Northwestern’s Living Wage Campaign gathered Monday night in what was billed as an “emergency meeting” to discuss recent cuts to worker hours. Shifts will be shortened by half an hour per day at Willard, Hinman, Foster Walker and Norris (excluding Norbucks), according to Tom Breitsprecher, a Sodexo worker and chief shop steward. The change has already been instituted in some dining halls.
Around 40 people, including students, professors and workers packed into a Kresge classroom, with some sitting on the floor and standing in the doorway for the hourlong meeting.
For many, it was their first involvement with the campaign, which began in fall 2009. This summer, the group gained a substantial victory when workers received bigger raises in their latest contract than ever before, in part due to increased awareness and pressure from students. The current contract provides a wage floor of 10 dollars per hour.
Tom Breitsprecher, a Willard employee who has been involved in three of these contract negotiations since he began working at Northwestern, said the negotiations went smoothly, and the University actually offered more than what the workers were asking for. “We assumed it was made in good faith,” he said at the meeting.
However, now workers report that Sodexo is looking for ways to cut corners to make up for the concessions made this summer, which included paying for workers’ health insurance premiums. Workers are entitled to a free lunch during each shift, but one of the Sodexo employees present said through a translator that the company is looking to control the food that the workers take, requiring a manager to sign off on the meal. She also admitted that employees had been specifically cautioned against speaking with both student and professional media.
Workers claim that Sodexo is trying to force them to squeeze more work into less hours, and having non-union managers pick up the slack. According to Breitsprecher, having non-union workers replace union workers’ responsibilities is a “blatant violation” of the current contract, for which he will be filing grievances with the company. However, that process could take months.
The half an hour cut from the beginning of workers’ shifts at Willard, for example, makes it more difficult for students to eat lunch before a 12 p.m. class, since the dining hall doesn’t open until 11:15 a.m. and Willard makes food to order.
Sodexo District Manager Steve Mangan said on Thursday that these changes were “typical.” But Breitsprecher says while kitchens often slow as the year goes on, as students join Greek life or decide to move off-campus, he hasn’t seen that shift occur thus far in the year.
Mary Pattillo, a professor in the Sociology and African American Studies Departments, serves as the faculty representative for her departments to the faculty senate, a group with representatives from all parts of the university — including graduate schools — that advises the administration. Patillo is a member of the Social Responsibility Committee, which passed a resolution in the senate last spring in support of a living wage for campus workers. “It is that resolution that the Social Responsibility Committee has continued to follow up on with the administration. The faculty senate wants to know what’s going on with the issue that the resolution passed.”
Jesse Kadjo, a graduate student and former cafeteria worker at Loyola University, says she went through a similar contract situation at her school, which is why she became involved with Northwestern’s campaign. “To cut people by half an hour per day after you fought for so long…really undermines the employees and students,” she said. Mauricio Maluff, a Weinberg junior involved with Occupy NU, says his group has wanted to get involved in the Living Wage Campaign since its inception. “It’s very clear that it’s part of the same fight,” he said. “The Occupy movement is all about the siphoning of resources from the lower 99 percent to the one percent. The parallel is very strong.”
Within the meeting, the Living Wage Campaign began planning how they will protest the cuts. Measures they are considering taking include marching through campus on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Organizers drew parallels between King’s support for low-wage workers and the current situation. (In December, the senate passed a resolution to support students’ right to protest peacefully on campus, in lieu of recent violence against student protestors at UC Davis, Pattillo said.) A student petition in support of the workers will also be circulating this week. “At the end of the day, they’re the ones affected the most,” said Kellyn Lewis, co-director of the Living Wage Campaign.