This campaign asks that the employment of contracted food service and cleaning workers who provide vital services to SFU’s three campuses be brought back in house. Food service workers are currently employed by Compass-Chartwells and have a collective agreement with Unite Here! Local 40 while the cleaners are employed by Best Service Pros Ltd. and have a contract with Unit 4 of CUPE 3338.

The outsourcing of food and cleaning services puts downward pressure on terms and conditions of employment because contractor success in obtaining contracts depends on submitting the lowest bid. This system also limits job security and excludes workers from services available to others in the university, such as library access, parking, childcare, and subsidized tuition. The result is a low wage, insecure, precarious workforce which could not be more different demographically than the university’s highest-paid employees. Cleaners and food service workers on campus are primarily women, people of colour, and immigrants. They have suffered layoffs and intensified precarity as a result of the pandemic.

These workers are an essential part of our community. As a community, we can and must do better by these workers. It is time to bring food and cleaning services back in house.

Thank you for your support for this important initiative.

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