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Cafeteria Workers of Bronx Community College Fight to Keep Jobs

Submitted by Hannah Caruso on Mon, 02/21/2011 - 21:02
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“We are devastated because we don’t know if we have a job at the end of the month, and no one is telling us anything…If I lose this job and my kids get sick, how will I get them medicine?” -Victor Benitez
 
Victor Benitez has worked as a dishwasher and a grill cook for CulinArt at Bronx Community College for years. Last week he learned that he and his co-workers may not have jobs there as soon as the end of February. The college is bringing in a new company to run the cafeteria, and the administration has refused to make sure the new company hires all the current workers. The workers are members of UNITE HERE Local 100, and have negotiated a contract with full family health benefits.
 
Bronx Community College is an institution that represents opportunity in one of the poorest Congressional districts in the country. About 38% of South Bronx residents live below the poverty line, according to 2010 Census data. The college administration should make sure the workers can keep their jobs, no matter what company is brought in. The Professional Staff Congress (the faculty union for the CUNY system), along with several Student Government Association senators, has pledged to support the workers in their struggle. Local 100 will continue to fight until they win the right to keep their jobs, and continue to support their families.  
 
Photo is of (left to right): Victor Bonet, Carmen Ovale, Mary Torres and Victor Benitez, all cafeteria workers and Local 100 members at Bronx Community College

College Cafeteria Workers Unite to Protect Job Standards in Connecticut

Submitted by Ian Mikusko on Tue, 12/21/2010 - 16:38
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Eight hundred workers. Nine universities. Three companies.  One union.

Campus dining workers at universities across Connecticut--members of UNITE HERE Local 217--have formed a statewide committee to protect their job standards (standards that are industry stand-outs; you can read more about here).  

The collective bargaining agreement at nine CT universities have either recently expired or are expiring in the coming year.  Rather than standing alone and waging these struggles site by site, the workers are joining together to let their employers know that an injustice to one is an injustice to all.

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Campus Dining Workers at Loyola University Chicago Win Union

Submitted by Kyle Schafer on Wed, 11/17/2010 - 14:03
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After months of organizing, over 200 campus dining workers at Loyola University Chicago have won union representation, choosing to join UNITE HERE Local 1.

"I feel blessed. A union means a better life for me and my family," said Janet Irving, a Loyola campus dining worker and member of the worker organizing committee that had been building support for the union at Loyola, one of the leading Catholic Jesuit universities in the nation.

In October, a majority of Loyola campus dining workers, with support from Loyola faculty, students, and clergy approached the employer about a fair process to choose a union. The company agreed to a process and recognized UNITE HERE Local 1 on Tuesday, November 16th.

The campus dining workforce at Loyola comes from all over the world, with 16 different countries of origin. Many dining workers at Loyola have served the student and faculty community for decades.

With UNITE HERE, the Loyola workers join the leading union of food service workers in North America, joining dining workers from over 100 campuses across the United States and Canada. In Chicago, the Loyola workers join dining workers at DePaul University who are also members of UNITE HERE Local 1 and recently won a great new contract, which included significant improvements in wages and healthcare benefits as well as protections for immigrant workers.

The worker organizing committee at Loyola will enter into contract negotiations with their employer in the coming months. For now, they are celebrating. "I love taking care of the students in the dining halls, and I feel great that now I will get to do it as a union member," Loyola dining service worker Eva Rangel said.

 

Union Campus Dining Workers in CT Surge Ahead in Standard of Living

Submitted by Ian Mikusko on Mon, 09/20/2010 - 15:23
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What kind of difference does a union have on its members’ lives?
 
For dining workers at Connecticut universities, the impact is huge.
 
The state of food service jobs in Connecticut, overall, is not dissimilar from the national picture. In Connecticut, the mean rate of occupations comparable to college cafeteria jobs average to an hourly wage of $10.81.
 
It’s an entirely different story when you bring a union into the picture. UNITE HERE Local 217 represents the campus dining workers at 10 universities in Connecticut: Central Connecticut State, the US Coast Guard Academy, Eastern Connecticut State, Fairfield University, Southern Connecticut State, Trinity College, University of Hartford, University of New Haven, Wesleyan and Western Connecticut State.
 
Do the dining workers at these universities make $10.81 per hour? Well…no. In fact at all ten universities, not one of them does. In fact, even if you average the starting wage of the lowest paid position at each of the ten universities, you get a pay rate of $16.58.   Almost $6 per hour more than the average wage for comparable occupations in the region.
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Message to the Mayor: “We Have No Intention of Going Backwards”

Submitted by Ian Mikusko on Fri, 09/10/2010 - 11:42
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The mayor of New Haven got a message yesterday. A message that he probably didn’t want to hear. 

The school cafeteria workers in the New Haven school system will not stand by idly as the city attempts to push cuts in their benefits. The cafeteria workers, members of UNITE HERE Local 217, paid a visit to the Mayor John DeStefano Tuesday afternoon to present a petition with the workers' position on the city’s latest proposal.

