350 food service workers at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, where part of the APSA conference will happen this year, are fighting for a contract with their employer, ARAMARK, and have asked for our support. ARAMARK reportedly has created an atmosphere of fear and intimidation that targets union activists. The National Labor Relations Board has issued a complaint against Hynes and BCEC food provider ARAMARK for:
- Interfering with, restraining, and coercing employees in the exercise of their rights.
- Discriminating in regard to hiring, tenure or terms of employment of its employees, thereby discouraging membership in a labor organization
- Failing and refusing to bargain collectively and in good faith.
Workers went on strike against ARAMARK for three days in June and have called for a boycott of ARAMARK. We want to make it very clear to ARAMARK and its workers that many APSA members strongly support the workers' fight for a just contract and a workplace free of intimidation. We plan to give this petition to ARAMARK and will let you know more details soon.
APSA did not sign a food service contract with Aramark. The workers do *not* have a dispute with the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority and have not asked us to move our event from the Hynes.
For more information and news coverage, see:
UNITE HERE Local 26s website: www.local26.org
As members of the American Political Science Association, an organization with conference events at the Hynes Convention Center, we are opposed to the atmosphere of fear and intimidation that ARAMARK has created at the Hynes Convention Center and Boston Convention & Exposition Center. We are deeply concerned about that ARAMARK has reportedly fired 3 union activists, including 2 union negotiating committee members, for their union activity, threatened to fire employees for talking about their union while at work, and spied on employees engaged in union activity. We support the demands of ARAMARK workers for a work environment free of intimidation and a contract that provides just raises, health care, and a retirement plan comparable to those that Boston union hotels have.
