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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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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.

USC Food Service Workers Ratify New Five-Year Contract with Major Wage and Benefit Gains

Submitted by Ian Mikusko on Thu, 11/05/2009 - 10:24
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The Hunter College workers weren’t the only college cafeteria workers who had a big victory in the past several weeks. The University of Southern California food service workers, members of Unite Here Local 11, ratified a new contract on October 20. 
 
The USC employees won wage increases of up to $2.45 per hour and upheld the Local 11 standard of free, full family medical coverage throughout the life of the contract. "With Unite Here we have a long tradition of organizing for strong contracts with big improvements, and this victory is just another example," said Alfredo Valle, a food server at USC for more than 25 years.
 

As was the case at Hunter College, this victory was not given to the workers; rather it was earned through action and a united workforce. In September, 80 food service workers took their demands to USC President Steven Sample—sending the USC administration a message that they were willing to fight for a good contract. Here are a couple brief videos from the USC workers with their reaction to the contract victory: 

 

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.   
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