WHAT WAS your first summer job like? Like many people, mine was at a yogurt shop, the type of place that hires high school kids. It was an eye-opening experience, not because of the work, but rather how little I was paid for it. More shocking was the realization that adult workers supported themselves on this wage full time.
Although the University has mechanisms for most workers to move up the pay scale, food service presents a problem. Workers for ARAmark operate under a different environment and have fewer opportunities for advancement than other employees. The University should work to include them.
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Food service workers operate under very different rules than other University workers because the vast majority -- 280 of 350 -- are under contract with ARAmark, not the University. The 1999 contract between the University and ARAmark states that University employees will receive the same pay as before the contract, but workers who quit will be replaced with ARAmark workers.
ARAmark is far from a sweatshop employer: Its minimum wages are fairly competitive with unskilled wages on the University payroll, at seven dollars an hour. Workers can receive bonuses for high customer satisfaction or perfect attendance. They also get automatic raises with increasing experience, according to Ed Gutauskas, Director of Dining Services.
But workers only are guaranteed paltry three percent increases. At this rate, it would take several years for a worker receiving the minimum to reach eight dollars an hour, a goal cited by University activists.
The University has several programs in place for its employees to reach their full potential and earn higher wages. Apprenticeship programs and community college tuition reimbursement mean that workers willing to go the extra mile can gain better skills and the wages that accompany them.
Food service employees, by contrast, have few programs to help them advance. Gatauskas points to ARAmark's apprenticeship programs as a way for workers to advance. However, the better programs, which help increase culinary and management-type skills, are not designed for employees, and very few participate.
Most apprentices are actually culinary students preparing for later employment with ARAmark. These students are in very different situations from the relatively unskilled workers ARAmark employs.
Gatuskas also defends ARAmark by saying that they do the majority of their promotions from within, so that workers who start at the bottom become supervisors. It is a laudable goal to develop talent from within. It seems, however, that by restricting the prestigious training programs to more traditionally educated people from outside the organization, the company also unintentionally places limits on how high workers can eventually move.
It does not benefit the University to have a small class of employees in relatively dead-end jobs while others, also starting out with low skills, have the means to move up. The fact that these workers are under contract with ARAmark does not relieve the University of its responsibility for them.
Although ARAmark operates fairly independently, the University can put stipulations into its contract. Not only does the dining contract include pages of requirements about food, but it also stipulates that ARAmark will purchase five percent of its materials from minority-owned businesses.
If the University can encourage affirmative action, an often-controversial policy, it can do some pushing on human resources programs. It is hypocritical to force ARAmark to pay higher wages when the wages it does pay are competitive with the University. It is also impractical to force ARAmark to introduce new training programs. This does not mean, however, that the University should abandon responsibility.
The University's programs are open to all of its 11,000 employees. Making the 280 ARAmark employees eligible for University apprenticeships and, for those who qualify, tuition reimbursement, would not cause a huge additional burden.
Of course, just making the employees eligible is not enough. The University should negotiate the next contract to make sure that workers know about their opportunities, and that supervisors cooperate in these initiatives. ARAmark employees should be able to demand more flexible schedules to educate themselves.
Contracting out University services may save money, but this should not be an excuse to abandon responsibility for people that, in reality, work for the University. We claim to value the intellectual climate at this school. It is time to ensure that this climate embraces all members of the community.
(Elizabeth Managan's column appears Tuesdays inThe Cavalier Daily.)
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