More than a year after Aramark began providing dining services at Hopkins, employees' contracts - and the benefits they get - are still up in the air.
The company has been negotiating with the employee's union, Local 7 Unite HERE, to create healthcare provisions, determine vacation time regulation and handle concerns that long-time workers were being treated unfairly.
"Aramark are the worst company we've ever seen," a Charles St. Market employee said. "They treat us like animals."
Aramark employees chose not to be named because they are not under contract and are afraid of retribution for their comments.
After a series of meetings with union head Gladys Burrell, an employee at the Fresh Food Café, Aramark addressed concerns that senior workers were being given progressively fewer hours to work per week. Employees expressed concern that this was an attempt by the company to gradually phase out older employees.
Senior workers are now able to pick their hours first when Aramark generates a weekly work schedule for the employees, according to Burrell.
Burrell said that meetings are being conducted now to fix the vacation and unemployment problems, and to get a signed contract worked out for everybody.
Currently, no contract exists, only a "guideline" being followed until something is finalized.
Workers have complained that their colleagues are fired at the slightest provocation, no matter how many years they have worked for Hopkins Dining Services.
Additionally, per company policy, Aramark employees at Hopkins are let go over the summer when students are not in school, and they have to receive unemployment wages until right before school restarts in the fall, when they are re-hired.
Aramark refused to comment.
Another Market employee said, "Managers walk by and don't even say 'good morning.' Even the union isn't nice to us. Every day somebody gets fired."
In response to workers' complaints Burrell said, "You can't make everybody happy. We try to accommodate everyone, but you have to think about who we're working with. Some people want too much. We have to do the best with what we have. Some people you can help, and some you can't."
Burrell, an Aramark employee at Fresh Food Café, has worked for Hopkins Dining Services for about 30 years.
She is also the head shop stewardess and vice president of Local 7, the Baltimore chapter of the national union Unite HERE, an acronym for Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees.
Burrell attends meetings with Aramark representatives and Local 7 members to try and "have a conversation," and to negotiate issues that concern workers.
Some workers still do not have health insurance because Aramark's policy is that workers only receive health insurance if they work at least 30 hours per week. These workers either choose not to work 30 hours or have specific positions for which there are many workers, providing less hours. Workers get few holidays and are penalized for sick days.
Sodexho previously employed many of the dining service workers currently employed by Aramark. They were re-hired under the new company when the catering service switched for the start of the 2006-2007 academic year.
"Turning over from one company to the next was hard for employees," Burrel said. "It's taken a lot to adjust because Aramark's management is completely different from Sodexho's. I basically tell the other employees, 'Just do what you're asked to do.' Sometimes people make life harder than it needs to be."
For the most part, workers around campus do not seem reassured. A Market employee said he used to work 37 and a half hours per week and has now been cut, against his will, to 32.
He explained that Aramark shuffles schedules so that many workers do not have the chance to work 30 hours per week, avoiding the need to provide health insurance.
Several workers at Nolan's, when asked about Aramark's policy changes over the past year, knew nothing about changes in health insurance or any sort of settlement Aramark had made with the union.
"You would think they would tell the employees," one worker said.
"Let me know if they reached a settlement so I can sue 'em," added another employee, who is frustrated because she does not have health insurance.
Not all employees are opposed to Aramark's policies. One worker at the Pura Vida coffee bar said, "We pretty much got what we wanted. Aramark's settlement could have been better, but it's OK." She has to pay for her health insurance, but managed to get vacation time and a raise.
