With the Brown Dining Services workers contract set to expire midnight Thursday and negotiations plodding up to this point, the pressure is on for the union and the University to arrive at a new three-year contract, according to Rabbit Hoffinger, a first cook at the Verney-Woolley Dining Hall and a union steward.
While the University has agreed to provide the opportunity for assistant food service workers - who work 27 hours a week or less - to work enough hours to qualify for benefits, this concession was made at the expense of higher increases in wages and benefits, Hoffinger said.
"It's crunch time," Hoffinger said. "It's stressful in that room. All we wanted to do was improve the lives of a group that's worse off than (full-time workers), which is a significant statement. I don't think that makes anyone a hero. It's long-deserved."
The University remains optimistic about negotiations, said Michael Chapman, vice president for public affairs and University relations. "They're working very hard," he said. "The University hopes to meet an agreement that is fair, equitable and fiscally responsible."
Chapman declined to comment further on the negotiations.
Many members of the union have expressed dissatisfaction with the University's proposal, Hoffinger said. Even though negotiations will begin at 10 a.m. on Thursday at the Pembroke Field House on Cushing Street and last until midnight if necessary, Hoffinger said he is "90 percent sure" that a settlement will not be reached before the contract expires. The union will then decide on one of three options: extending the current contract, working without a contract while continuing negotiations or going on strike.
The likelihood of a strike is slim, but union members have not yet met to discuss a plan of action if negotiations reach an impasse, he said.
The current University proposal includes a 2.5-percent annual increase in wages, offset by an increase from 6 to 8 percent in the co-pay for full-time workers' health care premiums, Hoffinger said. Taking into account the roughly 4.5-percent annual inflation rate, this means inflation will outpace increases in real wages by about 2 percent annually, he said. Most Dining Services workers' salaries are below $32,000 a year, Hoffinger said, adding that all other Brown employees who make a salary below $32,000 have a 5-percent health care co-pay.
"We can barely afford to live on the paychecks we're getting now," Hoffinger said, adding that many Dining Services workers hold two or more jobs. "No one jumps into this job to get rich. They do it for the benefit package. Once that starts to disintegrate, it causes one to ask serious questions."
Yet some union members are not as pessimistic as Hoffinger. "I believe we've made a lot of progress from the first day of bargaining, and we're hopeful that we can reach an agreement by midnight," said Roxana Rivera, director of Service Employees International Union Local 615 and chief negotiator for the union, which represents Dining Services workers.
Rivera, however, does have some concerns. "The University has been doing well in past years, and we want a wage increase that reflects the prosperity of Brown," she said.
Sharon Mulligan '06, an SEIU organizer, said the University's behavior during negotiations contradicts its purported mission. "We're a university that values community. It's not like we're a for-profit institution, and I think it's the moral responsibility of this university to reward the hard work of its employees," she said. "(President) Ruth Simmons got a 19-percent raise this year, and all we're asking for is that the Dining Services workers be able to do one job and support their families."
Today at 3:30 p.m., Mulligan will help lead a rally to support Dining Services workers that will start at the Verney-Woolley Dining Hall, she said. Additional support for workers has come from the City Council, which passed a motion introduced last week by Ward 1 City Councilman David Segal urging Brown to agree on a just contract, Mulligan said.
Sarah Adler-Milstein '07.5, a member of the Student Labor Alliance, said that despite strong support for Dining Services workers among students, the University has kept them at arm's length. Last week, Adler-Milstein contacted University officials and requested to meet, but the response she received was evasive and dismissive, she said.
In response to this, a group of about 40 students brought flyers and picket signs expressing their views on negotiations to a dinner in Alumnae Hall last Friday after the dedication ceremony for the Life Sciences Building, she said. According to Adler-Milstein, University officials quickly turned up the music and had Department of Public Safety officers escort them out.
"It was really disappointing," she said. "We felt they didn't care about it. It's sort of an invisible crisis. When you're on campus, you don't always realize that some people in our community can't even go to the doctor."
