Around the globe there are food service employees of large, and powerful companies. These cafeteria workers are essential to our daily life, and almost everyone has been to a cafeteria and has eaten their food.  But when we are sitting at a table in the cafeteria eating that, when have we thought to ourselves about the cafeteria workers? About how they are treated in the work place, and what their lives are like? I have done extensive research on the wages of cafeteria workers, and many problems that they face in their careers. Through my website and my linear essay I will try to inform you as best I can about their situation. A good place to start out is with the management corporation Sodexo.

Sodexo provides service solutions to their client’s organization, through an improvement in the quality of the client’s lives. Sodexo provides these services to other corporations, the department of defense, prisons, the health care markets, and senior citizens. Most of this work is cafeteria management, and management of other facilities. In some areas of work like prisons they provide other services along with food service such as safety and improving the public image of certain prisons. They also help with rehabilitation of prisoners, and helping them become successful members of society. Sodexo serves 10 million customers every day, and employs 120,000 people in North America alone. As good as Sodexo sounds it has caused many problems in the food service industry.

The food service industry is controlled by large corporations, which have left little room for others. Sodexo, Compass, and Aramark are the main corporations that control over 75% of the market. These companies create contracts with clients like businesses, and schools to provide them with food and employees and managing their cafeterias. Because of the widespread use of these corporations, they have gained control of most of the market. With this control they can increase the prices of their goods to their clients, and can pay their employees less. In fact Sodexo pays their food service employees almost minimum wage, even if they have been working for the company for over five years. This is the case at many major food service employers.

Aramark, one of the main corporations that control the food service industry provides similar services to its competitors like Sodexo. Aramark describes itself as a professional service organization that is dedicated to excellence. This is very similar to Sodexo’s improved quality of life. They also provide service same areas, health care, and facilities management, along with their food services.  Along with Sodexo, Aramark also has encountered problems with the treatment of its workers. Food service workers have marched to a local headquarters in Los Angeles to protest the treatment that they were receiving. Just like with Sodexo, the Aramark workers were receiving extremely low wages that were not living wages.

The last major controller in the food service industry is Compass. Unlike the other two major corporations, Compass is focused solely on food service. Like their competitors, Compass provides food service in the most efficient way for the benefit of its customers. Their focus is the highest quality of service, and to ensure that the customer receives what they want. Compass provides it services to corporate dining, vending machines, health care, education, and restaraunts. Compass has somewhat of a better record than the other two corporations. But all of these large food service corporations still pay relatively low wages.This has left the food service workers in extremely poor conditions with not many places to turn besides leaving their jobs.

Many of these food service employees have tried to combat the low wages of large corporations like Sodexo and Aramark by joining unions. The two major unions that have taken interest in the cafeteria workers are UNITE HERE, and SEIU. In some universities other workers have joined together on their own accord, and have protested the low wages through strikes. Unions and organization has helped the workers raise their wages on occasion, but may times unions like UNITE HERE and SEIU take advantage of low status members like those in the food service industry. 

UNITE HERE has been involved in organizing the food service industry for quite a long time. UNITE HERE represents workers across the United States and Canada who work the hospitality, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry, and airport industries. Through UNITE HERE workers have been able to turn low wage jobs into, decent paying jobs that allow them to support a family, and can put them in middle class America. UNITE HERE supports over 90,000 food service employees that work in a variety of cafeterias across North America. UNITE HERE claims that their bargaining power grows when they join the union. There is competition within organization of the workers that involves unionization.

The SEIU, or Service Employees International Union is also one of the largest unions involved in the food service industry. With over 2.2 million members it is very popular, and is the fastest growing union in North America. It is the largest health care provider union with about 1.2 million members.  The SEIU has benefits that include a financial service program that is uniquely designed for its members. They also provide financial education, and the use of SEIU credit cards and debit cards.

All of this new information I found has really made stop and think about what is going on every time I order something from the university food service. I went to a private school from 1st grade through 8th grade, so I never really encountered a cafeteria until I reached high school. At my high school I was somewhat shocked by the overall dirtiness of the cafeteria, and the appearance of the workers. They seemed worn out, with tired faces and monotone echoing out of their mouths. There was the occasional smile but that was a rare occurrence, and my overall impression was how poorly treated. Of course I instantly wondered why things were so dismal at my school, but then I did a little research and found out that this is how things are all across the country. And they are not only this way in high school cafeterias; there are workers like this in food service positions over a range of areas. Yet this was still not enough to make me want to change something about how the cafeteria workers were treated. I eventually got used to the surroundings in the cafeteria and paid my $1.35 for bagel and cream cheese like the rest of the kids in the school, and didn’t bother too recognize what was going on behind the scenes. After I left high school I went to Santa Clara University. At Santa Clara a company called Bon Appetit runs the cafeterias. Bon Appetit in turn is run, and managed by the large food service corporation Compass. The food at the cafeterias is essentially like dining in a moderately good restaurant. The food areas have the same environment as a restaurant, and the food is cooked on the spot instead of sitting premade behind glass. There are a wide variety of options and multiple different areas to order food. Along with the large variety, Bon Appetit provides balanced, healthy options. This was quite a step up from the cafeteria food served in high school. Along with improved quality came an increase in prices, but that was expected for the type of food being provided.  One thing that I noticed instantly though, was that the majority of the staff was Hispanic women. This came as a shock to me because I grew up in Montana where there was not much diversity in my home city and school.

I decided to do my website on cafeteria workers because I believe it is essential for people to see how the majority of cafeteria workers are treated. I do not believe that most people understand how bad the living situation is for those cafeteria workers who are employed by large corporations like Sodexo and Aramark. If I can provide this information to the public through a website that I created then maybe they will start to question how these workers are treated. Not only do I plan on trying to change how things are run through the use of public information, but I also believe that proposed legislature can change how things are currently run. By creating laws that ensure food service employees are paid wages that are at least living wages, much of this controversy can be ended. Also controlling major corporations like Sodexo and Aramrk from running the market will help lower prices for consumers, and relieve some of the stress put on the companies that have contracts Sodexo and Aramark.