Sonia Lefian and Rose Ayanyan started working as servers at the Sharpe Refectory last year, making $8.25 an hour as "limited duration employees." The pair of friends from Cranston, who emigrated from Armenia in the 1970s, drive to the Ratty together several afternoons a week after beginning the day at 6 a.m. at their full-time electronics assembly jobs in South Providence.
As limited duration employees, the two women worked half-time about 9 months out of the year and were not eligible for the University's regular minimum wage of $10 an hour.
Over the summer, however, the union representing Brown Dining Services employees negotiated the status of LDEs with the University.
As a result, when they started working at the Ratty again this semester, Lefian and Ayanyan were members of Local 615 of the Service Employees' International Union, with a starting wage of $10 an hour and some union rights, such as grievance procedures and paid breaks. Previously, they had to punch out during their 15-minute breaks.
Some of the former LDEs had worked at Brown for several years.
"It helps," said Lefian, who, like Ayanyan, works 60-hour weeks to help support her family.
The negotiations between SEIU 615 and the University, which ran from May to mid-June, resulted in an addendum to the standing union contract, creating 45 union jobs in a new classification, "assistant food service worker." Workers in the new positions, almost all of which have been filled by former LDEs, will not receive most of the benefits that other BuDS union workers receive. Employees in the new positions cannot work more than 975 hours a year - which is considered half time by the University - and thus, under University-wide policy, will receive no health benefits.
Before the negotiations, BuDS employed about 80 LDEs, including high school students, college students and clients of the Rhode Island Association for Retarded Citizens, all of whom are not covered under the new agreement. BuDS is otherwise a wholly "union shop," according to Rabbit Hoffinger, a first cook at the Verney-Woolley Dining Hall and a union steward who participated in the negotiations.
One worker, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal, told The Herald that he had started at BuDS in 1999 working for a temp agency, had been hired as a "miscellaneous" employee in 2000 and worked as an LDE for four years until recently starting as an assistant food service worker.
"We were doing the same work as the professionals," he said. He still works another job in addition to the BuDS position.
"One of the things that we wanted to address, both in Dining Services and the rest of the University, is people who work regularly at Brown and come back year after year," said Walter Hunter, vice president for administration. Hunter said a subcommittee of the Human Resources Advisory Board has been studying the issue of LDEs throughout the University since spring of this year and will "shortly" make its recommendations to President Ruth Simmons' Cabinet.
Hunter said the University hires LDEs for a variety of reasons, including special projects, filling vacancies and meeting seasonal demands. "Most employers - certainly higher (educational) institutions - do this type of thing," he said.
The summer negotiations began soon after the firing and rehiring of another longtime LDE, Valdi Williams. Williams had worked at The Gate as an LDE since 2000 before she was fired in March on her first day of a union job at the Ratty for allegedly not washing her hands after being in the bathroom. Williams was rehired with back pay in April after a public campaign by the Student Labor Alliance and a University "problem resolution process."
Hoffinger said the issue of LDEs came to a head after the publicity surrounding Williams brought attention to the issue.
"Some of them worked at Brown for ridiculous periods of time. ... It was very un-union, what was going on, we felt," Hoffinger said. "They were people that were necessary to the running of the shop," he added.
The SLA held a few rallies late last semester about Williams and LDEs and leafleted heavily during Commencement, according to Chris Hu '06, a member of the SLA. At one rally, during finals period, about 50 students, graduate students and union leaders tried to enter University Hall to deliver a letter to President Ruth Simmons' office. They were met by Hunter and other officials, and the two groups debated the labor issue for about 30 minutes, at which point Hunter agreed to deliver the letter to Simmons.
Rights, few benefits
Though former LDEs who are now assistant food service workers got a raise, union rights and some benefits, the University did not meet all the union's demands.
"I think management will tell you that they gave until it hurt and I will tell you that we have just begun," Hoffinger said.
Particularly at issue were the questions of sick time and vacation time, which the assistant food service workers do not receive. Before the new classification was created, a union employee classified at the bottom of the BuDS pay scale - a "food service worker" - started at $11.52 an hour and got 5 days of paid sick leave. Once food service workers have been employed for a year, they get 10 days of paid vacation time, and both their sick time and vacation time increase the longer they are employed.
"What I would like them to see - what would be easy - is a little vacation time, a little sick time," Hoffinger said. "Everyone gets that - you can go anywhere in the University, you get at least one free sick day."
Hunter said the University did not offer sick time or vacation time for the new positions because "the nature of the work is fairly sporadic" and the employees can have flexible schedules.
"That is completely consistent with all of our peer universities - and we check on this - it's the norm," he said.
Though assistant food service workers will be able to buy into the University's health and dental plans, they will have to pay the full premium of $341 a month for the standard individual health insurance plan because they will be working less than half time, or 975 hours annually. The University contributes half of the premium for employees who work more than 975 hours, even if they are still classified as part time.
Under the new agreement, the clauses in the union contract relating to grievance procedures and strikes will apply to the assistant food service workers, who will also pay standard union dues of $7 a week. The assistant food service workers will also be able to bid for other BuDS positions from within the bargaining unit and will receive uniforms from the University, which LDEs do not. The assistant food service workers will also receive time-and-a-half pay for overtime.
SLA members not allowed into negotiations
Several members of the SLA went to the Brown Office Building for the first three negotiating sessions in May but were barred from attending by the University, though the union welcomed them.
Hunter, who said he was pleased to reach an agreement with the union, told The Herald that students were not allowed to attend because "the union is the legal exclusive representative of the employees" and "we often have confidential discussion with the union about personnel."
But Hoffinger said students were barred from the negotiations for a different reason.
"Bottom line: They didn't want (students) in there because they were going to play hardball and they were going to look like ... what corporate people look like," he said. "They were going to be sitting there saying no on sick time, no on vacation time, no on health benefits, and the kids were going to be floored, I assure you."
Hu, the SLA member, said he was pleased the University had entered negotiations at all, but "of course we were very frustrated" about not attending.
The future
According to the agreement, the University can now hire LDEs at BuDS, provided they work fewer than 560 hours annually.
The BuDS union contract will be up for renegotiation as a whole a year from October. Hoffinger said he would not be surprised if the negotiations, which have no time limit, were hard-fought.
"I definitely propose that in (the new) contract (the assistant food service workers) get brought from what I consider sub-standard union existence to the real pool," he said.
