TRENTON — The school district's food service workers are once again members of a union, three years after the school board outsourced its cafeteria operations in a money-saving effort that led to sharp wage cuts and the end of the employees' old union affiliation.

The workers joined Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union and in May were officially recognized as a union by Aramark, the district’s food service contractor.

The city district has increasingly turned to layoffs and outsourcing in recent years to compensate for dropping state aid payments, privatizing its cafeteria workers, bus drivers and security guards. Custodians faced layoffs and privatization last year, and some paraprofessional services have been contracted out as well.

Shirley Newell, a food service worker at Mott Elementary School who has been with the district for 19 years, said her hourly wage dropped more than $3 after Aramark took over the formerly district-run cafeterias.

Newell’s past and current wage rates were not immediately available. But before the privatization, the

president of the old union, the Trenton Food Service Personnel Association, said she earned about $26,700 a year and some workers earned $15,000 or less.

In a conference call arranged by SEIU 32BJ, Newell said workers who were kept on by Aramark also saw their paid vacation days cut.

Others were laid off as the school district struggled to spend less on food services amid a continuing state aid squeeze.

“They cut our wages, they cut our hours, and the people we’re used to working with, they were gone,” Newell said. “That was unacceptable.”

Newell said employees who joined the union feel “uplifted,” and hope for more autonomy and power at the bargaining table.

“We have a sense of protection where before we felt wide open,” she said. “Before, we felt, you can do whatever you want to do to us because jobs are so few and far between and we don’t have a choice. Now we have a choice, we have someone saying we’ve got your back, we’re going to help you get better wages, get better health benefits.”

At the time of the privatization, a district administrator who oversaw the cafeterias said union pay agreements had prevented Trenton from cutting its food service costs the way a non-unionized private contractor could.

Last year Aramark said it had saved the district $6 million since being hired in 2009, cut labor costs by $1.4 million and retained 117 workers previously employed by the district. The district had laid off about 160 workers.

The newly formed union is expected to start negotiations with Aramark over a new employee contract in the next few weeks.

“Aramark recognizes the right of our employees to choose to be represented or to not be represented by labor organizations,” company spokeswoman Karen Cutler said in a statement. “We have hundreds of collective bargaining agreements across North America and seldom, if ever, have a serious dispute with any of the unions representing our employees.”

School board president Toby Sanders said the board generally supported employee attempts to unionize.

“For me, personally, I think it’s a good thing,” he said. “It’s a healthy thing for our cafeteria people, our security people, our people at the bottom of the wage scale, to organize themselves.”

About 115 employees or 80 percent of the district's food workers have joined the new union, according to SEIU 32BJ. The union is also trying to organize security workers,

who were privatized shortly after the food services switch to Aramark. Unions and some parents have criticized the district's move toward privatization, saying outside companies often dump longtime workers who live in the city in favor of workers from elsewhere who agree to work for less.



Contact Erin Duffy at (609) 989-5723 or eduffy@njtimes.com

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