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Work Stoppage! Students and Workers Take Action at Sarah Lawrence

Submitted by Ian Mikusko on Thu, 02/25/2010 - 16:00
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As I’ve mentioned before, the food service workers at Sarah Lawrence College—employees of AVI Foodsystems—are fighting for a contract with full family health benefits, decent wages, a secure retirement plan, and the assurance that they’ll receive respect on the job. Yesterday the workers at the two main food service locations, The Pub and Bates, stopped working in the middle of the lunch hour to protest the current state of affairs, and to demand a fair contract from AVI. 


 
And the workers were not alone! SLC Worker Justice, a student organization devoted to supporting campus workers, organized the students and faculty to be a part of the workers’ action. As the work stoppage began, these students chanted with the workers, spoke out in support of the workers and encouraged other students to join the group as we marched across campus. As the group moved from The Pub to Bates to the Student Life Committee meeting, the group grew from around 10 students to over 100. Almost every patron in the entire cafeteria joined the workers in chants demanding a fair contract and health insurance.
 
I’ll post video footage of the action in the coming days—there was great worker and student testimony that I’d like to share with the Stir It Up community. For now, I’d just like to thank the students who have been so involved and supportive in the workers’ struggle! SLC Worker Justice had been passing out the above leaflet at almost every meal for the past week-and-a-half, educating the rest of the campus about the workers situation and mobilizing the entire community to support the workers when the time came. Yesterday it came…and if AVI doesn’t change their tune in negotiation, it will come again.  

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.

Sarah Lawrence Workers Win Neutrality Agreement from AVI

Submitted by Ian Mikusko on Fri, 10/30/2009 - 09:30
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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: 


Hunter College Cafeteria Workers Win Contract from AVI

Submitted by Ian Mikusko on Thu, 10/29/2009 - 10:28
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After months of working with no contract and facing the prospect of losing the free family health benefits that they’d been receiving for years, the cafeteria workers at Hunter College finally won a collective bargaining agreement from AVI Foodsystems!  This contract includes free family health benefits, a significant employer contribution to the employee’s retirement plan, and substantial wage increases over the next three years.  As a result of this settlement (pending ratification on Friday) the boycott of AVI at the Hunter College cafeteria, planned for today, has been called off.
 
This victory did not come without a struggle, however. The fact that the workers got to keep their wages, will get a raise the next two years, and will get to keep their health benefits, resulted in large part from the worker and student actions that took place on the Hunter campus.
 
On September 3, 2009, the workers staged a 15 minute work stoppage and rallied for health benefits and pension inside the cafeteria in front of students in the middle of the lunch hour rush (see the video of that action here, pic to the right).  Soon after, the workers and their union, Unite Here Local 100, reached out to the Hunter College students and faculty for support.  After weeks of organizing and with the great support from the Professional Staff Congress, the CUNY faculty union, the Hunter College community staged a rally of around 150 people at the Hunter College main campus on October 5.
 
After an October 8th negotiation failed to result in a fair contract, Hunter students and faculty began organizing a boycott of AVI at the Hunter College cafeteria on October 29 unless AVI agreed to give the workers a fair contract.   Students and faculty collected over 1000 pledges to boycott the cafeteria on the 29th. Then, this past Friday, facing the prospect of an impending boycott, AVI finally agreed to the workers’ reasonable requests.   As a result, the boycott has been canceled. 
 
AVI finally did the right thing at Hunter College.   They also gave the AVI workers at Sarah Lawrence College a fair process for deciding whether to form a union this past Friday. If workers there choose to form a union, AVI will have a chance to do the right thing again, and agree to a fair contract with the workers at Sarah Lawrence. 
 
The student-worker coalition that formed at Hunter College celebrated this victory yesterday afternoon. Come back to this site for an update, with video reactions from the workers and students who fought so hard to win a good contract.   

Video: Hunter College Cafeteria Workers and Students React to Negotiations with AVI

Submitted by Ian Mikusko on Tue, 10/20/2009 - 14:38
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As we announced late last week, unless AVI changes it stance on the Hunter College workers’ health benefits and pension, there will be an all-day boycott of all AVI food outlets at Hunter College on October 29th 2009. Here’s why it’s necessary: 
 
The Hunter College cafeteria workers have received free family health benefits for years.   AVI, the food service company that just came into Hunter College, has continually refused to respect this established job standard. At the most recent negotiation between the workers and the company, on October 8th, AVI continued to put forth a proposal that would result in the workers paying a significant, and increasing, sum for their health benefits. 
 
Under AVI’s proposal the workers would go from having free family health benefits last year and in years past to having to pay $141.98 per month by 2011-2012. Here’s a summary of the Hunter College AVI workers’ health care costs per month under AVI's most recent official proposal:1
 
  •  2008-2009--  $0
  •  2009-2010--  $50.46
  •  2010-2011--  $93.53
  •  2011-2012--  $141.98
 
The workers, as you can imagine, were pretty upset upon hearing AVI’s latest official offer.  Here’s an immediate post-negotiations reaction from Debbie, Paula, Lisa and Aisha, four of the cafeteria workers, outside of the UNITE HERE Local 100 office in New York.2
 
 

 
Several students and faculty from Sarah Lawrence College and Hunter College were in attendance at the negotiations as well. Here’s the response from Hunter College student Owen Hill. 
 

 

1.  Figures are based on 4.35 weeks per month; annual contribution rates run on September to September schedule.
2. Several small corrections. When Debbie states that the company is asking them to contribute $12 towards their pension fund, she means towards their health benefit fund, per week, this year; the exact number is $11.60 per week for ’09-’10. Several times Debbie complains that the company offered “the same” proposal. Taken literally this is not accurate, since, though the proposal was similar, there were several key differences.   

Radio Piece: Breaking Down AVI at Hunter College

Submitted by Ian Mikusko on Tue, 10/20/2009 - 13:40
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The night of the Hunter College rally UNITE HERE Local 100 lead organizer Gilbert Palacios and Hunter College cashier and Local 100 committee member, Deborah Johnson, appeared on WBAI's Building Bridges.  They talk about the situation with AVI, the moral responsibility of Hunter College, the strength of the union, and they even give a couple shout outs to Stir It Up!  The relevant part begins at 14:48.  

Here's the link:

http://www.archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesObamaIcePoliciesHunterCollegeCafeteriaWorkersProtest

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