encouraged her to call the police, but the situation was emotionally strenuous.

Thomas said corporate level management sent them written confirmation via text in June 2023 they had plans to provide the store with a security guard by the end of the week, but more than a year later, no security guard was implemented until multiple days after the shooting.

Klosk said she feels corporate level management is more interested in preserving their sales than they are in the safety of their employees during situations like the shooting.