![]() He notified other faculty about the situation. While managing Blackboard at AU, McCabe heard about the issue from a former AU food service employee, the late Nancy Bryant-Keys, in the mid-2000s. And that’s when we found out.”Įventually, the issue of food service workers’ pensions reached McCabe. “We thought we had something until we needed to use it. “Now, 36 years here later, I’m realizing that there’s been almost 20 years with nothing going into the pension ,” Hamlett-Williams said. A raise to $1.20 an hour will happen in May of 2019, the contract says. ![]() Aramark contributes $1.05 an hour, not exceeding 40 hours, to the pensions of employees who work 20 or more hours a week, according to the 2016-2019 contract between Aramark and the current union, Unite Here Local 23. In 2013, AU signed with Aramark to cover dining services. Bon Appetit did not respond to requests for confirmation by time of publication. Unite Here Local 25, the union that represented the AU food service workers in their contract negotiations with Marriott in the ‘80s, declined to comment by the time of publication.Įmployees started receiving money into their pension funds again in 2001 when AU contracted Bon Appetit to take over dining services, according to Hamlett-Williams. One contract from 1990-1993, obtained from advocate Jim McCabe, shows that Marriot made no contributions to the food service employees’ pensions. After over 12 calls made to Marriott and multiple voicemails left, including with Leeny Oberg, chief financial officer, Marriott declined to comment by the time of publication. The archived contracts between Marriott and the food service workers are currently held by Marriott and are not available for public viewing, according to an operator at the Marriott Corporation headquarters. For the contract between Marriott and the union of service workers, Hamlett-Williams says no pensions were given to employees from 1981-2001. In a pension plan, employers contribute to a retirement account for employees as they work over the years. Hamlett-Williams and the other workers thought Marriott had a pension plan. That put the service workers and their benefits under the management of contracted companies. Even though AU does not directly employ these food service workers, workers and advocates like Gray want AU to get involved with the issue.ĪU started contracting companies to manage dining on campus in 1955, according to Linda Argo, assistant vice president of External Relations & Auxiliary Services at AU. They’re the one that came in … and that’s when it all switched out,” Hamlett-Williams said.įood service workers receive a pension through their current employer, Aramark, but the 20 years without pension from Marriott are preventing these 16 workers from retiring, Hamlett-Williams said. “We did not realize … that we weren’t gonna have any pension, and, from what I can understand, the university has been blaming Marriott, I guess. These 20 years span the time AU contracted the Marriott Corporation to manage all food services on campus. The 16 workers cannot retire because they were not receiving money in their pension fund from 1981 to 2001, according to Hamlett-Williams. She’s been working at AU in the dining program for just over 35 years. “To make ends meet, we have to keep working,” said Christine Hamlett-Williams, one of those workers. These employees cannot retire because they feel that their pensions are too small to survive on. Fifteen other food service workers are 65 or older with 35 years or more experience working on campus. Williams isn’t the only service worker with a pension problem. The normal retirement age of her generation is 65 according to the Social Security Administration. Williams currently has an estimated $16,000 in her pension account. ![]() She got this number by doubling the national poverty line. ![]() AU math and statistics professor Mary Gray suggests that Williams would need to have $23,760 per expected year of retirement saved. What is keeping Williams from retiring isn’t her love for her job - she can’t afford it.ĪARP recommends that retirees, on average, have 70-80 percent of their yearly income per expected year of retirement saved. Leila!’ It’s also about time for me to retire!” The screen says that after 51 years of working in TDR, Williams still loves “getting up every day to feed the students, and I love it when they call me ‘Ms. A Terrace Dining Room television screen features Leila Williams, the longest working employee on American University’s campus. ![]()
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