The value of comfort and the instability of labor

More than 50 employees working at the canteen of the University of Amsterdam are unsure if they are going to have a place of work at the end of this year. That is just a little over two months from now. This is not the consequence of bad business or bankruptcy, nor was it something the workers could have planned in advance for. 

It started with rumors. 
Every few years, the company managing the canteen at the University of Amsterdam changes, leaving space for another to take over. In early spring, the workers under Cirfood, the organization currently handling the management of the canteen, have been informed that Cirfood would end its contract with the university, leaving room for smaller businesses to take over. From the larger point of view, it seems like a good thing. A large multi-national corporation, which was in charge of both facilitating sales and selling its own food, is leaving the stage, making way for the smaller “local heroes” to handle their own. It makes for a nice story of the local succeeding over the international, of redistribution and valuing the lives of the working people. And it fits right in with the UvA’s image as a progressive institution. However, when zooming in, the story changes. 

Cirfood will remain involved with the UvA and the HvA as a managing partner. They will no longer be responsible for day-to-day operations, though they will remain very much present. The same cannot be said for the over 50 people working there, placed exactly between the UvA and the Cirfood. This has resulted in a conflict of blame-shifting and pointing fingers. The UvA insists the responsibility for the employment of the people falls on Cirfood, while Cirfood insists it falls on UvA, and that the university is supposed to take over the employees. There is no concrete outcome yet, and there is no information reaching the workers whose employments we are talking about. 

The flow of information stopped around spring. When the workers asked about their contracts, they have been told Cirfood is taking their lawyers’ advice and not putting forward any more information. As such, rumor travels. The idea that flows around most often is to move the workers to the stands of the “local heroes”, for continuation of their employment, but even that is optimistic. As they are fully organized now, the “local heroes” do not have space for 50 additional employees. “All those stands, they’re too small. They’re not able to pay us”, Maike tells me. She is one of the managers of the canteen and has been working there for over 17 years. She is part of those who organized the petition currently circulating at the UvA on behalf of the rest of the people, together with an action group. As of January, she is not sure she will be employed at all.

Amongst the rumors circulating, we have the replacement for the cashiers. From what is left to be understood, under this new management structure, the kassa will be automatic, and there will be no person scanning your items as you leave the canteen. This brings forward concerns, both from the students and the employees, about what we actually value when designing the way our lives work. The potential automation of the kassa is seen as a cheaper option to paying the workers running the place. In Maike’s view, this whole organizational change is done in the name of profit, of making everything cheaper. She brought forward criticisms about what automation does to human relationships, how automation might mean more stealing from the canteen, and how this does not benefit the workers, even the ones who will stay.

Cirfood moved forward with legal action, informing UvA and HvA by letter. This whole process was done without involving the employees whose employment they are discussing.

Cirfood is currently taking the UvA to court over their disagreement about who is responsible for the employment of the people. They had given the university time until the first of October to figure out the disagreement, and after that deadline had passed, Cirfood moved forward with legal action, informing UvA and HvA by letter. This whole process was done without involving the employees whose employment they are discussing. “They are pointing to the university. The university points at Cirfood, you know? And we are somewhere in the middle, you know, like a ball game”, says Maike. She also brought up concerns about the logic of the whole process, and how going to court costs money which could have been used to pay the salaries of the employees. “Why do they spend so much money in order not to pay?”. 

The workers are hoping the petition and the newspapers will bring awareness over the situation, that they will gain clarity from it, and that they will get to keep their jobs.

“But in the meantime, we don’t know anything. We don’t know nothing. We don’t know shit”, Maike tells me.

We are talking about people who have been working at the canteen for as much as 40 years, as well as about people who are nearing retirement age, and whose pensions and whole livelihoods will be permanently altered by losing this position, just a few years before leaving work for good. 

At the time of writing this article, the workers have been advised not to strike, as striking while the legal action between UvA, HvA and Cirfood is still ongoing would not be legal. They are then takine other avenues to try and gain some clarity about what will happen. They are talking to newspapers, both on campus and outside. They have been organizing petitions, such as the one floating the university now, which has reached 142% of the signatures they were looking for. And they hope. 

This situation faces us with a question: What do we, as a society, value? Do we value profit enough to leave 50 people without their place of work? Do we value easiness, efficiency, enough to tell people over 60 years old that they are going to have to get a way lower pension than they had expected, or they will have to try and find employment again, for the first time in 20, 30, even 40 years? Is individual comfort valued so much that we would not mind placing other people into such struggles? 

You can find the petition here: 
www.petities.com/cirfood_and_uvahva_clarify_our_situation_now