Workers, Community Call for Socially Responsible Code of Conduct for Food Service Contractors

A forum on contracted cafeteria workers at bio-tech/high-tech corporations was held at Our Redeemer’s Lutheran Church in South San Francisco April 12. A number of workers testified about working conditions, low wages and lack of a voice on the job before a panel of elected officials and community leaders. They called for a Socially Responsible Code of Conduct respecting workers’ rights.

Employees of Corporations like Genentech, SRI, Electronic Arts, Roache, Gilead enjoy great wages, benefits and perqs, but the contracted cafeteria workers live with low wages and poor benefits and complain about lack of dignity and respect at work.

These workers, who are employed by Redwood Shores based food service contractor, Guckenheimer Enterprises, face unaffordable family health care, inhumane work loads, and some earn as little as $10.50 an hour. The workers are standing up for higher standards in the food service industry as part of a national effort, Service Workers Rising.

Cafeteria workers from Guckenheimer Enterprise—one of the largest food service contractors in the high-tech and biotech industry—and other community members testified. Guckenheimer food service employees fall into the low wage economy—they are the working poor. In San Mateo County food service workers on average earn 69 percent less than the median income for the area.

Many workers testified that they were forced to do more than one job and were exhausted and stressed after a day’s work. Oscar Mernio, who works in the Hewlett-Packard cafeteria, said after he made public his support for a union, he was transferred to a job site that was set to close. “It isn’t fair to lose my job after working for four years.” he said. “This is a job with no job security—We don’t know if we’ll have a job tomorrow.”

Guckenheimer employee Josefina Espinoza said she does the work of three people and yet still barely scrapes by. “I want to be treated like a human being,” she said.

“I work fulltime but the healthcare that Guckenheimer offers still costs too much for my family. I have two sons and that’s why I’m standing up for a change,” said Adriana Gonzalez, a cashier at a Guckenheimer café on Genentech’s campus.

Ri Hua Zheng, an assistant cook at Genentech who has worked with Guckenheimer for five and a half years, said that after working as a truck driver, he was told one day to report to a different building the next day. He was demoted to a dishwasher without explanation. He said he endured the mistreatment out of fear of losing his job. “Now I’m standing up for respect on the job,” Zheng said. “The company is trying to buy me off now with a promotion, but that won’t stop me from organizing for change. I won’t stop until I have a voice on the job.”

A panel featuring State Senator Leland Yee, San Mateo Supervisors Jerry Hill, San Mateo NAACP President Henry Rutland, Rabbi Marvin Goodman of the Northern California Board of Rabbis, and Alice Bulos, state chairwoman of the Filipino-American Democratic Club, listened to the testimony and then announced their support for the Socially Responsible Code of Conduct. Congressmember Tom Lantos was unable to attend due to business as Chair of the House Foreign Relations Committee.

San Mateo County NAACP President Henry Rutland said,“I have been a supporter of the Food Servers campaign since it began in San Mateo nearly a year ago. The cost of living is so high now that it would be very difficult to live a decent life here with the poor wages and inadequate benefits received by the Guckenheimer workers in the cafeterias at Genentech.”

Supervisor Jerry Hill said that he wanted the workers to have access to affordable health insurance, and a way to organize for union representation without interference, said Hill. “I think when the facts are exposed and Genentech realizes the truth of the workers’ situation, they’ll see the importance of supporting this type of code,” he said.

In an example of the types of practices used by employers to fight against union organizing campaigns, Guckenheimer bussed about 100 workers to the forum wearing “No Union” t-shirts.

The Forum was organized by UNITE HERE Local 2 and the San Mateo County Central Labor Council. For more information, check www.serviceworkersrising.org.