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Cafeteria Workers Storm Mayor’s Office

by Melissa Bailey | Sep 8, 2010 7:13 am

(7) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: Business/Labor/ Economic Development, Schools

After cooking thousands of servings of sloppy joes, Cathy Rubano delivered a message to the mayor: She’s “so done” with frustration over talk about union concessions that “you could put a fork in me.”

Rubano is a school cook and a union steward of UNITE HERE Local 217, which represents 200 New Haven school cafeteria workers. She was one of about 55 union activists who gathered Tuesday afternoon to pay a visit to Mayor John DeStefano in his office.

Local 217 recently began negotiating a new contract to replace the one that just expired on June 30. The group delivered a petition, signed by nearly all the cafeteria workers, urging the mayor to maintain their benefits in the next labor pact. The mayor heard their complaints, pledged a “respectful” and “transparent” process, but warned that the city is facing unprecedented financial hardship.

The encounter provided what may be a glimpse of what’s to come, as the city negotiates eight labor contracts during a statewide budget crisis. (Click on the play arrow to watch.)

Melissa Bailey Photo Rubano (pictured) showed up to the event in a white chef’s coat. She came to the event after a day’s work at Central Kitchen, where she prepared 13 racks of sloppy joes amounting to “thousands” of portions. The kitchen typically prepares between 1,200 and 1,400 meals per day.

Cafeteria workers are among the lowest-paid municipal workers. Full-time staff put in 180 days per year, seven hours per day. Others work part-time, for as little as 3.75 hours per day. The average yearly salary is between $16,000 and $17,000 per year, according to union officials.

Rubano, who’s been a cafeteria worker in the city for 19 years, said she is distraught by a recent proposal from the city that would cut longevity payments and eliminate 10 paid holidays.

“They’re making us feel so disrespected,” she said.

Rubano spoke while the group waited to meet with the mayor around 4:40 p.m. She said she raised four children in the New Haven Public School system. She served lunch to many kids at several city high schools, including to the mayor’s son Daniel when he was at Wilbur Cross.

“I fed his son,” she said.

She said she’s worried that the mayor will follow a pattern in other recent contracts and downgrade her medical plan. She said she was also miffed that three cooks were removed from the schools this year.

“I’m done. I’m so done you could put a fork in me,” she said.

A few minutes later, the mayor opened his door and invited the whole group into his office.

The group filed in, shaking the mayor’s hand one by one.

Mary Quiello (at right in photo), a union steward and Sound School cafeteria worker, handed DeStefano the petition and pleaded for fair treatment during negotiations.

“We have no intention of going backward,” she warned.

Then Rubano got the chance to speak directly to the city’s top boss.

She told the mayor that so far, her union contracts have given her good medical benefits.

“Now that I’m getting older, I really would like to see that medical plan perpetuated,” she said.

After hearing from several workers, DeStefano issued a brief response. He painted the struggle in a larger context of a statewide budget crisis that threatens to put an increasing strain on the city’s balance book.

“I know that you are not our teachers, or our firemen, or our policemen or our school administrators, meaning you are not one of our higher-compensated workforce,” the mayor said. He added that medical benefits have historically been a top priority for Local 217 and for the paraprofessionals, many of whom tend to be female, and some of whom are single heads of households.

“I’ve heard what you’ve had to say,” DeStefano said. But, he warned, “I’ve got to balance things.”

He said in his over two decades in City Hall, these are the worst financial times he has seen. Much of the city’s budget relies on state aid, he noted.

He closed by offering a fair, “respectful” and “transparent” negotiating process.

After the crowd left, DeStefano said he expects to see more of the same feedback.

“I actually think we’re going to hear a lot from our collective bargaining unions over the next couple of months,” DeStefano said. “They’re under a lot of pressure, but so is the city.”

“Frankly, the only way we’re going to respect the ability of the taxpayer to pay is” to ask workers to make sacrifices that executive management has already made, he argued. For example, the mayor’s secretaries and top staff no longer get longevity payments—bonuses for working with the city for more than 10 years. Those staff have forgone pay raises and have switched to a defined contribution pension plan, he said.

DeStefano said the city will look to cut longevity payments in all eight open contracts. The city has not yet issued proposals on medical benefits, he said, but he expects to ask unions to switch to a health care plan that’s cheaper for the city—as other unions, such as tradesmen and police, have recently done. Those unions also made concessions on pension plans. DeStefano said the city aims to make a health care proposal “later this month.”

Quiello, the union steward who works at the Sound School, did not welcome talk of further sacrifices. She said the union already made concessions last year, when the mayor asked for givebacks amid a budget crisis. The union gave up jobs in the Head Start program, allowing the school system to contract out jobs to save money, she said.

“They asked, we gave,” Quiello said, “and now they want to take more.”

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Comments

posted by: Our Town on September 8, 2010  9:43am

This city, who the Mayor on one hand likes to flout as being among the top twenty municipal economies in the nation, is not in trouble because of tough economic times, it is in trouble because of the Mayor’s wild spending on his monument to himself, schools. There would be no tax increases without the school construction. New Haven is seeing economic boom times. Relative to the rest of the country, we are in great condition. Don’t let him fool you…he has money to spend on his pet projects, just not you, the people that make him look good.

posted by: Agor on September 8, 2010  10:11am

DeStefano will try and take everything he can away from you.Why doesn’t he start at the top where the real money is. He has to protect his cronies. Watch out girls he will bring in a hired gun to get rid of you like he is trying to do to the custodians. Stay united and keep the fight going. When will New2 Haven wake up and throw this guy out? Taxes keep going up and all the top people get raises.

posted by: PaulF on September 8, 2010  5:21pm

Your kidding right, the mayors worried about the tax payers what a joke, was he worried about the tax payers last year when he wanted to give everybody in his office a raise, or this year when he gave the teachers a three percent raise. Johnny boy its time to go its clear you don,t know how to manage this city

posted by: Stephanie on September 8, 2010  6:32pm

This is the grass roots of our childrens education.  We need to support this vital group of workers in all inner city school systems.  These people care for our future.

posted by: Peter on September 8, 2010  8:58pm

“He said in his over two decades in City Hall, these are the worst financial times he has seen.”

I think that last word is a typo. shouldn’t it read he has CREATED?

The BOE is so loaded with phony baloney titles and mega principals and quarter million + earners.

This is not about what the unions want its about leeching the workers.  Lots of people live and work for the City.

Very clearly stated folks, if you weaken the City unions you weaken City families.  It’s that simple.

posted by: JAK on September 9, 2010  2:05pm

Peter, is it really that simple?  What about the majority of city families who work on their own or for private companies which long ago cut their retirement and health plans back? What about the families that struggle to pay the outrageously high level of property taxes in New Haven?  Why should residents pay more than they have to in order to support the few?  You can make lots of valid arguments against cutting back city services but “weakening city families” is not one of them.

posted by: Reality Strikes on September 10, 2010  10:57pm

I understand unions are fighting to keep as much as they can for its members and that’s their job, but its not the city’s responsibility to pay more in benefits and salaries to its employees than would be done in the private sector for a similar position.  The unions are in for a rude awakening not only in New Haven but across the country in the public sector.  It’s long past due when pensions and health benefits start mirroring the private sector before the city buries itself.  Just because generous benefits have been offered in the past doesn’t mean the city doesn’t have every right to finally negotiate the best deal for city taxpayers.  If the city negotiates what the unions believe is unreasonable, then employees have every right to quit and go find another job that pays them better.

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