Food service workers rally at Trent University over ‘precarious’ employment

A strike or lockout is looming at the end of the month for Trent University food service workers in Peterborough.

Employees held a rally on Monday outside the campus to protest what their union describes as “precarious” employment. The Canadian Union of Public Employees claims half of the staff are now on part-time roles, some with fewer than five hours a week.

Compass Group Canada/Chartwells, which has had Trent’s food service contract since 2014, could not be reached for comment.

“These are not jobs that are sustainable,” said CUPE president Fred Hahn, who joined the lunchtime rally in the freezing rain for Local 32o5.

Hahn says it’s not a new issue, referencing the recent strike by Ontario colleges’ faculty last fall.

“It has been happening in hospitals and university social service agencies and in businesses and now it seems to have come to Trent,” he said.

“Because these food service workers have been trying to bargain a collective agreement, and now their employer is refusing to meet with them.”

A 2017 Ontario government report defined “precarious employment” as including low paid work. Some would also broaden the definition to include part-time or temporary work that comes with few benefits.

This month, a sweeping overhaul of Ontario’s labour laws went into effect, but CUPE says the legislation didn’t address precarious employment. Union officials hope that will change.

“I think the new legislation around the increase in minimum wage is dealing with the working conditions,” said Jocelyn Williams, president of Trent University Faculty Association. “It may not address precarious, but I think it addresses the overall quality.”

Williams says the raise in minimum wage, and the outcry after some Tim Hortons cut staff hours and paid breaks in response to the increase, shows that there’s a desire for change.

“As a public institution, I think we have to carry that mission forward and adhere to behaviour that we would want to see in all members of our society,” Williams said.

Trent’s food service union will be in a strike or lockout position on Feb. 3.