November 15, 2024
Michaela Althouse/PhillyVoice
City Council could extend Philly's prevailing wage law to Aramark concession workers, raising rates and adding health care. Above, Councilmember Kendra Brooks speaks at a rally in April supporting workers.
While supporters of the proposed 76ers arena in Center City have lauded the potential employment opportunities of the project, concession workers said they're less-than-enthusiastic to hear about new jobs when they're still fighting for living wages at their current ones.
"Honestly, as a union, we are not interested in hearing about just creating jobs — our members have two, three, four, even five jobs," said Rosslyn Wuchinich, president of Unite Here Local 274, which represents stadium workers. "... So when we're looking at jobs being created, the questions have to be: What are the nature of those jobs? Will these jobs further impoverish our city while owners reap profits? Or are they going to lift all of us up?"
At Thursday's City Council meeting, Wuchinich and concession employees spoke in favor of a proposed amendment from Council President Kenyatta Johnson, who represents the Stadium District. The legislation would extend the city's prevailing wage law to arena workers, bumping their minimum hourly rate up to $20.07, plus $4.93 per hour for health care and benefit contributions. Currently, some workers make less than $15 per hour.
Unite Here represents more than 2,000 cooks, servers, bartenders, dishwashers, and retail and warehouse workers employed by Aramark. The concession company has separate contracts at each arena, all of which have expired, which means workers aren't considered full-time employees even if they're clocking in for more than 40 hours at different venues. They've been fighting for a singular contract, plus better wages and health care, since March.
The stadiums are on city-owned land, which is why the council could vote to include them in the wage law. In fact, custodians and groundskeeping staff were already put under the law's umbrella in 2016. In 2021, it was also extended to airport workers.
The City Council has already publicly supported the Aramark workers, who have held a number of strikes since the contracts expired. If the amendment passes, that could also help workers become more open to the new arena project, which faced much criticism in it's first two days of council hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday.
"Obviously, we want to make sure that in terms of the new arena, we're supporting good paying jobs, not jobs that perpetuate the cycles of poverty," Johnson said.
Unite Here said negotiations with Aramark are still ongoing, and they would continue even if this amendment passes. However, the food service company called this effort "counterproductive to good faith bargaining" and said that it would hurt employees by delaying negotiations.
"We are exploring all options to vigorously oppose this bill given the negative impact the proposed legislation would have on the teams, the fans, and our operations," Aramark said in a statement.
Workers said they're struggling with the inconsistency of stadium hours, noting that they have to be available if a team goes to the playoffs but don't have work during weeks with away games. During Thursday's public comment period, many underlined the lack of health care, and one worker said it's difficult to maintain government benefits because of how their income can fluctuate.
Samantha Spector, a stadium worker, said she can only afford out-of-pocket insurance for her daughter and can't go to the doctor herself.
"This bill would have a huge impact on my life because I would be able to have access to health care," Spector said. "The city did this for the airport, and it's long overdue for stadium workers.
