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On Tuesday March 1st the students, faculty and workers of Bronx Community College gathered at the heart of campus in a rally to defend the jobs of the cafeteria workers who were laid off at the end of February.  Healthy Choice, another food service contractor, took over the college cafeteria operation on Monday March 14th 2011. None of the workers have been hired by the new company. The College, so far, has refused to include the retention of the workers in their requirements of the new company.

Here's a video of the first part of the rally taken by a B.C.C. student, whose YouTube channel you can view here.

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Today at 12pm the cafeteria workers of Bronx Community College are fighting to ensure that they all keep their jobs when a new vendor comes in to operate the cafeteria.  The rally is taking place at the B.C.C. campus. Even if you don't go to BCC, you can sign this petition expressing support for the workers. 

Here's a video with two of the workers, Carmen Ovalle and Victor Bonet, speaking up about the situation that they're going through:

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DePaul is the largest Catholic University in the United States.  The DePaul students' insistence that the DePaul administration uphold Catholic values of social justice was instrumental in the campaign's success.  [To hold all Catholic Universities accountable to this standard, sign our national letter to Catholic administrators.]

• Fully provided single-coverage health plan for 80 full-time workers by the end of the contract; and only $85 per month for full family coverage.
• Minimum wages of between $11.80 and $14.30 per hour (depending on job classification) for presently employed workers by the end of the contract.  Right now workers make as little as $9.25 per hour. 
• Contract language that protects immigrants from employer abuse, including clauses ensuring that the employees will not be disciplined for Social Security no-match letters, that the employer will limit immigration status checks to what I-9 forms require, and that employees have a 2-year window to return to their job in the case of immigration problems.

With this huge victory under its belt the DePaul Living Wage Campaign will continue to work with the university administration to improve the university's campus-wide living wage policy.

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In addition to campus dining workers, UNITE HERE represents stadium concessions workers.  Here's a video of concessions workers speaking out at stadiums from NYC to San Francisco.  

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The campus dining workers at Pomona College are fighting to win a union.  And the Pomona students have their back.  

On March 1st of this year the campus dining workers at Pomona College went public in their demand for a fair unionization process, free of employer intimidation.  Over 90% of the College's dining workers have signed a petition to the College administration demanding such a process.  Since that day the students of Pomona College have stood in solidarity with the workers.  The student-worker solidarity website, Pomona Workers for Justice has chronicled this effort every step of the way.

So far the administration of Pomona College--which employs the workers-- has refused to honor the workers' demand.  

If last semester is any indication, the students and workers will not let the College's position stand.  In just several months the Pomona Worker for Justice staged a large rally on campus, had a candlelight vigil for labor peace, organized a boycott of the cafeteria and gathered in large numbers to present their petitions to Pomona President David Oxtoby.  They also produced tremendous videos of the action.  

The petition action:

And here's the students' take on what happened at the rally:

The struggle for justice at Pomona College is right in line with how UNITE HERE and the Stir It Up campaign are fighting to change the food service industry. Expect regular updates on Stir It Up as this campaign unfolds.  And if you want to get in touch with the student-worker committee at Pomona to hear more about how they've helped organize the workers' campaign, you can do so here.  

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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

Check out our Contract Database for university food service contracts that we already have.  

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The AVI campus food service workers--fighting for a just contract with full family health benefits and a pension plan--engage in a lunch-hour work stoppage, and the students get their back....in large numbers.  

The video was shot and edited by Monica Wise,a member of Sarah Lawrence College Worker Justice, who, in addition to fighting alongside the workers for union representation and a fair contract, is filming a documentary on the workers' struggle.  Enjoy the action:

Campus dining workers from DePaul talk about their jobs in this great video from the DePaul Committee for Social Justice.

Email depaullivingwage[at]gmail.com for info on getting involved in the campaign, and sign the petition here.

Last Friday the food service workers at Sarah Lawrence College were officially recognized as UNITE HERE Local 100 members. 75% of the workers, employees of AVI Foodsystems, signed a union authorization card. This is a great victory for the workers who, along with food service workers at Hunter College and the University of Southern California, had to struggle to get it.  Next up for the Sarah Lawrence workers…contract negotiations. We’ll keep you up-to-date as that unfolds, and we’ll post video of worker and student reaction to the initial Sarah Lawrence victory soon.   

In the meantime, here's a repost of the student-worker delegation at Sarah Lawrence that preceded the workers winning a neuatrality agreement from AVI by one day: