{"id":115,"date":"2018-04-09T21:52:13","date_gmt":"2018-04-09T21:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/humanrightsatau.org\/?p=115"},"modified":"2018-04-11T18:05:27","modified_gmt":"2018-04-11T18:05:27","slug":"background","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/humanrightsatau.org\/index.php\/2018\/04\/09\/background\/","title":{"rendered":"Background: The Lives of Service Workers at American University"},"content":{"rendered":"

50 Years of Serving Food\u00a0in the Terrace Dining Room and an Almost Empty Retirement Account<\/h3>\n

Ms. Leila Williams is 78 and has worked\u00a0at AU for more than 51 years. She began work on campus in September, 1966. She says she can’t\u00a0afford to retire.
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Colleagues, there are at least two\u00a0aspects of the crisis the service workers face at AU.<\/h6>\n

Almost empty retirement accounts for\u00a0service workers over 65.<\/strong> No contributions from Marriott for years. And uncertain retirements for younger workers.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

After the university privatized cooking and cleaning\u00a0services in 1982, the private companies on campus such as\u00a0Marriott made no contributions<\/a> to individual retirement accounts of the\u00a0service workers. The result is a disaster. AU now has 65-77-year old service\u00a0workers with almost empty retirement accounts. One 66 year old worker with 38\u00a0years on campus said she has $14,000 in her retirement account.<\/p>\n

The almost empty retirement accounts issue in more detail.<\/strong>
\nMarriott was the first vendor to supply food services to the university after
\nprivatization in 1982. As you can see in\u00a0this contract with Marriott<\/a> no provision was made for retirement accounts.\u00a0Not a penny was provided for workers’ retirements for the term of this contract.\u00a0We were so stunned at seeing this absence of funds, that we asked a labor lawyer\u00a0to review the contract assuming that we have missed something. We had not. There\u00a0was no money in retirement for the workers. Obviously, the university saved\u00a0money in 1982 by now having workers on campus to whom\u00a0no retirement payments were being\u00a0made.<\/p>\n

What would it cost to remedy this situation of fifteen to twenty over
\n65-year old workers who can’t retire?<\/strong>
\nPlease remember in addition to\u00a0the empty years, approximately 1982-2005, with no retirement contributions,\u00a0these workers also will receive small social security checks based on many years\u00a0at or near the minimum wage. The union has identified 15 workers who need help in order to retire.<\/p>\n

How much monthly income does a worker needs for a decent retirement?<\/strong>
\n1. Professor Mary Gray of the Math\/Stats Department has suggested using twice the poverty guideline amount for an individual. The national poverty guideline amount excluding Alaska and Hawaii is $11,880. Twice this amount\u00a0is $23,760.<\/p>\n

How much income can a low income worker depend upon from Social Security?<\/strong>
\n2. A food service worker with 39 years on campus said she expects to receive about $900 a month. Medicare will deduct $121.80 for the Part B premium, leaving a net Social Security benefit of $778 a month, or an annual Social Security benefit of $9338.<\/p>\n

What is the gap between twice the poverty guideline and what a low-wage AU worker can expect from Social Security?<\/strong>
\n3. $23,760-$9,338=$14,422 a year or $1,202 a month.<\/p>\n

What would the monthly cost be to American University of supplementing 15 workers over 65 with over 35 years of work at AU each?<\/strong>
\n4. $1,202*15 workers=$18,030 a month<\/p>\n

What is this amount as a percentage of AU\u2019s monthly spending?<\/strong>
\nWith a total FY2017 annual budget of $610,000,000, the University spends $50,833,333 a month. The emergency supplement of $18,030 a month would amount to (0.000355) less than four thousandths of one percent of the monthly budget.<\/p>\n

Where could American University find this sum without influencing tuition?<\/strong>
\nWe recommend a 10% reduction in the salaries of University Vice-Presidents or a 4% reduction in the salaries of the twelve highest paid officers of the University to fund this pension supplement. See the IRS 990 form online for the salaries of these officers. Either reduction would entirely fund the pension supplements.<\/p>\n

What is happening with younger service workers? Will the younger\u00a0workers today ever be able to retire?
\n<\/strong>Aramark is making retirement contributions today<\/a> unlike the practice of Marriott and other vendors in the past. In the current contract,\u00a0Aramark provides $1.00 in retirement benefits for each hour worked during a\u00a0year. So most of the cooks who only work 8 months a year or 32 weeks a year at\u00a040 hours a week, or a total of 1280 hours of work would receive $1,280 per year\u00a0in contributions to retirement accounts. This does not look like it will provide\u00a0adequate retirement benefits for current workers. The cleaners who also work for\u00a0Aramark are employed for the full year.<\/p>\n

We urge the administration and the Board of Trustees to commission another
\nreport from John Willougby or an equally skilled colleague to determine what
\nlevel of contribution from Aramark or the next vendor is needed. Of course, the
\nvendor would pass the cost along to the university which might involve
\nsacrifices on campus. Bonuses to senior executives might be reduced. Holiday
\nparties might have to be scaled back. Was\u00a0the open bar paid for by American
\nUniversity at this year’s American Political Science Association conference
\nreally more important than adequate retirements for service workers?<\/p>\n

Our sources.
\n<\/strong>We have provided as much detail as we know. Unfortunately, the HR department
\nat AU has nothing on its web site about the treatment of the service workers on
\ncampus since 1982. And information in the university archives is incomplete. While there are articles from the Eagle <\/em>about problems year after year in the 80s and 90s, there are no electronic copies of contracts between the vendors and the service workers. Current Aramark employees gave us the copies of\u00a0the two contracts referred to on this web site. See the Library’s web site for archives of\u00a0the Eagle. <\/em>(Library web site>University Archives>Eagle)<\/p>\n

Our conclusion
\n<\/strong>AU has the resources to treat everyone who works on campus ethically. It has
\nnot done this since 1982. It could begin again if it chooses.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

50 Years of Serving Food\u00a0in the Terrace Dining Room and an Almost Empty Retirement Account Ms. Leila Williams is 78 and has worked\u00a0at AU for more than 51 years. She began work on campus in September, 1966. She says she can’t\u00a0afford to retire. Colleagues, there are at least two\u00a0aspects of the crisis the service workers face at AU. Almost empty<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-equa_benefits"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humanrightsatau.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humanrightsatau.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humanrightsatau.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humanrightsatau.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humanrightsatau.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":52,"href":"https:\/\/humanrightsatau.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":208,"href":"https:\/\/humanrightsatau.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions\/208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humanrightsatau.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humanrightsatau.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humanrightsatau.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}