Jason Tower loves his job helping feed and take care of Mount Allison students. Tower has been the president of Local 1440 for 17 years, representing 45 people who work in dining services at Mount Allison University.
But Tower and his members are in for a period of uncertainty now, after having received termination notices from Aramark Canada Ltd., the company that the university has contracted to deliver its food and dining services to students.
The university issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a new dining services contract in the fall, which closed on December 11. Tower says he and his co-workers had heard the process was open, but also that “we really didn’t have too much to worry about, because they were happy with the service they were receiving.”
Then in January, Tower heard Aramark has lost out on the RFP. On February 23, the company fired all its Mount Allison employees effective April 30, saying its contract with Mount Allison was ending on the same date.
The university says its required public procurement process is still not complete, and has not announced who will take over the contract to feed students on campus.
Tower and the members of Local 1440 are no strangers to sporadic work in the summer months. They normally get laid off in April, and then are called back to work events throughout the summer, starting with Convocation in early May. But this time, there’s no certainty or clarity over what kind of work they will have over the summer, and what kind of contract they might have to come back to in September.
“I spent most of my weekend trying to comfort members who are stressed because they don’t know if they’re going to have a job in May,” says Tower. “They’re stressed out. Nobody can afford to be off work with no income for a whole summer.”
Tower remembers what it was like last time Mount Allison changed contractors, from Sodexho to Aramark, 17 years ago.
“That transition was terrible,” recalls Tower. When Sodexho lost the contract, Local 1440 lost their collective agreement, and had to build a new one from scratch with Aramark.
“We were a union for 52 years. And every other employer that came in was always under the influence that they had to take the members and their contract,” says Tower. “This was the first time that they didn’t have to honour our contract.”
CHMA asked Mount Allison about this change to procurement requirements, but did not receive an explanation.
The new contract with Aramark was negotiated, and “it hasn’t been all bad,” says Tower. “In the last eight years, we finally received a pension.” But unfortunately, “that might be gone with the new company coming in, it’s hard to say.”
17 years ago Aramark did end up honouring the wages for Local 1440, but Tower says the union had to “fight tooth and nail to get our seniority.”
“It was just hard,” he says. “I’ve been the president for 17 years, and my membership still today talks about that. It affected them deeply.”
CHMA reached out to Mount Allison for further information about the situation and received this statement from Vice President Financial, Robert Inglis:
“Mount Allison is subject to procurement legislation which requires that from time to time it participate in an open and competitive procurement process for goods and services. As part of those requirements and norms within the University sector, the University continuously reviews supplier contracts. We are currently going through a Request for Proposal (RFP) process for dining services.
As a publicly funded institution, the University must adhere to procurement legislation and follow appropriate practices. At this time, we are unable to comment further until the procurement process is complete.”
The Mount Allison Faculty Association also sent a statement in response to the situation. Executive director Geoff Martin says, “our expectation is that if a different food service provider is chosen we expect to see successor rights for the existing collective agreement and work force.”
Martin also said the group would be telling Mount Allison administration as much at a meeting on Thursday.
