A petition on behalf of student dining workers at Cornell was launched on Nov. 3, demanding that the University halt austerity measures that the petition says have affected student dining jobs.
The petition claims that Cornell intends to make financial cuts to Cornell Dining, which they say could impact the many workers on the Ithaca campus.
Over the summer, Cornell released a series of statements outlining the “acute fiscal pressures” the University faces. On Oct. 16, the University announced Resilient Cornell, an initiative to reduce costs across all the University’s campuses through a restructuring of the University’s workforce and operations — including layoffs.
“We rely on our jobs to pay our tuition, to satisfy Federal Work Study requirements, to pay for housing, to pay for food, and to support families back home,” the petition reads. “It is important, now more than ever, that Cornell University stands with its student body and opposes these attacks on the rights of working class students.”
A set of six demands outlined in the petition ask Cornell to end its austerity program, prevent cuts to student dining workers’ wages, prevent cuts to student dining workers’ Personal Protective Equipment funds and supply, prevent cuts to student dining workers’ benefits, prevent cuts to student dining workers’ hours, and prevent the elimination of student dining worker positions.
The petition claims that entire student positions in Cornell Dining have been eliminated and that “strict limitations on hours and shifts have pushed students out of opportunities for pay.” The petition also notes that the quality of “personal protective equipment continues to fail” and that students have been requested to work machinery they are not equipped to operate.
When asked if student dining workers were subjected to these developments as a result of austerity measures taken by the University, a Cornell Dining representative wrote in an email sent to The Sun that “Cornell Dining has not implemented reductions to student worker benefits, compensation rates, or access to [Personal Protective Equipment] or [Personal Protective Equipment] training.”
In an interview with The Sun, Cornell Student Workers — the group behind the Nov. 3 petition, claimed that the weekly hourly limit, the total number of hours all employees at a certain location are allowed to work, has been lowered.
According to the petition, this cutback has “pushed students out of opportunities for pay.” Additionally, while reducing the total amount each student is able to take home, the cut to total hours per location leads to fewer workers per shift.
“It does vary by dining hall and cafe, but I would say at large, these are all grossly insufficient hours to support the well-functioning of each dining hall and cafe,” said a student worker who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to concerns about employment repercussions. “You’re not allowed to schedule enough workers that is sufficient to keep it running well.”
To cut positions, a second student dining worker said that they had been told at work that the student culinary assistant role, while not currently eliminated, was supposed to have been eliminated, a role that pays $17 an hour versus the $16.75 an hour that a student dining associate receives.
In addition to position cuts, the petition discusses diminishing quality of protective equipment, such as the protective shoe covers being switched from protective rubber to a slippery and deteriorating paper.
The third student worker had witnessed others getting injured, recalling students having burns from the hot trays and pans they handle with rags with holes in them.
All three of the anonymous student workers that spoke to The Sun are members of Cornell Student Workers.
As well as describing faulty protective equipment, student workers also described inadequate training on machinery.
“There’s no standard training or standard protocol for teaching you how to safely use steamers, ovens, some of the machines in the dish room,” the first student worker said. “It’s pretty discretionary, which can work, but it can also be really insufficient and really dangerous. Ovens are really hot. Steamers can burn you. The dish machines can actually cut off your arm.”
The Cornell Office of Risk Management mandates reporting any injury through the Cornell University Cority incident reporting portal and to a supervisor, but the student workers claim injuries rarely get reported.
According to the Cornell Dining representative, there are structures for student workers to raise concerns.
“Cornell Dining provides structures for student workers to raise concerns, including a leadership committee that meets regularly with dining management,” the Cornell Dining representative wrote. “We welcome discussion about any topic related to the work experience and encourage each of the approx. 600 student dining workers to report needs to student or staff managers directly.”
“Although we have an incident form that we have to fill out, there’s a general culture where you don’t fill it out unless it’s a really, really, really serious injury,” the third worker said.
The Cornell Dining representative did not directly respond to a question about the claim that Cornell Dining has a culture around not reporting mistreatment or to the claim that there is inadequate training on this machinery.
The petition also demands that the University prevent cuts to student workers’ benefits. A former benefit it mentions is students receiving $75 worth of Big Red Bucks for picking up extra shifts.
“That was huge for students to be able to afford food on campus,” the third worker said. “But now you’re lucky if you get an email that says you can get $25 a shift.”
With this petition, the student workers hope to raise awareness for issues dining workers experience.
“This petition isn’t just a conversation between dining workers and upper administration. It’s a call to everyone on campus,” the third student worker said. “If you care about your food, you should care about this.”
Caroline McHugh is a member of the Class of 2029 in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She is a contributor for the News department and can be reached at cjm444@cornell.edu.
