By Karen Winegarten and Jessica Melia

ARAMARK, one of the largest international food service companies, has provided food service for Wesleyan for over eleven years. On Friday, the ARAMARK food service workers learned that a new district manager has planned to drastically reduce people’s hours, demote workers to lower paid positions, and lay off several people–all allegedly because the freshmen class is fifty students smaller. There’s obviously a side to this story that ARAMARK is hiding. In relation to the 2700 students who attend Wesleyan and are required to purchase a meal plan, 50 students are insignificant. As it is, the workers are often understaffed and overworked. One cook at Mocon worked 82 hours last week. In Mocon, after the cuts are implemented, the workers will have to absorb the hours lost by the elimination of two full-time positions and one part-time position. This means that every day up to 20 hours of work will need to be divided between the remaining workers. This is not to mention the numerous positions that will be eliminated and reduced at other Wesleyan food service locations. 

Jeff Hill, who has worked at Mocon for twenty-one years as a cook, remembers when the quality of food served at Wesleyan was much better. Bakers used to make fresh bread and cakes every day, soups were made from scratch, and pastas were fresh, not boxed. Today ARAMARK buys all their baked goods and relies on numerous powders, frozen goods, and pre-made products to make their food. The catch is that ARAMARK is buying pre-made food from non-unionized corporations, which exploit their workers. Jeff’s wife used to be baker at Wesleyan but her job was eliminated after ARAMARK started ordering their baked goods from an outside company. All ARAMARK food service workers at Wesleyan are unionized and thus receive higher wages and benefits than non-unionized workers. ARAMARK chooses to eliminate good service and good quality food in exchange for higher profits.

Another change Jeff Hill has seen over the past years relates to manager treatment of workers. Sherwood Lincoln, the Senior Food Service Director, doesn’t show any interest in his workers. Another worker at the Campus Center, Mike Misenti, believes the real reason for the worker reductions is the more profits ARAMARK makes, the bigger bonuses the management receives. Most ARAMARK workers believe that the union is the only saving grace against the hands of ARAMARK management. Hill says, "If we didn’t have a union, our hands would be totally tied." Hill is not just referring to the job reductions but to recent charges of manager harassment and ARAMARK’s threat to reduce the health benefits workers
receive. 

Sadly Misenti says, "We can scream and yell all we want but if you kids sit by silently nothing will happen. You’re the customers, we’re only workers." ARAMARK food service workers have seen class after class graduate. They are as much part of the Wesleyan community as the students, faculty, and administration. The members of USLAC will work their hardest to ensure that ARAMARK isn’t making profits at the expense of people struggling to make a living wage–even if it means replacing ARAMARK. Please support our upcoming actions. 
 

Winegarten is a member of the class of 2002 and Melia is a member of the class of 2003.