To the readers of The Bona Venture:
Recently, articles have been published in The Bona Venture that present false information about the operations of the university’s contracted food service provider, ARAMARK. Since many readers of this publication rely on ARAMARKdaily, we thought it important that we communicate directly with you to set the record straight.
You trust ARAMARK every day to provide you with high-quality service, and you expect that we observe Franciscan values and New York state labor laws in the way in which we interact with our employees. I assure you we remain committed to exceeding your expectations on these and other fronts.
All the ARAMARK staff members are paid above minimum wage. The claim in a recent article that staff salaries were reduced when the ARAMARK contract commenced is simply false.
ARAMARK offers employees several health insurance options that are equal to or superior to industry standards.
The ARAMARK time clocks are not malfunctioning.
We do not require staff to skip their breaks or to shorten their breaks. That would be against the law.
Staff members are not asked to perform duties which are dangerous, unsafe and not part of their job responsibilities.
We would never do anything to compromise our food quality.
We would never terminate the employment of someone for supporting the union. That would be against the law and we believe everyone has the right to decide whether or not they want to be represented by a union.
ARAMARK routinely solicits feedback from our guests and staff in many forms. Twice annually we conduct DiningStylessurveys; monthly Food Committee meetings are held to solicit student feedback and meeting minutes are posted on our website; comment cards are available for our guests to voice their thoughts on our services and management’s responses are posted with responses in each location. For our staff we hold pre-service meetings daily, and hold all-employee meetings each semester; further, we have an anonymous help line available for employee feedback.
Finally, the issue of unionization is a decision to be made by the ARAMARK employees. No one else can nor should be involved in that decision. We live in a democratic society where people have the right to make their feelings known by voting for or against certain issues. The government of the United States through the enactment of the National Labor Relations Act has established a democratic process for determining whether employees want to be represented and we would encourage everyone to stand back and let the employees exercise their democratic right to determine their own future.
Sincerely,
Amy Vleminckx
Senior Food Service Director
St. Bonaventure University
