Your CUPE 229-3 bargaining committee of Joe DeSousa, Megan Murphy, and Michael Wright spent the afternoon of November 5 and full days November 7 and 21 bargaining with Aramark. Your representatives presented a full package of proposals, the majority of which are monetary proposals. Aramark did not respond to any of your committee’s monetary proposals or make any monetary proposals of their own, so our sessions focused on a number of lower-priority, non-monetary issues. We reached agreement on a few of those, which we will summarize in an upcoming bulletin that will help you track progress on all our proposals.
This update will focus on what we said to Aramark when we presented our proposals.
Please talk with your co-workers about this!
Your Petition
A super-majority of our members support our demands core demands of higher wages and more staffing. 32 of our members signed the petition: that’s 84% ! The petition also emphasized your support for the demands of other workers currently in bargaining at Queen’s, and we informed management that majorities of those workers signed similar petitions supporting you!
Demand for a common table
Our package contains many proposals that are also being submitted by other unions. We told management that we want a common table with CUPE 229-1 (Aramark Main Campus) who have the most proposals in common with us. We told them that meeting with us together would be the most efficient use of management’s time. Management is not agreeing to a common table at this time.
Economic Hardship experienced by our members
We shared the results of our survey with management, which 80% of our members completed this past Spring. When asked about your experiences of working on the wages Aramark pays you, you said:
- 54% have had to stop putting money aside from savings or have had to drain savings to make ends meet.
- 50% have struggled to pay monthly bills(rent/mortgage, heat, hydro)
- 29% have been late paying bills
- 25% report suffering from poor health, including mental health
- 25% had to take on extra job (or jobs)
We demanded significant wage increases. In response, Aramark told us that they disagreed that our wages were low.
Staffing
You have told us how often you work shifts with inadequate staff to keep up with the demand of hotel and conference guests and asked the Employer to commit to minimum staffing levels. Employer denied our proposal, and said you’re not understaffed.
Health Benefits
We pointed out how full-time employees have to pay 30% of the cost of the premiums for an inadequate benefits package and proposed increases on multiple benefit categories. The employer was not prepared to discuss monetary items.
Pension
Right now, only three of our members take advantage of the RSP matching program in our Collective Agreement. All Queen’s University employees belong to a defined benefit program that requires all employees to contribute to a pension plan which delivers far superior pension benefits upon retirement. We proposed that Aramark commit to a defined benefits pension plan with employer-matched contributions. Again, the employer deferred any discussion of monetary items.
We have additional bargaining dates scheduled for December 5 & 6, and have more dates in January and February if needed. Stay tuned for more updates.
From Your Bargaining Team,
Joe DeSousa, Megan Murphy, and Michael Wright