The Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) kicked off its first meeting of the year Sunday evening with a flurry of public interest, generated by ongoing student concerns about the plight of the Univeristy’s food service workers.

After a brief and quiet appearance from President Michael Roth, meeting moderator Izaak Orlansky ’08 introduced three dining workers and Local 217 members: Susan Silvestro, vice president of Union Chapter Local 217; Raquel Adorno, a union steward; and Sandy Baik, a cashier at Weshop who has lost her benefits after her job’s hours were transferred to a different position by dining service provider Bon Appétit.

Amidst many complaints concerning Bon Appétit’s employment practices and the design of the Usdan building, the workers reacted to questions about a publicized student boycott of Usdan planned for this Wednesday.

“By boycotting, you’re not utilizing your space,” Adorno said. “You need to demand your space back.”

Mike Misenti, another dining service employee, modified Adorno’s idea, suggesting a different type of action.

“Instead of boycotting, meet at Foss Hill and then all come down to Usdan at once and see what happens,” he said.

Earlier on, Baik, one of the several workers who has played a central role in Local 217’s campaign against Bon Appétit, described how her work week was cut back from 22.5 hours to 18.5 hours this year, thus eliminating her eligibility for benefits.

“They still need somebody to do that work, just not me,” she said. “They gave my 4 hours to a new hire. Don’t take my hours away after I’ve been here for 7 years.”

Silvestro, who participated in the negotiation of the food service workers’ contract, claimed that Bon Appétit’s actions towards Baik violated the terms of the contract.

“They can’t take hours from a person just to cut their benefits,” Silvestro said, citing the contract that Local 217 has negotiated over time with former service provider Aramark, and now with Bon Appétit. “We will take it to arbitration and win. Article 34.2 states that the company will not reduce hours strictly to increase profits.”

The workers had other disputes with Bon Appétit, as well. Adorno, who works as a food service worker in the new Usdan University Center, took issue with Bon Appétit’s staffing decisions.

“I felt as though we weren’t taken seriously,” Adorno said. “We went over our schedules. We felt it was lacking in staffing. They didn’t listen to that—we know how this place operates.”

In response to a question about how Bon Appétit has handled the transition from Aramark to the new dining service, Adorno pointed out training issues that came up in the first days the new dining service was operating.

“It’s been a chaotic mess since we started working,” she said. “We put our contractual differences aside and a little bit of training occurred, but they had a totally different program than Aramark. We needed new skills and we achieved them ourselves.”

Adorno also had harsh words for Usdan’s designers.

“It’s not designed properly to house and store food for 3,000 kids,” she said. “It’s so ill-designed. It was designed by someone who knows nothing about food service.”

In light of questions that have arisen recently regarding the status and payment of sushi workers working in the first floor café of Usdan, Adorno described the contractual obligation that the union has with Bon Appétit. According to the union representatives, the union has a “closed shop” deal that requires that all dining workers on campus be unionized.

Silvestro and Adorno view the sushi workers’ employment under a non-union contract with the food sub-contractor Advanced Fresh Concepts as being in violation of this provision.

“Sushi workers should be made union,” Silvestro said.

However, WSA Educational Policy Committee (EPC) Chair Sam Ruth’08 was more cautious about unionizing sushi workers.

“It’s possible that if the sushi workers are made union, the University might be forced to cut sushi service,” Ruth said.

At next week’s Assembly meeting, Bon Appétit Resident District Manager Delmar Crim will speak in an open forum on workers’ issues, at 7 p.m. in Usdan 108.