Post by Modesto Anarcho on Aug 30, 2007 18:17:06 GMT -5
Better pay, benefits for food workers
By Sharon Stello/Enterprise staff writer
Published Aug 30, 2007 - 14:18:06 CDT.
Sodexho will increase wages and benefits for its food service workers at UC Davis under a new agreement with the campus, adding about $2 million in annual costs for the remaining three years of UCD's contract with the company. UCD will evaluate all options for providing food service in anticipation of that contract's end.
Wednesday's announcement comes after protests calling for food workers to become university employees. Some food workers say the new agreement doesn't go far enough. They want nothing less than direct university employment.
UCD is the last of the University of California's 10 campuses and five medical centers still contracting with outside companies to provide food service. At UCD, about 500 food workers are employed by Sodexho.
“We have listened to a wide range of sometimes-conflicting concerns, and I believe we are responding in a principled way to balance the cost of improved benefits and wages for our food service workers with the need to maintain access and affordability for our students,” UCD Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef said in a news release.
“And, very important to me because I believe a contract is one's word, we are doing so without breaking our contract with Sodexho,” he added. “Sodexho is being responsive to our requests and is committed to strengthening its overall compensation competitiveness and workplace environment.”
Dan Cole, a lead cook at Oxford dining hall, said better wages and benefits are an improvement, but “it's not enough.”
“It's kind of a small victory for us,” said Cole, who earns $11 an hour working 35 to 40 hours per week.
Cole said the agreement provides “two-thirds of what we're asking for,” but the fight will continue for direct university employment and union representation.
A UCD spokeswoman noted that Sodexho workers have the right to unionize without becoming university employees.
UCD's announcement came as a surprise to William Schlitz, spokesman for AFSCME Local 3299, the union that would represent the food workers if employed by UCD.
“We found out the same time the media found out,” Schlitz said. “We're shocked that the university and Sodexho would move forward with an agreement without including the workers in the discussion.”
Schlitz said the agreement addresses pay and benefits - although the amounts are still unknown - but avoids union representation and retirement benefits offered to UCD employees. He said Sodexho workers on the Davis campus are “treated like second-class citizens” compared to their counterparts at the UCD Medical Center in Sacramento.
Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, D-Davis, released a statement this morning in response to the new plan.
“Certainly, any improvement in the wages and benefits for the workers at the university is a good thing,” Wolk said. “However, I am very disappointed that the university did not meet with representatives of AFSCME and Sodexho workers in the past several weeks, as I was led to believe by the university.
“This only underscores the awkward, and ultimately untenable, situation of the university acting as the employer, negotiating pay and benefits, while they are not in fact the employer of record. I hope the university will consider a more aggressive schedule for rectifying this situation, as has been done on other UC campuses.”
Benefits increase
According to the agreement, Sodexho will increase its employer contribution for medical benefits, effective Jan. 1. The amount will be determined jointly by UCD and Sodexho before the health plan open-enrollment period in October.
Dennis Shimek, senior associate vice chancellor of human resources at UCD, said the campus did not require a minimum amount, but asked Sodexho to propose a contribution level that's above the current amount and that will make health plans affordable for workers. Sodexho employees must work at least 30 hours per week to be eligible for medical benefits.
Under the agreement, Sodexho also will adjust hourly wages to make them comparable to UC wages for all career employees - now and any time UC salaries increase in the next three years. New wages will be announced by Sept. 21, when they take effect.
The amount of wage increases must still be determined, Shimek said. UC's new salary scale won't be finalized until the UC Regents meet in September. Sodexho's merit pay increases, to be announced next month, also must be figured into the equation.
While pay will go up for Sodexho's career workers, student employee wages won't change. UCD said they are already paid at a rate comparable or slightly higher than university pay rates. Under the new agreement, students will receive greater financial assistance from Sodexho for books and university fees.
New workers still receive 50 percent of book costs, but the maximum increases from $60 to $80. Fifth-quarter workers still receive 75 percent of book costs, but the maximum rises from $175 to $200.
Tuition aid will increase and be offered to workers earlier. Reimbursement rises from $75 to $100 for fourth-quarter workers. And, for the first time, $50 will be offered to second-quarter workers.
In addition to compensation improvements, Sodexho has agreed to use an independent third-party review process to resolve employee concerns and to provide UCD with quarterly reports of any grievances or employee complaints.
Sodexho has also agreed to use UCD's Principles of Community as “an expectation of values and respectful conduct for employees.” The company will use this guiding statement in employee orientation and other employment practices.
Rates go up in 2008
The changes will add an estimated $1.5 million in annual costs for Student Housing and $500,000 per year for Student Union food services, according to UCD.