Here’s a video of Cathy Rubano, a school cook and union shop steward, addressing the Mayor with her concerns over cuts in medical benefits, along with the Mayor’s response:

Read more after the jump

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“This is the labor movement. This is justice.”

Submitted by Kyle Schafer on Tue, 08/03/2010 - 12:50
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[Stir It Up Editor’s Note: The post below is by Kellyn Lewis, a student leader of the Northwestern Living Wage Campaign. It is a reflection on his participation in UNITE HERE’s July 22 national action (see In These Times).]

 
On July 22nd, I saw the world. I was sitting in the middle of one of Chicago's largest downtown streets, East Wacker Dr., outside the Hyatt Regency Hotel shouting, "We are Human Beings! Enough is Enough!" To my left, I had locked arms with one of my best college running mates, and fellow Northwestern Living Wage Campaign leader. And to my right, I felt the intense presence of a housekeeping worker in a Chicago hotel covered by Unite Here! Their chants echoed into my ears as I bellowed out the cry for social justice, the cry for worker humanity. It was a meditation chant. Our words hummed along side the thousands who had lined up at the edge of the Chicago River to support the nation’s labor movement. While I had worked with these workers in the past, and had led a student rally of over 400 people on my campus, being locked tight with the people I stand for each day invigorated my senses.
 

 

It was at this moment that I began to drift off into another place. My conscious mind had control of my chants, and my subconscious wandered. Endlessly through the thoughts and abyss of my mind (the jungle that my new privileged position of higher education has brought me). It shifted over the pages of Marx, Rawls, Berlin, and all the radical philosophers I iconize on a daily basis. I also reminisced about all the ups and downs my entire extended family has had with social position, with class, with race. My grandparents who fought their whole lives just as the workers are now doing. My parents who themselves have gone through tumultuous financial crises.
 
In that moment, a moment of solidarity among a crowd, and internal solitude in the “radical” social theories, I felt at home. My physical reality, the reality that I was doing something for the people that were so much like the people that raised me, and my spiritual reality, the spirit of radically enlightened thought, merged.  This is the labor movement. This is justice. And it is this powerful feeling that can envelope our generation, whether you come from the highest social order to the lowest socio-economic background. It is this place that we should all as college students strive for. Do not over look a social movement, in all of its political tactics, because it is this history of social change that defines us all. This is what campuses need, and my peers that are involved with the campus campaign saw this too. It is a necessity to visualize this social position when you read about injustice, and to embody your learned knowledge when you take action. This is the state of social change.
 
(Photo by Jerome Grand)
 

Cafeteria Workers, Students and Allies Struggle for a Union at Carleton University

Submitted by Kyle Schafer on Wed, 06/30/2010 - 20:55
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Campus cafeteria workers at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario are standing up to form a union and improve their lives.  Students, faculty and other unions are standing up in solidarity with them. 
 
Aramark, the campus food service provider, is standing in the way.
 
“The Carleton University Students’ Association has been disappointed to hear repeatedly from many of our members who are employed at Aramark that Aramark has threatened and intimidated them for exercising their rights to speech and association in attempting to form a union outside company time,” said Alex Sirois, President of the Carleton University Students’ Association in a press release after the Association passed a motion in support of the cafeteria workers.
 
UNITE HERE Local 261 has already filed unfair labour practice charges against Aramark alleging targeted layoffs for known union supporters, surveillance, threats and interrogations.  But Aramark’s intimidation against the campaign extends beyond the workforce – student allies have reported being harassed by Aramark managers as well.
 
Marco Zigliotti, a second-year student at Carleton, wrote the University Security about his experience with Aramark managers:
 
I would like to report unusual and what I believe to be inappropriate conduct on the part of Aramark Carleton managers at the Fresh Food Company cafeteria in Residence Commons on Wednesday, May 12, 2010.
 
On that day, I and four other students ate at the Fresh Food Company wearing stickers in support of Aramark worker’s rights. Hundreds of people on campus have been wearing these stickers in response to what many Aramark workers have described as intimidating and threatening letters to scare people away from joining a union. 
 
The other students and I eating were made to feel like unwelcome visitors in our own university. After entering the Fresh Food Company, we were each watched and followed very closely by Aramark managers, who numbered eight, and who stood close by as we were served by employees. 
 
When we sat down, all the managers followed us and sat on either side of our table, watching us closely the whole time. This made myself and the other students feel extremely uncomfortable. Ensuring that campus is safe for all is the job of University Security, and we could not understand why Aramark managers were effectively policing us and treating us as a threat, or how that could be appropriate on our campus.
 
Locals of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) on Carelton’s campus have added their voice as well, creating a united voice on campus representing over 8000 unionized employees and 20000 undergraduate and graduate students.  The coalition of unions and students, called Campus United, sent a letter to University President Roseann Runte, available here.
 
