Sarah Lawrence Workers Win Neutrality Agreement from AVI
Last Friday brought good news, not only for the AVI workers at Hunter College, but for the AVI cafeteria workers at Sarah Lawrence College. AVI signed an agreement with UNITE HERE Local 100 guaranteeing that the cafeteria workers at Sarah Lawrence will be given a fair process deciding whether to form a union, and that their employer, AVI, will “take an approach of strict neutrality in the event the Union attempts to organize the Employees.”
This huge step in winning real improvements in these workers’ job conditions did not happen in a vacuum, however. Students and workers have been taking action to win this agreement since the school year began, culminating with several actions the day before AVI signed the agreement. On October 22 2009, a group of students placed calls to AVI President Anthony Payiavlas to tell him that students supported the workers’ efforts to unionize. Students and workers also paid a visit to the Sarah Lawrence College Vice President for Finance, John Bernson, to give the Sarah Lawrence the same message that they gave AVI. Here’s a video of the action:
