By: Purvi Desai
PLUMSTED Contract talks between the Service Workers United, representing school district’s cafeteria workers, and the new food service provider are scheduled to resume Wednesday.
"We are optimistic that we will come to an agreement soon," said Karen Cutler, spokeswoman for Aramark Corp., the new food service provider.
"We’re hoping that both sides can meet and work out the issues," Superintendent Jerry North said Tuesday.
Wednesday’s meeting, after The Messenger-Press press deadline, is the latest in an ongoing series of negotiations to resolve what has become a sticky issue for cafeteria workers.
Mr. North said that on Sept. 26, school district officials sat down with Aramark representatives to discuss the ongoing problems with the lunch ladies, which started even before the school year began. Among the other concerns raised by the lunch ladies were fewer vacation and personal days and newly enforced requirements to pay for their own background checks and fingerprinting.
Mr. North said Aramark had agreed to bid on a contract with the school district prior to Sodexho’s (the previous food service) pay negotiations with Service Workers United, which took effect just after the change in companies, and resulted in an increase in pay for the lunch ladies, among other things.
He said Aramark is willing to negotiate better pay for the lunch ladies and will pay them retroactively for the time they have worked under the new food service division.
Mr. North also said school officials had been asking Sodexho for quite some time to provide fingerprints and background checks on their employees, as mandated by state law, but the company did not abide their requests.
But even if things work out, the number of lunch ladies remaining may be too few to even gain from negotiations[bwo: how is that ?: ] between their union, which is affiliated with Service Employees International Union, Local 2552 of New York, and Aramark, which took the reins from Sodexho USA earlier this year.
There are currently only six lunch ladies left in the school district down 12 from the 18 that existed at the end of the previous school year, said one lunch lady last week. The exodus has been attributed to the change in food service companies, and change in pay benefits and work schedules for this year.
Sodexho decided not to bid on a contract for 2006-07 citing it "was not in the best interest of the company."
Mary James, a spokeswoman for the lunch ladies, did not return calls by The Messenger-Press on Tuesday, but in an e-mail dated Sept. 23 and subsequent conversations, Ms. James, said that six lunch ladies quit as of Sept. 21, and Aramark has brought in temporary food service workers who are being paid $16.50 an hour. Under Sodexho, the cafeteria crew was being paid between $7 and $12.50, Ms. James said
"The women just got their first paychecks and were appalled by them," she said. "People who worked over 40 hours had no overtime included in their paychecks. And part of the time they have worked in the first two weeks are now carried over to the next pay cycle because the cycle runs Thursday through Wednesday. Very confusing."
Previously, the lunch ladies have said that their pay has been reduced to minimum wage, and their previous work shifts of between four to seven hours have been made into eight-hour workdays. In addition to less pay, sick/personal days have been reduced, the ladies haven’t received reimbursements for slip resistant shoes, and are being told to pay for their own background checks and fingerprinting, Ms. James has said previously.
There is also some tension in the shrinking ranks.Ms. James said the lunch ladies have reported that temporary staff workers, from All Star Staffing in Philadelphia, who have been brought in to replace the ladies that have quit, arrive to work in lavish cars such as Lincoln Town Cars and on one occasion, a Hummer limousine.
"They’re even bragging about it," a lunch lady, who wished to remain unidentified, said. "They’re getting more than the people who are actually running the kitchen."
Mr. North said that Aramark has indeed brought in temporary staffers from Philadelphia, where its corporate headquarters are based, but it is responsible for providing transport for them. He said that on one occasion, the van transporting the temporary workers broke down, and that was the reason that they came in a temporarily hired Lincoln Town Car.
"The company has created such a hostile work environment, that they couldn’t take it any more," said the anonymous lunch lady, of the colleagues who have quit. "The union is still fighting on the ladies behalf."
The two parties have previously met on Aug. 10, 15, and 24.
"The union has sent a list of what they consider labor law violations to both the heads of the union and the company," Ms. James said.
"We’re walking a fine thin line," the lunch lady said, adding that each person’s reason for quitting varies, but for her, she sticks with the job because of the children. "We used to like our jobs. We’re not sure we like them any more."

