Contract flipping leaves food service workers at the University of New Brunswick fearing job losses

Doreen Crilley is a familiar and friendly face for students and professors in need of coffee or a snack at the University of New Brunswick’s Tilley Hall. Forty-eight years an employee in food services at UNB, Crilley was among the 75 employees handed termination notices on February 20 after the flipping of a contract from Sodexo to Compass Group.

“The stress is unbelievable! Did I ever for one minute think that I worked for UNB? Not once! But did I think they would protect our backs? Most definitely,” Crilley wrote in a Facebook post.

The termination notices from Sodexo, the outgoing employer, told workers their last day of work would be May 31. The news sparked outrage among faculty and students.

The university boasts being ranked a top Canadian employer by Forbes Magazine. But, more than 130 professors on the campus are currently denouncing UNB’s labour practices.

Elizabeth Mancke, a professor of history at UNB, in a commentary for the NB Media Co-op, noted a “dangerous hypocrisy” with the handling of the food services contract. Another professor called UNB’s treatment of its food service workers “revolting.”

“UNB has the economic and cultural capital to force these types of negotiations to proceed more humanely and justly. The failure of UNB to do so in this case is a blemish on our institution and a sign of, frankly, bad management,” said Matthew Sears, a professor in the department of Classics and Ancient History.

“I find the justification of ‘providing a consistent food service experience, regardless of home or campus’ for upending the lives of food service workers particularly revolting, and a clear instance of dressing up what was a financial decision in the language of some sort of broader strategic thinking,” added Sears.

The union representing the food service workers, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), is circulating a petition that calls on the university to protect the jobs, existing benefits, salaries, and union of current employees with the contract change.

The union says that when UNB issued a request for proposals for food services, the university should have, but failed to require the new provider recognize the workers’ union, CUPE Local 2266.

Michelle Brewer, president of CUPE Local 2266, is hopeful that an agreement can be reached to voluntarily recognize the union.

“This has been an extremely stressful few months for food service workers at UNB. We were devastated at the possibility of losing our jobs especially after being looked out for in the request for proposals for so many years,” said Brewer.

UNB is not alone in being called out for mistreating workers during contract flipping. St. Thomas University flipped its contract for custodial services in 2021. Custodial workers lost their union with the contract flipping. In response, CUPE vowed to end the practice of contract flipping.

Thom Workman, a professor in political science at UNB, remembers when his university contracted out its cleaning services in 1996. Today, they work for GDI Integrated Facility Services and are not unionized.

Speaking at a panel organized by Tertulias and the United Campus Labour Council in support of UNB’s food service workers on April 13, Workman said, “Universities are very sensitive to the optics… There’s a real sense you have to display what you might call privatization savvy.”

“The irony is that when this sub-contracting or contracting out occurs, money isn’t really saved…. What happens is the offloading of labour headaches, the university is basically privatizing their labour headaches, so that the subcontractor is then responsible for organizing the labour force,” said Workman.

Workman, author of If You‘re in My Way, I’m Walking: The Assault on Working People Since 1970, put the current situation of 75 food service workers facing an uncertain employment future in historical context, beginning with the onset of the neoliberal period in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Workman outlined how the labour militancy of the 1970s was countered by the corporate world, noting that “the Macdonald Commission assembled a strategy… to weaken labour as well as help corporations restore what they perceive to be declining rates of profitability.”

“It involves not just shifting operations to other parts of the world, but where you couldn’t simply move operations, what happened was this very intentional development of the short-term contracting, sub-contracting, contracting out—what amounts to an offloading of the labour force, particularly for what are called staff operations, such as cleaning services. We started to see this practice become established as best corporate practices by the mid-1980s. Universities simply inherited or absorbed these practices,” described Workman.

The neoliberal assault on workers involves more precarity, including periods of underemployment or unemployment, uncertain hours, lower wages, poorer working conditions, and a dramatic decrease in the rates of unionization.

“Over half of Canadian working-class families are living pay cheque to pay cheque. That should give us a sense of the vulnerability and of the difficulties that working families are encountering,” said Workman.

Workman recalled the 1992 General Strike in New Brunswick that had the effect of bolstering wages in the public sector for 10 to 15 years, but since that time, New Brunswick, like the rest of Canada, has experienced a profound decline in labour militancy.

Comparing New Brunswick to Maine, Workman argued, “In New Brunswick, labour laws and labour organization laws are so weak… The laws don’t have to be removed from the books because they were never on the books in New Brunswick… It gets companies like Irving into trouble because they get away with labour practices in New Brunswick that they don’t get away with in Maine because Maine has stronger labour laws.”

CUPE wants New Brunswick and the seven other provinces and three territories to expand successorship rules to cover outsourcing and contract flipping in all sectors of the economy to protect union certifications as well as jobs, wages, benefits, and seniority.

The New Brunswick NDP have said they would make the practice of contract flipping illegal in the province.

