Director of Food Services Sherwood Lincoln addresses student and worker concerns in a forum Wednesday evening.

A town hall meeting organized by the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) fostered discussion regarding the status of Aramark employees. Aramark, the food service provider for the University, recently released a new schedule in which some workers were notified of their termination, while others experienced a significant reduction in hours. Students, workers, Aramark management and interested members of the Wesleyan community gathered to discuss the recent events at the forum.

Two weeks ago, Aramark sent letters to union stewards notifying them that changes would be made in employee hours and positions. Specifically, Aramark had decided that they would fire six people and cut hours of employment by 217. In an initial negotiation meeting with the union, management told the workers that this decision was final. 

Subsequently, Aramark employees came to the WSA and United Students Labor Action Committee (USLAC) for support in their in their attempt to prevent Aramark’s dismissal of workers. After a later negotiation, lasting nine and a half hours, between the union and management, it was agreed that only three people would lose their jobs, and that only 140 hours would be cut from employees’ weekly work time.

"I think it’s a travesty that these employees are being laid off. I think that it’s great that students and workers can ally themselves together to pressure Aramark to meeting their demands," said Brian Moloney ’01. "The results prove that their efforts can be effective, but hopefully Aramark will concede even further."

While workers are satisfied with their accomplishments in negotiation, they have not given up in their efforts to deter Aramark from going through with firing employees. Thus, approximately 85 students, 20 workers and three Aramark managers attended the meeting.

The meeting began with Senior Director of Food Services Sherwood Lincoln giving Aramark’s reasons for the layoffs. Workers Raquelle Adorno, Jeffrey Hill and Irene Jackson spoke as representatives of the union and Aramark employees. Following their comments, students and workers had an opportunity to address the management and employee representatives.

Lincoln began by relating that Aramark has hired more employees at Wesleyan than they had in 1996. At that time, 55 full-time and 18 part-time workers were in the various Aramark facilities across campus- MoConaughy Hall (MoCon), Davenport Campus Center, Summerfields, Kosher Kitchen and Weshop. Because more students were at Wesleyan in subsequent years, Aramark hired more people. However, with 50 less students in the freshman class this year, they now find certain positions unnecessary, Lincoln said. Therefore, they wanted to cut back to 55 full-time and 25 part-time employees; after negotiation, they have remitted and at this point will only be losing 3 people and creating more jobs with less weekly hours.

Lincoln stressed that other positions are available from Aramark in the area, and that a job placement program is being established to help laid-off employees find work. Also, he asserted that food quality will stay the same. Finally, he added that Aramark would not make these changes unless they were completely necessary.

Jeff Hill, the first employee to speak, noted that he has been working as a chef at MoCon for 21 years. Since Aramark took over Food Services from Marriott ten years ago, he said he has seen changes that have hurt both the quality of food and the situation of workers at Wesleyan. According to Hill, though people are just barely making a living wage, Aramark is implementing this plan to reduce employees’ hours and fire workers.

Speaking in agreement, Raquelle Adorno believes Aramark’s changes have not been

for the better. Also, Adorno expressed offense that the management had secretively planned its cutbacks, without bringing the issue to employees before the final decision was made.

Using figures obtained from Lincoln in support of Aramark’s position, Adorno

pointed out that Aramark’s only goal could be to make a profit. While the number of meal plans bought this year shows that Aramark is suffering a two percent loss, the number of hours cut (140) would create a 7.6 percent profit.

Furthermore, Adorno gave information that Aramark is a 7.2 billion dollar corporation, with a net income of 150 million dollars. With a total gross income at Wesleyan of three million dollars, Adorno questioned the profits made by Aramark. Later in the discussion, Lincoln asserted that Aramark actually lost 130,000 dollars at Wesleyan last year. In response to Lincoln’s comment, workers throughout the room scoffed and verbally expressed that they doubted the truth of this statement.

In fact, throughout the meeting, students and workers as a group challenged Lincoln’s comments, through their murmurings and outcries of disbelief toward his statements. It was evident that students and workers were acting in solidarity against what they perceived as unfair, profit-driven business.

Many students complained about the lack of quality food at MoCon and the Campus Center. Hill and other workers pointed out that in the past, the food was much better. Many of the cooks at Wesleyan, including Hill, have had formal training at a culinary institute. However, Aramark has been buying more frozen, packaged items and replacing homemade bread, desserts, pasta, and other items offered inthe past. By not utilizing their employees to the fullest, workers assert that Aramark is only losing money, because students do not want to buy
meal plans and eat unpleasant food.

Throughout the meeting, there was a constant sense of frustration. 

"It seems pathetic that I should pay $1,170 to eat poor quality food so that Sherwood can tell me, ‘I don’t know’!" said Amy Fornari ’04. 

On the other hand, the concessions that Aramark has made show that the student and employee reaction to the situation has not been in vain. 

"The only reason that Aramark has made any concessions has been because of student and worker action," said Abe Walker ’03.

Though students and workers have had to mobilize quickly because the date for the layoffs is Monday, Dec. 3, activism will continue on the issue, as it

has since the situation surfaced. On Friday, Nov. 31 at 3 p.m., the union will hold a rally outside the Campus Center.

Students also held a rally at MoCon Wednesday, Nov. 15. Professor Christina Crosby, chair of the English department, spoke out, as well as Adorno, Walker, and Una Osato ’04. Approximately 200 people were in MoCon to support the workers and to learn more about the issues at hand.

Over these past two weeks, students have also collected signatures of people protesting Aramark’s intended layoffs. On Friday, Nov. 17, a group marched

to Lincoln’s office with about 900 student signatures. However, Lincoln had left his office and could not be found.

While it seemed at the meeting that it would be difficult to reach an agreement between the management and the employees, Vice President of the WSA Michael Lewis, who moderated the event proposed at its end that members of the Dining Committee, the union and the management meet after Winter Break to resolve this issue. Lincoln agreed to this and to other students’ demands for an investigation of Food Services at Wesleyan.