Last Thursday, a majority of Pitzer’s food-service workers voted yes on unionization. Hotel Employees Restaurant Employees Union (HERE) Local 11 will now represent the workers. Contract negotiations are tentatively expected to start next week under union leadership.

Pitzer’s Director of Public Affairs Nina Mason released the following statement on April 3 acknowledging the new union: "Today a neutral arbitrator certified the results of the workers’ vote: Sixteen employees voted in favor of the union; 11 voted in opposition. [O]ur food-service employees will henceforth be represented by HERE Local 11 for the purposes of collective bargaining."

"I think [the union agreement is] really exciting because this is the first time in my experience that student and faculty input has resulted in significant change," Workers’ Support Committee (WSC) member Stephanie Foreman PI ’03 explained.

"What actually caused victory here," one WSC member clarified, "was the workers being ready to fight for this. They walked out a couple of times [from work]; they took a risk. As much as we [WSC] want this, in order to win, workers need to be ready."

This vote came at the end of a long struggle between the Worker Support Committee (WSC), the workers, and the administration over the appropriate manner of election. The administrations of both Pitzer and Pomona College favored the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) secret-ballot election method, while unions and the Worker Support Committee advocate a card-check election method. The question of voting pressure is a central issue to both sides’ argument for their preferred election method.

The secret-ballot election approved by NLRB is conducted on the workplace at an employer designated time. The card-check method involves a gradual accumulation of votes whereby the employers give cards signifying their intent to join the union to a representative. When the representative receives the majority of cards, a union is created.

"We are pleased that all 27 of our food-service employees cast a vote," Pitzer President Marilyn Massey said. "Our desire in this process was to insure that the question of representation be settled in a manner that honors each employee’s right to exercise free choice."

"Going to the workplace and making a decision that fundamentally challenges your workplace [is a] form of pressure," WSC member Liz Perlman PI ’03 commented.

Perlman also criticized the NLRB method because it prohibits union organizers from being on the premises during the election and allows the employer to choose the time of election. The WSC considers the NLRB election method biased towards management. They assert that the card-check method reduces worker intimidation.

The administration opposed the card-check method, partially on the grounds that it allows peer intimidation amongst workers. "We believe that everyone’s best served if their wishes are determined by secret ballot following the procedures approved by the NLRB," Pomona College President Peter Stanley said.

"The College certainly believes that workers have a right to unionize and that a secret ballot election is the clearest indication of their wishes. [It is] a procedure that is approved by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for the protection of workers," Dean of Students Ann Quinley explained.

Pitzer’s administration and workers reached a compromise on the election method. They decided to use the secret-ballot method, but with certain accommodations. Rather than an NLRB arbitrator, priest Tom Wilkes served as the third party arbitrator.

"Pitzer College agreed to remain neutral during the campaign that preceded the election," stated Mason. This meant that the Pitzer administration would not advocate a position for or against the union. "[Further,] the workers got to call the time and place of election. Part of the agreement [was that] if there was any kind of intimidation, [workers] could go to the third-party and the election would be card-check," Foreman said.

The issue of worker intimidation, an attempt to persuade workers not to unionize or voice complaints, is a source of disagreement between WSC and the administration.

"Pomona is starting up its campaign to stop the worker’s organizing," stated WSC member Maria Garcia ’01.

The WSC asserts that workers organizing for unionization are called in for individual meetings and reprimanded for using outside channels such as the WSC and Human Resources to voice complaints about management. The WSC also contends that sometimes particularly vocal employees are transferred to different dining halls.

A recent situation where one worker was burned while on the job has brought the issue of intimidation to the forefront.

"We saw a lot of workers mobilizing over the issue with the one worker getting burned," WSC member Danilo Trisi ’02 said. "So all the employees had individual meetings [with management], afterwards their attitudes changed. One worker’s been moved to Frank."

"I know that WSC believes that workers have been and are intimidated by the managers. I have not seen any indication that is the case," Quinley said.

"I know that Diane Keate, the current manager, tries to work with people to resolve problems and to make them feel comfortable in coming to her with complaints."

"She failed to understand issues of intimidation," Garcia said, of Quinley’s recent appearance at a WSC forum. "Dean Quinley was kind of hostile to the idea [of intimidation]."

Pomona food-service workers voted on unionization, using the NLRB election method, last August. "[T]hey favored the present relationship without a union by a 45-11 vote," commented President Stanley.

The WSC attributes the outcome of this vote to employer pressure and the timing of the election. "Workers had just become Pomona workers and received salary [increases]," Perlman said.

"The timing of the vote was agreed to in discussion with the WSC students," said Quinley.

President Stanley’s recent release of Pomona College’s tuition increase created outrage amongst the WSC, because they feel it placed blame on the workers for the tuition increase. This notice attributed the most significant increase in tuition cost to the transition of Aramark-employeed workers to Pomona College.

"Almost three-fourths of the group (57 out of 80) [workers] are in positions that ARAMARK paid at rates of $6.15-$6.51 per hour. Pomona now pays them $8.29 an hour," said Stanley. "[F]ood service workers now have added retirement and a new tuition remission benefit."

"The added costs show up on the ‘Board’ part of students’ room and board bill. Some of the growth in costs comes from a 5 pecent increase in Sodexho’s management fee and a similar increase in food costs. The rest is attributable almost entirely to improvements in compensation. We think it is a price worth paying," Stanley expounded.