FONTHILL - Cafeteria staff at Niagara College have been on strike since Saturday.
The 27 full- and part-time employees work for Aramark Canada Ltd. Niagara College contracts with Aramark to provide food services at their Niagara-on-the-Lake and Welland campuses.
The workers, members of OPSEU Local 214, earn on average $8.34 an hour. They want $10 an hour which would bring their wages more in line with cafeteria staff at other colleges and universities who earn between $10 and $13 an hour.
The OPSEU members rejected Aramark’s offer which would bring them $9.17 an hour in the third year of a three-year deal.
“Aramark’s offer won’t close the wage gap for these workers and give them fair pay for the work they do,” said OPSEU staff representative Gary Adams.
“We understand that Aramark is paying $10 an hour to the replacement workers they’ve brought in during our strike,” Adams added.
He said the lack of respect that Aramark shows the workers has made the negotiations more complicated.
Niagara College has allowed the strikers to set up information tables outside the cafeterias to inform students and staff about the strike. The cafeterias serve a college community of more than 5,900 students and 500 staff.
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For further information: Gary Adams (905) 379-3802
