California State University East Bay

The Pioneer

California State University East Bay

The Pioneer

California State University East Bay

The Pioneer

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Aramark Workers Strike for Fair Labor Practices

CSUEB student Vanessa Garcia expresses concern for
Aramark worker conditions to CSUEB’s Chief of
Finance Brad Wells.

As a call for equal work policies and fair practices, the California Faculty Association’s union and their executive board passed a resolution Monday supporting Aramark workers at CSU East Bay, who are currently petitioning for full unionization.

“Almost all of the workers on campus have union protection that protects them … if they feel they’ve been treated unfairly,” Jennifer Eagan, professor and member of the CFA at CSUEB, said Wednesday. “The Aramark workers don’t have anything like this at all. They are at-will employees without a system of seniority. We want everyone to be treated with respect and dignity at their job.”

On Monday a group of students, faculty, Aramark workers and supporters marched to CSUEB’s dining commons to speak to management about their problems and concerns.

“We had a whole group of people, about 30 I think,” said Sarah Norr, representative of UNITE HERE, the international labor union representing Aramark workers throughout the country. “The workers had a petition saying that they wanted a fair process to be able to organize, and they wanted their voices to be heard.”

As supporters continued to march their way into the dining commons, Norr said one of the managers who saw them coming ran away, hid in the office and proceeded to contact authorities.

“We just marched right into the kitchen and we were chanting there and hanging out. The workers were asking her to come out and listen to them and their demands, but she wouldn’t come out,” said Norr.

After a long period of time Norr said campus security came over and asked them to just leave their petition for management to see later.

“We ended up giving them the petition,” said Norr. “It was very telling to me that managers don’t even want to come and talk to the workers or listen to them, but also interesting to see how nervous they were to have a whole crowd of people in there knowing what was going on.”

Aramark management declined to comment for this article.

Although Aramark’s management was asked to respond to the petition within a 24-hour period to the petition and a fair process for workers to organize, the request has yet to be met.

“We still don’t know what their position is,” said Norr.

With a two-thirds majority of workers supporting the petition, more union supporters marched to CSUEB’s administration building Wednesday in hopes of holding a surprise meeting with President Morishita and his cabinet.

“We wanted him to weigh in on the petition and hopefully speak to Aramark about meeting worker demands,” said Norr. “The administration can resolve this because if they tell Aramark to do something, then they have to do it.”

Although the president was not available at the time, supporters arrived at his office eager for their voices to be heard by anyone with an upper hand. After waiting 30 minutes in a conference room, Diane Woods, chief of staff to the president and Chief Financial Officer Brad Wells, met with advocates for the petition.

Supporters told them that Aramark understaffed positions at the food venues and said workers have to take on added tasks without compensation for their services.

“There’s a worker currently working at Aramark who says he worked multiple jobs at the dining commons and after consistently requesting a raise he was finally given one six months later. It was a 14 cent raise, and it was more of an insult,” said Norr.

The workers have been really strong and want to continue to move this process forward and they’re really ready for a change Norr said.

Moreover, workers would like to claim affordable health care, said Norr.

“A worker who suffered from a heart attack at the dining commons and was rushed to the emergency room, now has a $200,000 debt that will take a lifetime for him to pay off with the wages and benefits he is currently making with Aramark,” said Norr.

As the meeting with the administration members came to a close, supporters exited the building and met again to debrief the event as well as prepare for the next day’s union action. Today, supporters will march again to Aramark’s dining commons requesting for support from management.

“I think everyone felt their voices were heard at the meeting and that their voices will be heard by the president,” said Eagan.

There is a CFA resolution expected to be held next Tuesday asking for the Academic Senate to also support the action of the unionization of Aramark workers.

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Aramark Workers Strike for Fair Labor Practices