Something to Chew On

As summer approaches, many of us find ourselves seeking gainful employment for the months ahead. Incidentally, most of Harvard’s dining hall workers are conducting the same search. But while we gallivant down to New York for that Goldman-Sachs internship we just happened to get or settle with a sigh into being a barista at a hometown Starbucks, many of the people who provide meals for us every day wonder how they’ll feed their own families come June. This is one of the many concerns of the Student Labor Action Movement’s (SLAM) latest campaign to improve the lot of Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS) workers in light of next month’s contract negotiation—a campaign that we wholeheartedly endorse.

Harvard used to employ its dining hall workers over the summer. Many were chosen for custodial work or jobs with Harvard’s Buildings and Grounds division, and a select few got to remain in the open dining halls. But ever since Harvard contracted this work out to Unicco and other hiring outfits, less-expensive temp workers have taken up summer custodial jobs, leaving dining hall workers without over 100 positions that were once available to them. According to Edward B. Childs, an Adams House cook and one of the stewards of this movement, the changes began roughly 15 years ago, and, little by little, have since deprived HUDS workers of positions they once had.

Before Unicco began outsourcing summer jobs, dining hall workers were employed primarily with the Custodial and Building and Grounds Departments, because when students leave campus, these groups take on their major projects. Now, a few fortunate workers are placed in the mailroom, but all custodial and maintenance jobs go to temp workers. Harvard should revert to the old paradigm asking Unicco to prioritize Harvard dining hall workers in the summer employment search. Inflexible hours due to part-time commitments to Harvard and the shrinking number of jobs in the service industry make it nearly impossible for current HUDS workers to tack on additional sources of income otherwise.

Returning to our dining hall workers the option of summer employment is one step of many that this College can take to improve the lives of a group of people who improve ours every day. On the heels of a wage hike to Harvard’s custodial workers, it would only be fair that HUDS workers would also benefit from a commensurate increase in wages. In addition to all the justifications advanced for the pay raise for custodial workers—soaring cost of living in the Boston areas, higher wages at peer institutions—providing dining hall workers with higher wages would be further justified by the need for a better safety net for unexpected summer unemployment (even at its best, Harvard could never re-hire all dining hall employees for the summer). Moreover, the entire Harvard community stands to gain from a happier, better compensated work-force.

Similarly, the current conditions of many of these individuals’ workplaces leave quite a bit to be desired in terms of health and safety. Often, dining hall kitchens can reach up to 110 degrees, and workers in Annenberg recently filed a complaint that one of their dish sanitizers sprayed hot steam into their faces. No one else at Harvard (particularly not faculty or students) works under these conditions, and addressing these concerns should be of paramount concern to Harvard.

In considering the plight of these oft-ignored members of the Harvard community, students and administration alike tend to forget that HUDS workers are indeed just that—members of a network of people that makes Harvard run. Students see dining hall workers far more frequently than even our professors, and they’re certainly easier to snag for a quick chat or a cup of coffee. The 1,200 comment cards collected by SLAM over the past week is a testament to the vital role that dining hall workers play in the lives of students.

While it might be more cost-effective for the College to cut corners by hiring Unicco’s temp workers over the summer and not granting its own employees better wages and conditions, Harvard’s obligations extend beyond purely economic ones. By addressing the issue of summer employment for dining hall workers as well as a living wage and more manageable kitchen conditions, the administration would merely be taking a necessary step in the direction of a welcoming and inclusive community for all.