Many of the jobs that need to be done at Saint Louis University are thankless ones, yet they must be done.
The people who do them–148 housekeeping, custodial and building service workers, in addition to seven storeroom workers, 13 grounds workers, six parking attendants, 21 part-time mail carriers and 74 maintenance workers–are, in many cases, long-term employees of the University.
In addition, 100 officers of the Department of Public Safety patrol the campus 24 hours a day. SLU also contracts about 175 workers from Chartwells Dining Services to work in the dining halls on campus.
Until last summer, SLU also contracted custodial workers but opted to simply hire 100 of those workers after problems arose. “The contractor was not performing the services well and was not providing many benefits or equitable salaries to the custodians,” said Kathy Hagedorn, vice president for human resources. She added that the custodians have expressed their satisfaction with the change.
Kelly Myers, director of marketing for Chartwells, said she has never heard of such problems with the dining service company.
Most of the workers employed by SLU are not union workers and receive the same benefits as all other full-time SLU employees. The exceptions are the maintenance workers, who are part of Operating Engineers Union Local 2, and the grounds workers and new custodians who are members of Service Employees Union Local 50. The union benefits vary, Hagedorn said, but both include things like tuition remission benefits and University medial benefits.
Chartwells, which SLU has contracted since June 2002, offers a pay scale that is “very comparable with all food service companies,” according to Myers.
She also said that hourly employees have the opportunity to sign up for different benefit packages through the company.
Two workers at Fusz Food Court noted some of the changes that Chartwells has made. They said that some people think the company has cheaper practices than its predecessors, Marriott Food Service and Sodexho Food Service, namely in that it runs out of food more quickly. They did note that students tend to think that under Chartwells, the food looks and tastes better, especially in Griesedieck.
One of the workers, in her seventh year at SLU, said of Chartwells: “They need to communicate a little more with us and ask us for our opinions because we work with the students and know more about what they want and what they need.”
The other, who has worked at SLU for three years, nodded in agreement. She said that unlike Marriott and Sodexho, Chartwells offers no pay for sick leave and no vacation discounts for car rentals and hotels.
“I like the students. I like being here with the students,” the first concluded. “I like my job.”
“I do to;” the other added.
