New Jersey district renews foodservice contract despite union complaints

The Princeton school board on Tuesday renewed its contract with the company that runs the district’s cafeterias, despite claims by the employees’ union that the company is “slashing” working conditions and benefits.

Burlington-based Nutri-Serve Food Management has been in labor negotiations with SEIU Local 32BJ, the union representing the roughly 20 cafeteria workers who are Nutri-Serve employees, since last summer. One sticking point in the talks is that employees want paid holidays, something that the company said this week that it would not provide.

Nutri-Serve president and founder Karen Maier said Wednesday that the employees can apply to collect unemployment for holidays when schools are closed. Overall, employees work 180 days per school year at an hourly rate that is higher than the federal or the state minimum wage. Ms. Maier said most earn more than $9 an hour.

“I do care about my employees,” she said of the staff. “That does matter to me.”

Shirley Newell, a cafeteria worker in the Trenton school district, came to Tuesday’s school board meeting to speak on behalf of the union. “We believe that Nutri-Serve is bringing poverty jobs to Princeton,” she said.
Starting last year, Nutri-Serve took over from the district’s previous food service management company, Chartwells. The company is due to get paid roughly $60,000 as a management fee for running the cafeterias.

During the transition last year, Nutri-Serve offered all the cafeteria workers who had been employed by Chartwells the opportunity to work for the new management company. Ms. Maier said her company hired everyone who had been working there previously.

Tensions surfaced, however.