A group of workers at Leo J. O’Donovan Dining Hall sat down with students to hold a discussion about labor conditions at Georgetown on Tuesday evening.
The event, organized in conjunction by the Kalmanovitz Initiative, Black Student Alliance, Caribbean Culture Circle, Black House, MEChA, and Georgetown’s NAACP chapter, highlighted the progress of the workers’ labor union since its formation in 2011, as well as existing problems that continue to pervade the workplace.
Despite advancements since the unionization of workers two years ago, two former Aramark employees, Donte Crestwell and Tarshea Smith, key players in the initial movement, said that there is still need for improvement in terms of granting employees a fair working environment. Aramark operates multiple dining locations on campus, including Leo’s.
Crestwell said many of the issues still surrounding employees involve cases of harassment. “You have a lot of workers that feel like they are being harassed unnecessarily every day,” he said. “The P.M. shift is where we’re getting a lot of calls from.” According to him, the working environment has improved since unionization, but managers and supervisors often harangue employees with belittling and condescending questions and comments such as, “How long are you going to the bathroom? Why do you need to go? Didn’t you just go? I haven’t seen you in 20 minutes.”
Aramark management could not be reached for comment when emailed and called multiple times, and the Leo’s management refused to comment when asked about these allegations.
Such inquiries bother employees because “workers just want to work and feed their families. They’re living check to check … and they just want to work and go home,” Crestwell said.
Yet, both Crestwell and Smith emphasized that the working environment has improved tremendously since unionizing. “The workplace was horrible to work in [before],” Crestwell said. “A lot of people, in their late 50s, 60s, and 70s, were being treated horribly, [and] they knew they had to ignore it, because nobody else was going to hire them.”
According to Smith, thanks to new initiatives like grievance meetings, where employees can come together and discuss any abuses they may have encountered, conditions have gotten better.
GUSA Secretary of Social Justice Brittney Blakely (COL ‘14), noted that students still play an integral role in helping workers maintain their rights. “The power that we have, our voice, and our presence, and just standing behind the entity of them as workers—we have so much power to work toward change and to hold people accountable,” she said.
Much of the support from the administration has come from the Just Employment Policy, which the University implemented in 2005. The policy grants workers rights to a living wage, to form a union, to dignity in the workplace, and to anti-discrimination on the basis of race and gender.
“[During the unionization effort in 2011], the Georgetown administration actually sent a letter to Aramark reminding them that the workers on our campus, like workers everywhere, have the right to form a union,” Vail Kohnert-Yount (SFS ‘13), administrator for the Kalmanovitz Initiative and former GUSA vice president, said during the event.
“[Nevertheless, Aramark has] almost horrifying records of workers’ rights systematically … so it is particularly telling that in a place like Georgetown, we decided to contract with a company like Aramark which has a record of problematic treatment of their workers,” she added. “We’re a Jesuit university. We’re a Catholic university, and we should hold ourselves to a higher standard for how we treat members of our community.”
The Just Employment Policy holds the administration accountable for protecting those employees who are not under the original union contract in new locations like Einstein Bros and the upcoming Elevation Burger and Salad Creations. However, the worry is that “Georgetown is not always the best at adhering to this contract we set for ourselves,” Kohnert-Yount said.
The workers will not be able to join the union until the original contract expires. “Our next contract will be January 1, 2015. The addition of the new stores will be one of the first things we ask for,” Crestwell said. The current contract encompasses Leo J. O’Donovan Dining Hall, Jesuit residence Wolfington Hall, the Cosi and Starbucks in the Leavey Center, and the Dr. Mug in the medical school.
“The university makes sure our contractors understand and adhere to our Just Employment Policy. We take any violations of the Just Employment Policy very seriously,” Rachel Pugh, director of Media Relations, wrote in an email to the Voice.