In the first year, the added expenses for Student Housing will be covered by housing reserves since students have already paid for meal plans for 2007-08. In the following two years, the cost will be passed on to students living on campus. They will pay a cumulative rate increase of about 3 percent, or roughly $330 per year. That's in addition to normal annual rate increases or inflation-related adjustments, which are also probable during this time, UCD reported.
A combination of strategies are expected to finance the Student Union's cost increases. These could include higher food prices, reduced hours and services, possible corporate sponsorships or franchise opportunities, catering service changes, and redirection of vending machine revenues, UCD said.
Campus administrators will review these options with student governance groups and leaders involved in advising student housing and student unions operations. These groups include the Campus Unions and Recreation Board, the Residence Hall Advisory Board, the Student Services and Fees Administrative Advisory Committee and the Associated Students of UCD.
The campus said discussions with students from these groups began last spring and “have been essential in developing principle-based approaches to managing student costs.”
Talks began after hundreds of protesters marched through Davis streets and blocked an intersection May 1. Later that month, another sit-in was staged in the Mrak Hall administration building on campus.
A group of 24 food workers and supporters arrested May 1 continue to face charges of failing to disperse from an unlawful assembly when ordered. They entered not guilty pleas Wednesday in Yolo Superior Court and return to court at 9 a.m. Oct. 18.
Contract through 2010
The current Sodexho contract began in 1998 and continues through June 30, 2010. In preparation for the end of that contract, UCD will spend the next 18 months consulting with student groups, employees and other food service experts, both within UC and across the country, to “evaluate all options” and their potential financial impacts. That includes the possibility of food workers becoming directly employed by the university.
“Any future decisions will be guided by university principles to provide students with affordable on-campus housing rates and student union services while maintaining the highest level of workplace practices for employees,” said UCD's news release.
Sodexho, a food service contractor at more than 750 colleges and universities nationwide, has been a campus partner since 1971. Sodexho provides dining services in the campus dining halls and manages retail food services at the Silo, the Pub, in the Health Sciences district, the Biological Sciences lab, and at the Activities and Recreation Center.
It provides catering services for official campus events and for external customers who rent campus facilities. It also operates concessions at the Pavilion, the Mondavi Center, Aggie Stadium and campus vending operations.
Each year, Sodexho conducts slightly more than $20 million in food service business at UCD, and Sodexho reports a profit margin in recent years of between 0 and 2 percent, the campus reported.
- Reach Sharon Stello at sstello@davisenterprise.net or 747-8043.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
By Sharon Stello/Enterprise staff writer
Published Aug 30, 2007 - 14:18:06 CDT.
Sodexho will increase wages and benefits for its food service workers at UC Davis under a new agreement with the campus, adding about $2 million in annual costs for the remaining three years of UCD's contract with the company. UCD will evaluate all options for providing food service in anticipation of that contract's end.
Wednesday's announcement comes after protests calling for food workers to become university employees. Some food workers say the new agreement doesn't go far enough. They want nothing less than direct university employment.
UCD is the last of the University of California's 10 campuses and five medical centers still contracting with outside companies to provide food service. At UCD, about 500 food workers are employed by Sodexho.
“We have listened to a wide range of sometimes-conflicting concerns, and I believe we are responding in a principled way to balance the cost of improved benefits and wages for our food service workers with the need to maintain access and affordability for our students,” UCD Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef said in a news release.
“And, very important to me because I believe a contract is one's word, we are doing so without breaking our contract with Sodexho,” he added. “Sodexho is being responsive to our requests and is committed to strengthening its overall compensation competitiveness and workplace environment.”
Dan Cole, a lead cook at Oxford dining hall, said better wages and benefits are an improvement, but “it's not enough.”
“It's kind of a small victory for us,” said Cole, who earns $11 an hour working 35 to 40 hours per week.
Cole said the agreement provides “two-thirds of what we're asking for,” but the fight will continue for direct university employment and union representation.
A UCD spokeswoman noted that Sodexho workers have the right to unionize without becoming university employees.
UCD's announcement came as a surprise to William Schlitz, spokesman for AFSCME Local 3299, the union that would represent the food workers if employed by UCD.
“We found out the same time the media found out,” Schlitz said. “We're shocked that the university and Sodexho would move forward with an agreement without including the workers in the discussion.”
Schlitz said the agreement addresses pay and benefits - although the amounts are still unknown - but avoids union representation and retirement benefits offered to UCD employees. He said Sodexho workers on the Davis campus are “treated like second-class citizens” compared to their counterparts at the UCD Medical Center in Sacramento.
Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, D-Davis, released a statement this morning in response to the new plan.
“Certainly, any improvement in the wages and benefits for the workers at the university is a good thing,” Wolk said. “However, I am very disappointed that the university did not meet with representatives of AFSCME and Sodexho workers in the past several weeks, as I was led to believe by the university.
