NYT: Food-Service Workers Rally to Press Demands With Operator of Cafeterias

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/06/nyregion/06union.html?ref=nyregion


Josh Haner/The New York Times

Hundreds of workers rallied on Wednesday in the financial district. A union, Unite Here, seeks better terms from Aramark.

By SEWELL CHAN
Published: March 6, 2008

Hundreds of cafeteria and other food-service workers rallied in Lower Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon for higher wages and improved benefits as part of a continuing battle between the Aramark Corporation and Unite Here, a union that represents about 20,000 Aramark employees, including about 4,000 in the New York region.

The workers rallied outside the headquarters of Bank of New York Mellon at 1 Wall Street before traveling to the Goldman Sachs headquarters at 85 Broad Street and then returning. Some chanted slogans like, “Who’s in the kitchen? We don’t know. Aramark has got to go.”

Unite Here has engaged in several skirmishes with Aramark over the last several months, without decisive results. From Nov. 12 to Feb. 12, the 91 Aramark workers assigned to the cafeterias at the New York Life Insurance Company and an office tower at 55 Water Street were on strike over terms for a new contract. On Tuesday, 34 workers assigned to two Bank of New York Mellon cafeterias, at One Wall Street and 101 Barclay Street, began a strike, again over contract talks. Kevin Heine, a spokesman for Bank of New York Mellon, declined to comment on the strike against Aramark.

The two sides took opposing views on the labor dispute. In a phone interview, the union’s national president, Bruce S. Raynor, singled out Goldman Sachs, one of Wall Street’s most prosperous firms, which is not only a client of Aramark but a part owner.

“There is no greater example of income inequality in American society than the Goldman Sachs cafeteria,” Mr. Raynor said, adding that average employee compensation at Goldman Sachs was $660,000 last year, while employees in the company cafeteria typically are paid about $21,000 a year. “Aramark is in the middle of this equation, and as an owner and as a client Goldman Sachs needs to get Aramark to do the right thing.”

Two officials for Goldman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

FULL story at link.