Advisory For: Tuesday, December 21, 2021
Contact: Madison Cofield, comms@pajbwu.org
Despite Aramark’s Attempt to Bust Union, Kutztown University Dining Workers Vow to Continue Fight to End Mistreatment and Improve Service to Students
KUTZTOWN, PA — Driven by outrage over their low pay and poor working
conditions— as well as by serious concerns over how these issues impact students—
dining workers employed by Aramark at Kutztown University are vowing to escalate
pressure on their employer as the company continues to refuse to recognize their
union. As of today, Aramark has gone two full months without instituting a fair
voluntary recognition process for recognizing the dining workers’ union. Instead,
the company has endeavored to squash the workers’ campaign through
disinformation and intimidation tactics. But even in the face of Armark’s union
busting efforts, workers and their supporters among the university’s student body
have vowed to fight on.
“We have no choice but to keep fighting because we’re tired of being treated with
disrespect by managers who talk down to us or fail to value our opinions,” said
Sean Jones, Aramark at Kutztown University Employee and Member of the
KU Dining Workers United Organizing Committee. “We’re sick of losing our
health insurance during summer breaks and having to decide whether we go
uninsured over the break or try to rearrange our other bills so that we can afford to
maintain coverage through expensive COBRA plans. And we can no longer stand to
see the students, whom we love and take immense pride in serving, suffer from the
decline in service that management has brought about by driving away so many of
our former coworkers through exploitation and abuse.”
“I don’t think it can be repeated enough that Kutztown is the only university in the
[PA State System of Higher Education] where food service workers don’t have a
union,” said KU student and union supporter Matthieu Maier at a November
17th rally. “Aramark is hanging on by a little thread of power […] but we’re going to
win.”
Backed by students and faculty, Kutztown University dining workers launched their
campaign on October 21st of this year. A short time later, Aramark managers
responded by trying to bust the union, spreading disinformation about labor unions
and attempting to intimidate workers. In at least one instance, an Aramark
manager violated federal labor law in a closed-door meeting designed to intimidate
one of the workers, and the union has filed formal charges with the National Labor
Relations Board in connection with the incident.
Kutztown University dining workers are organizing with Workers United, the same
union that organized the successful Starbucks workers campaign in Buffalo, NY and
1,200 sewing workers for Canada Goose in Winnipeg, Canada.
Terilynn Isamoyer, Aramark at Kutztown University Employee and Member
of the KU Dining Workers United Organizing Committee, said:
“We are going to fight for as long as it takes for Aramark to recognize our
union, and sit down to negotiate a contract that gives us a voice on the job to
call out disrespect from management, provides higher pay, improves our
health insurance, and addresses the serious understaffing that makes our
jobs hell and undermines our ability to serve students. . And in this fight,
we’re grateful to have the backing of so many KU students, who know that
we’re doing this not only to improve life for ourselves and our families but
also so that we can better serve the entire campus community. Instead of
trying to create a climate of fear and confusion by engaging in union busting,
Aramark should do what’s in the best interest of workers and students and
come to the negotiating table.”
David Melman, Manager and Elected Leader of the Pennsylvania Joint
Board of Workers United, said:
“Workers United represents hundreds of Aramark employees across eleven
university campuses in Pennsylvania. Our members have always fought hard
to win strong union contracts, ones that provide fair pay and fair working
conditions. Even while fighting to win the best for our members, we have
enjoyed an amicable working relationship with Aramark. It is deeply
disappointing and deeply shameful that Aramark has chosen to fight our
union and its employees at Kutztown University through low-road,
fear-mongering tactics. Even more shameful are the poor working conditions
and declining service in KU dining halls. These workers deserve the fair pay
and fair treatment enjoyed by dining workers at every other university in the
PA State System of Education, and students deserve to know that their food
service provider is doing all it can to fully staff the dining halls and maintain
the high level of service that students pay for. Our members across
Pennsylvania are ready to stand in solidarity with KU’s dining workers and
students until Aramark meets these exceptionally reasonable demands.”