Bon Appetit contract negotiations over
By Nicole LaPrade
A tentative contract agreement was reached between Bon Appetit and its unionized employees when workers overwhelmingly approved a new contract on Jan. 7, ending six months of heated negotiations.
Under the new contract, workers' wages will increase by 3.5 percent over the next four years, raising 35 cents during each of the first two years, and by 40 cents each subsequent year until the new contract expires in 2008.
Because the previous contract between workers and Bon Appetit, the univeresity's food-service provider, ended in July of last year and the new contract did not start until January of this year, workers received retroactive paychecks for the hours worked during that time, said Cathy Straub, Bon Appetit's General Manager here.
While some workers are pleased that an agreement was met, others are still dissatisfied.
"I see the prices of the food rising so much every year, but not in the wages. The prices of gas and everything are rising so high that the 35 and 40 cent raises aren't going be that much," said Edy Madsen, a cashier in Market Square.
According to Leah Berlanga, the SEIU representative for the Bon Appetit workers at Santa Clara, the new contract also includes clearer language protecting job security and seniority rights in the case of transfer between departments or change of management companies. This is intended to resolve problems during layoff periods and transfers like those in the past.
The most concerning issue for many of the workers in the negotiations was health coverage. Under the former contract, in which workers were covered by the Union Trust Fund insurance plan, many employees paid hundreds of dollars for health coverage for themselves and their family members.
Berlanga believes that the negotiations that took place New Years Eve offered the "best plan yet."
"What workers pay was cut over 50 percent," she said.
Bon Appetit will now provide full medical coverage for the employee. If a worker wants to add one family member to the coverage plan, they will pay an additional $171 per month as opposed to $450 per month under the old plan. And if they want to add their entire family under the plan, they will pay less than $300 per month rather than $850 per month.
According to Berlanga, some people were paying even $1,000 per month under the old plan.
"We paid $800. That was too expensive," said one worker who has worked at Santa Clara for nearly 10 years and who asked not to be identified. Because coverage became so costly, she said she was no longer able to send her 7-year-old daughter to the speech therapy that she needed.
The new coverage will enable the worker's daughter to resume speech therapy, which she hasn't had for the past two years.
"Heath insurance was the most frustrating thing. The raise was okay, but medical is what we needed," the Mission Bakery worker said.
Another benefit to the agreement, is that Bon Appetit will not see a rise in the co-pay rates, Berlanga said. Under the new insurance plan, some co-payments are actually higher, but Bon Appetit has agreed to reimburse employees by the next pay period if they submit a receipt.
One reason offered for why the negotiations were so lengthy was that the federal mediator assigned to the Bon Appetit case was also mediating negotiations of a San Francisco hotel strike.
Berlanga said that during that period, neither side made any proposals. As the new year approached, Bon Appetit attempted to enforce a unilateral agreement which could have been implemented on Jan. 1.
When asked what was most frustrating about the negotiation process, Berlanga said it was communication.
One instance she described involved a document regarding medical coverage that Bon Appetit's attorneys submitted that contained an influential typo which described payment amounts as being bi-weekly when they should have been monthly.
"The numbers on the submitted in the document at the negotiation table were then much higher than those that (Bon Appetit) had proposed to the workers," Berlanga said.
If the numbers were correct on the document to begin with, negotiations could have been resolved months ago, Berlanga said.
Straub expressed that she was glad that negotiations have ended and that a contract agreement has been reached.
"We're a big family here. I care about my workers," Straub said.
She also said that each year there is little turn over, if any in staff. Nearly all of the employees return in September.
During the negotiation process Berlanga noticed that many of the workers seemed fearful. She is making an effort to educate workers and stewards about their rights and how to be leaders in the workplace.
Berlanga is grateful for the support of the students, citing that the rally in November was one of the things that students did to show that they care.
* Contact Nicole LaPrade at (408) 554-4546 or nlaprade@scu.edu.