Low-Wage Workers Call on Goldman to Spread the Wealth to Cafeteria Workers

Last year the average Goldman Sachs employee made approximately $660,000 while the average Aramark cafeteria employee at Goldman took home only $410 per week. On March 5, hundreds of Aramark workers will call on Goldman, as a part owner of Aramark, to tell the company to raise wages and provide health insurance that families can afford, and to stop interfering in workers’ decision to form a union. (See a earlier Talking Union post on Aramark’s anti-union actions  here.)

Joining UNITE HERE Local 100 and SEIU 32BJ members will be Bill Granfield, UNITE HERE Local 100 president; Bruce Raynor, UNITE HERE General President; and John Wilhelm, UNITE HERE President, Hospitality Industry

The rally will starts at 1 Wall Street (at 80 Broadway) at 3:30 PM – the crowd will march to Goldman Sachs and back.

“Aramark is in cafeterias all across the city,” explains Bill Granfield. “Lots of places, lots of problems – and we’re here at Goldman because they’re not just a client they’re an owner. This company has the ability to change the lives of the people serving the country’s richest financial institutions.”

Thirty-two Aramark cafeteria workers at Bank of New York locations at 101 Barclay and One Wall Street – where the rally begins – went out on strike on March 4 to demand better wages after more than four months of working without a contract.

The strike is just the latest in a long string of labor problems the company has provoked here in New York, and across the country. Aramark workers at 55 Water Street and New York Life were forced to walk the picket line for three months in the dead of winter before Aramark finally settled in February.

On March 3, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer held a hearing to address the quality of jobs created in the borough. Aramark cafeteria workers at locations around the city testified about the low standards and struggles they face.

At PricewaterhouseCoopers and Citigroup’s executive dining room, non-union Aramark workers are fighting for the right to decide whether they want a union without management interference, and struggling to leave the ranks of the working poor. Aramark has responded by intimidating and interrogating workers.

Today’s march will bring together hundreds of Aramark workers from across the city – from cafeterias at PricewaterhouseCoopers, the United Nations, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, CBS, and others.

“Goldman Sachs owns 20% of Aramark. That puts them in the position to change the company’s course. Aramark has violated the public trust in Philly, in Detroit, in Florida and been enmeshed in one scandal after another. We expect Goldman and the other owners of Aramark to rein in this company’s behavior, or be held accountable for it,” said Bruce Raynor.