Bon Appétit Residential District Manager Delmar Crim addressed the ongoing sushi worker dispute at a packed WSA meeting Sunday night. He responded to confusion regarding how the sushi workers are paid, as well as allegations that the workers are not receiving benefits, which may be a violation of the contract between the Dining Union and Bon Appétit.

Crim said that, after holding multiple conversations with the workers through two translators, the workers have thus far refused to join the union.

“They simply have no use for a union in their culture,” Crim said. “They don’t want to be members of the union.”

Crim’s numerous remarks about the sushi workers’ culture prompted WSA member Julien Burns ’10 to try to change the tone of Crim’s comments.

“We can’t make generalizations about their culture,” Burns said.

However, union leader Sue Silvestro’s experience in dealing with food service workers at Wesleyan led her to a different conclusion.

“In my 20 years as a member of this union, I’ve never encountered any incompatibilities between workers and the union,” Silvestro said. “We want them in the union; it gives them a voice on the floor, benefits, decent pay. Right now they’re not receiving benefits, not saving for retirement.”

Crim also said that the sushi workers have repeatedly expressed a desire not to join the union because because they would make less money under a union pay schedule.

“They’re not stupid. They realize at the end of the day that they’ll end up with less money,” said Crim. “They like the cash.”

Regarding student concerns with dining prices, Crim questioned whether unionizing the sushi employees would be in students’ interests financially. Last year, Aramark sushi that was not made fresh on campus but was shipped in bulk to Middletown was typically priced between 6.00 and 8.00 points.

“I’m just wondering if the Wesleyan community is willing for sushi to go up 2.00 or 2.50 points a box,” he said.

In response to questions about how the workers are compensated, Crim said that there is a commission system in place, in which workers are paid according to daily sushi sales. While all parties agreed that the workers’ pay is currently above the $12.03 per hour mandated by the University’s employment code, some WSA members were not convinced that salaries would always remain above that level with such a dynamic system.

“I don’t think we’re an institution that wants to condone paying workers on commission,” said WSA Coordinator Izaak Orlansky ’08. “For me, that’s a concern. I don’t think that’s a good way to pay our workers.”

Also discussed was the controversy regarding Sandi Baik, a Weshop cashier who has alleged that her hours were cut so that she would no longer be eligible for benefits. Sitting in the back of the WSA meeting room with a half dozen other union members, she rose to comment during the moderated discussion following Crim’s comments.

“That’s my work, I want to do it,” Baik said, referring to the 4-hour shift that she no longer works following Bon Appétit’s takeover of Weshop management. “Delmar’s attitude has been ‘We’re gonna do whatever we want and what are you gonna do about it?’”

In response to Baik’s assertions that her hours were taken away from her, Crim said that Bon Appétit came in with a blank employment slate, free to apportion hours as they saw fit.

“We have not cut one person’s hours, we’ve cut a position’s hours,” Crim said.

Ultimately, many union complaints stem from accounting issues Crim handles on behalf of Bon Appétit.

“We spent $30,000 on overtime last week,” Crim said. “The reality is that most food service workers are on social assistance. A huge portion of food costs go to workers, they’re compensated 30 percent more than Cornell. Traditionally labor costs account for 30-32 percent of food service costs. Here that number is 55 percent. We have the most highly-paid food service workers in Connecticut.”

Silvestro, however, disputes this assertion.

“I think he might have been looking at non-union shops with that figure,” Silvestro said. “I believe the University of Hartford’s workers are better paid.”

Many WSA members ended the meeting agreeing that although many questions had been answered, many more had been raised. In addition to the question of whether having non-unionized employees on campus was clearly a contractual violation, it was clear that it would be challenging to meet student demands for lower prices, a discount for University janitors when buying lunch, and high quality local organic food.

“Keep in mind that while it’s easy to make demands, it’s harder to find a balance,” said WSA member Sam Ruth ’08. “I don’t think Delmar’s a magician. You’d have to be to balance all these demands at once.”

Repeatedly, Bon Appétit’s actions were compared to that of Wesleyan’s former food service provider Aramark, particularly on issues of discounts given to University janitors when buying lunch.

“Aramark does a lot of things, including work for prisons,” Crim said. “Ultimately, I work for you. It’s not my money.”