“Contract flipping is allowed under our existing labour legislation, but it is immoral, and as such, it should be illegal,” said White who is running in the by-election for Bathurst-East on April 24.

“Contract flipping often affects the lowest paid and most vulnerable workers in our province’s workforce,” White said. In food services, the CUPE report notes that workers are more likely to be women, Black or racialized, and a newcomer. These workers are already earning lower wages on average.

When asked what faculty can do to support staff on campus, Workman answered, “In our next round of contract negotiations, we could say we insist on returning to in-house staff operations at the university. And it would include cleaning services, it would include food services, and it would be nice to get our bookstore back because we quite possibly have the worst bookstore in Canada… But it would really depend on the faculty union making this an issue.”

“UNB is no different from any other university. We’re just terribly average,” noted Workman.

Robert Ramsay, a senior researcher with CUPE National, also spoke on the panel. He noted most Canadian post-secondary institutions engage in contracting out: 83.7 per cent of post-secondary institutions have contracted out some or all food services, while 61 per cent have contracted out some or all custodial services.

Three multinational corporations dominate food services on Canadian university campuses—Sodexo, Compass Group that owns Chartwells, and Aramark. The three have a presence at Fredericton’s public universities. This year, Sodexo is being replaced by Compass Group at UNB. Aramark holds the food services contract at St. Thomas University.

Ramsay told the audience of mostly professors and labour activists that Compass has operations in 45 countries, with annual sales of approximately $30 billion and an operating profit of about $900 million. He noted that around the world, the firm engages in creative tax avoidance schemes, “investing and incorporating in tax havens, and using other loopholes to avoid paying taxes on their profits.”

Ramsay pulled information and statistics from a 2021 CUPE report by Chandra Pasma on the effects of contracting out on unionization, wages and benefits in food and custodial services at publicly-funded Canadian universities and colleges. Workers are paying the cost of the contracting out services, according to CUPE.

Ramsay revealed a significant gap in union representation between in-house and contracted out workers in food services and custodial services and universities. “Just over 85 per cent of in-house food service workers are unionized compared to only 36 per cent of workers where the service is contracted out.”

Ramsay noted contracted out food service workers on campus are taking home thousands of dollars less every year compared to-in house workers.

A look at 97 post-secondary education institutions in Canada found that, between 2019-2021, an average difference in starting wages of $4.40 per hour for in-house food service workers compared to contracted out workers and an average difference in top wages of $5.24 per hour. This wage gap means that $8,000 to $10,000 per year are taken from the pockets of full-time workers. New Brunswick workers are experiencing this wage differential as noted in the chart from the CUPE report below.

Off 44 post-secondary education institutions examined, Ramsay noted the starting wages of 90 per cent of in-house food service workers equated to a living wage. On the other hand, the starting wages of less than 10 per cent of non-unionized contracted-out workers could be considered a living wage.

Ramsay pointed out how the two workplaces, in-house or contracted out, affect workers’ pensions. In the CUPE study of 94 post-secondary education institutions, almost all in-house food service workers have access to a pension, with many eligible for a defined benefit pension plan. On the other hand, half of the contracted-out food service employers offer no retirement contribution to workers.

The CUPE report also notes contracted-out workers are less likely to receive paid sick days than in-house workers and considerably fewer paid sick days on average. In-house food service workers receive an average of 16.3 paid sick days per year, while contracted-out workers receive only 5.4.

CUPE wants universities to get the private multinationals off campus and bring food service and custodial workers back in house. Ramsay recalled how it was done at the University of Toronto not that long ago.

“In 2016, we had a campaign at the University of Toronto to bring approximately 250 food service workers who were contracted out to Aramark back in house. This was a successful campaign… Overnight, those 250 workers received a 14 per cent wage increase, were included in the pension plan, had improvements to their sick days, maternity leave, parental leave, and health and safety regime.”

“The improvement of working conditions for the food service workers has resulted in the floor rising for workers all across the campus at the University of Toronto. There are cascading benefits,” noted Ramsay.

Ramsay says it is important to “strengthen collective agreements to provide some kind of firewall in situations where employers are considering contracting out these services.”

Ramsay says language in collective agreements can prevent and reverse privatization.

Beyond worker actions, CUPE says governments can intervene as funders of post-secondary institutions. The union wants governments to put strings on the funding, requiring universities to ensure decent wages and working conditions for all workers on campus, including the employees of subcontractors.

With just over a month before their current work contract ends on May 31, the food service workers are still waiting to hear if they have jobs and the wages, benefits and union they had.

The local union president remains optimistic and is grateful to the campus community.

“Our members are appreciative of the support from the university community, along with the public during these trying times. We are honoured to be referred to as part of the UNB family. To continue to do the jobs we have done and love, for so many years is of utmost importance to us,” said Brewer.

Tracy Glynn is the coordinating editor of the NB Media Co-op.