Meanwhile, Olivia Chow, Member of Parliament for Trinity-Spadina, Toronto, and Citizenship and Immigration critic for the New Democratic Party, came to campus to meet with students and workers about the conditions and has pledged her support.
 
The campaign on the ground is unfolding quickly, but we’ll do our best to keep this site updated with the latest news.
 
 

 

A Quick Update on Northwestern

Submitted by Kyle Schafer on Wed, 02/10/2010 - 20:52
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Today, Unite Here International President John Wilhelm issued a statement in support of the Northwestern Living Wage Campaign.  Just thought we'd take a moment to share:

“Thousands of dining hall workers, janitors, security guards and support staff make our nation’s wonderful universities function. Colleges should strive to create inclusive educational communities that recognize the hard work of those often invisible people who make these beacons of higher education operate on a day to day basis. University budgets should not be balanced on the backs of working people. Our nation’s labor movement is strengthened by students like those involved in Northwestern’s Living Wage Campaign fighting to make sure workers are treated fairly with dignity and respect. Hundreds of thousands of working families across America stand with students at Northwestern in calling for university workers to be paid a living wage.”

Northwestern Students and Workers Campaign for Living Wage

Submitted by Kyle Schafer on Tue, 02/09/2010 - 13:05
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In a long-overdue Stir It Up-date, the students and workers at Northwestern University are waging an impressive campaign for living wages for campus workers.  Though we at Stir It Up are not running this campaign, we are doing everything we can do to help out.

For now, I want to just share a few bits:

For a compelling story of the importance of living wage campaigns, read Unite Here Local 450 member Maurice Nix's column that ran in the student publications North by Northwestern and the Daily Northwestern.  Nix, known as the "sandwich guy" in Northwestern's student center and a veteran of the Civil Rights Movement, writes, "Like in Birmingham in the 1960s, we are not asking for the world, we are asking for basic dignity and respect."

We encourage students from across the country to sign onto Northwestern's living wage petition and invite your friends to do the same by joining the Facebook event for the petition.

The campaign is taking an important step this Thursday -- students will deliver Valentine's Day cards to the University administration encouraging them to "have a heart" for campus workers.  

As more events unfold, we'll keep you posted.

 

Food Service Fights in New York: Victories Past and the Fight Ahead

Submitted by Ian Mikusko on Wed, 01/20/2010 - 15:03
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Last semester, Hunter College students, faculty and staff united in support of the College’s cafeteria workers. These workers, employees of the College’s food service vendor, AVI Foodsystems, were facing the prospect of losing their free family health benefits after AVI took over the contract from Sodexo. Thanks, not only to the bravery of the workers and their refusal to accept dramatic concessions, but to the support of the Hunter College students and faculty, the workers won a good contract—one that included fully paid health benefits for their families. 
 
Here’s testimony from Owen Hill, one of the students who fought in solidarity with the men and women who serve food to the Hunter College community. You can learn more about student-worker campaigns at UNITE HERE’s student-worker solidarity site. 
 
"The majority of Hunter students are working class students; not only do we come from working class households, but most of us work to make it through school.  So it’s only natural that Unite Here Local 100’s fight to save our cafeteria workers’ raises, pensions, andhealth care struck such a chord with Hunter’s student body.  For, just like the workers that Hunter students so proudly stood in solidarity with, every day our living standards and those of our families are continuing to melt under the withering blows of slashed budgets, greedy employers and a deregulated banking system.  Indeed, the response on our campus was so enormous that AVI Foodsystems, the cafeteria workers’ employer, was forced to back down on the vast majority of their demands before the student/faculty boycott of the cafeteria even began.  The resounding victory of Unite Here Local 100 and the courageous workers over a company that was demanding substantial concessions, points the way forward for students and workers alike, and reminds us all once again that solidarity really is the only way to win."
 
Preach on, Owen! As someone who was involved in the fight that brought students and workers together at Hunter College, I can tell you that Owen’s testimony is no overstatement. 
 
Unfortunately, AVI Foodsystems seems to have not learned their lesson from the student-worker solidarity they had to deal with at Hunter.  At nearby Sarah Lawrence College, where AVI also took over the contract to provide food service, workers and students have formed an alliance to fight for fair compensation for the food service workers at the College. Having won union recognition with Local 100 several months ago, the workers at Sarah Lawrence, along with their student allies, are now fighting for a similar contract to that won by the workers at Hunter College. So far, AVI has been resistant to accepting the reasonable position of the workers and has not been willing to budge on providing the workers with full family health benefits.
 
Check back for updates on Sarah Lawrence as the battle for full health benefits and a fair contract unfolds. 
 
Photo, by Shane Valazquez, is of Owen Hill speaking at October 5th 2009 rally for AVI cafeteria workers outside Hunter College.
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