Last week the Pennsylvania Joint Board submitted an open letter and petition series, signed by the food service staff at Edinboro University, Clarion University and Indiana University of Pennsylvania, to the sitting Chancellor of the Chancellor of the Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education (PASSHE), Dr. Daniel Greenstein.

The Pennsylvania Joint Board and workers across the state are calling on Chancellor Greenstein to make it clear to the food service giants bidding on open contracts that they need to honor workers' existing union contracts.

The union's open letter reads as follows:

Dear Chancellor Greenstein:

I am writing to you as the elected leader of the Pennsylvania Joint Board of Workers United, SEIU. Workers United represents the food service workers employed at West Chester, Indiana, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Lock Haven, Claron, Kutztown, and Cheyney campuses. Through years on the job serving students, our members in the State System have earned the fair pay, affordable health insurance, retirement benefits and voice on the job outlined in their collective bargaining agreements. Frankly, these are the kinds of good jobs that taxpayer dollars in Pennsylvania should create.

As you may know, the contracts for food service have been put out to bid at the Clarion and Edinboro campuses of West Penn, where the PA Joint Board represents the food service workers. We have been closely monitoring the bidding process at these campuses as our members are concerned about protecting their pay, benefits, and seniority.  In addition, workers at Edinboro have long participated in a Union sponsored pension fund and health insurance fund and are committed to protecting these benefits.

We appreciate that PASSHE has given the Union contracts to prospective bidders so they know the existing labor conditions. We ask that PASSHE take all possible measures to ensure that any successful bidder hire the existing employees and accept the terms of their collective bargaining agreements, as is the usual practice when a reputable food service contractor wins a bid where the workers have a Union.

However, as demonstrated in the attached petitions from workers at Edinboro and Clarion, supported by their fellow workers at IUP, our members are ready to fight any contractor's attempt to discriminate against union members or ignore the collective bargaining agreements that ensure their seniority, fair pay, and benefits. We also want to make it clear that we have strong ties with students across the system as well as with the wider community in the college towns and we're prepared to mobilize both constituencies in support of our cause.

We look forward to your response and hope to be able to work with you as partners to continue improving the educational experience for Pennsylvania students.  Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

David Melman

Manager, PA Joint Board