As International House residents and community supporters, we are shocked and appalled to hear of the working conditions in International House Dining Halls. According to the workers:
-Only 10 full-time UC employees staff the Dining Halls. The rest are either temporary workers who don't receive benefits, part-time students, or contracted agency workers. 10 years ago, 25-30 permanent staff worked in the Dining Hall. Temporary and contracted staff don’t get benefits or retirement. Many come and go, aren’t properly trained and because of this mistreatment are often less motivated to deliver quality services to the students. This unstable staffing pattern leads to both increased workload and injuries among the permanent staff.
-Food safety is at risk because of the lack of proper equipment and stable staffing. According to the cooks, %60 of the equipment is broken or out of use.
-Workers who are speaking up about these issues are being intimidated for their activities. Two weeks ago, management tried to send a worker home for wearing a union sticker. The Chief Financial Officer recently physically assaulted a worker, creating an even more hostile work environment.
To solve these issues, we demand that International House immediately:

 1. Post the 8 full-time or 100%, career positions (2 Cooks, 2 Assistant Cooks, 4 Food Service Workers) the current I-House workers have requested to address the chronic under staffing issues.

2. Stop the abuse of contracted workers by committing in writing to end the contact with the temporary staffing agency and convert all contracted positions to full-time, permanent positions. 

3. Stop the abuse of temporary “limited” employees by converting their positions to full-time, career status and agree in writing to a staffing ratio of 10 permanent positions to 1 temporary/limited positions.

4. Stop intimidating and harassing workers for their union activity or for any other reason.
 Signed,

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