“This only underscores the awkward, and ultimately untenable, situation of the university acting as the employer, negotiating pay and benefits, while they are not in fact the employer of record. I hope the university will consider a more aggressive schedule for rectifying this situation, as has been done on other UC campuses.”
Benefits increase
According to the agreement, Sodexho will increase its employer contribution for medical benefits, effective Jan. 1. The amount will be determined jointly by UCD and Sodexho before the health plan open-enrollment period in October.
Dennis Shimek, senior associate vice chancellor of human resources at UCD, said the campus did not require a minimum amount, but asked Sodexho to propose a contribution level that's above the current amount and that will make health plans affordable for workers. Sodexho employees must work at least 30 hours per week to be eligible for medical benefits.
Under the agreement, Sodexho also will adjust hourly wages to make them comparable to UC wages for all career employees - now and any time UC salaries increase in the next three years. New wages will be announced by Sept. 21, when they take effect.
The amount of wage increases must still be determined, Shimek said. UC's new salary scale won't be finalized until the UC Regents meet in September. Sodexho's merit pay increases, to be announced next month, also must be figured into the equation.
While pay will go up for Sodexho's career workers, student employee wages won't change. UCD said they are already paid at a rate comparable or slightly higher than university pay rates. Under the new agreement, students will receive greater financial assistance from Sodexho for books and university fees.
New workers still receive 50 percent of book costs, but the maximum increases from $60 to $80. Fifth-quarter workers still receive 75 percent of book costs, but the maximum rises from $175 to $200.
Tuition aid will increase and be offered to workers earlier. Reimbursement rises from $75 to $100 for fourth-quarter workers. And, for the first time, $50 will be offered to second-quarter workers.
In addition to compensation improvements, Sodexho has agreed to use an independent third-party review process to resolve employee concerns and to provide UCD with quarterly reports of any grievances or employee complaints.
Sodexho has also agreed to use UCD's Principles of Community as “an expectation of values and respectful conduct for employees.” The company will use this guiding statement in employee orientation and other employment practices.
Rates go up in 2008
The changes will add an estimated $1.5 million in annual costs for Student Housing and $500,000 per year for Student Union food services, according to UCD.
In the first year, the added expenses for Student Housing will be covered by housing reserves since students have already paid for meal plans for 2007-08. In the following two years, the cost will be passed on to students living on campus. They will pay a cumulative rate increase of about 3 percent, or roughly $330 per year. That's in addition to normal annual rate increases or inflation-related adjustments, which are also probable during this time, UCD reported.
A combination of strategies are expected to finance the Student Union's cost increases. These could include higher food prices, reduced hours and services, possible corporate sponsorships or franchise opportunities, catering service changes, and redirection of vending machine revenues, UCD said.
Campus administrators will review these options with student governance groups and leaders involved in advising student housing and student unions operations. These groups include the Campus Unions and Recreation Board, the Residence Hall Advisory Board, the Student Services and Fees Administrative Advisory Committee and the Associated Students of UCD.
The campus said discussions with students from these groups began last spring and “have been essential in developing principle-based approaches to managing student costs.”
Talks began after hundreds of protesters marched through Davis streets and blocked an intersection May 1. Later that month, another sit-in was staged in the Mrak Hall administration building on campus.
A group of 24 food workers and supporters arrested May 1 continue to face charges of failing to disperse from an unlawful assembly when ordered. They entered not guilty pleas Wednesday in Yolo Superior Court and return to court at 9 a.m. Oct. 18.
Contract through 2010
The current Sodexho contract began in 1998 and continues through June 30, 2010. In preparation for the end of that contract, UCD will spend the next 18 months consulting with student groups, employees and other food service experts, both within UC and across the country, to “evaluate all options” and their potential financial impacts. That includes the possibility of food workers becoming directly employed by the university.
“Any future decisions will be guided by university principles to provide students with affordable on-campus housing rates and student union services while maintaining the highest level of workplace practices for employees,” said UCD's news release.
Sodexho, a food service contractor at more than 750 colleges and universities nationwide, has been a campus partner since 1971. Sodexho provides dining services in the campus dining halls and manages retail food services at the Silo, the Pub, in the Health Sciences district, the Biological Sciences lab, and at the Activities and Recreation Center.
It provides catering services for official campus events and for external customers who rent campus facilities. It also operates concessions at the Pavilion, the Mondavi Center, Aggie Stadium and campus vending operations.
Each year, Sodexho conducts slightly more than $20 million in food service business at UCD, and Sodexho reports a profit margin in recent years of between 0 and 2 percent, the campus reported.
- Reach Sharon Stello at sstello@davisenterprise.net or 747-8043.
Thursday, August 30, 2007