Recovery School District to Select a Food Service Contractor This Week Affecting More Than 100 Cafeteria Workers

NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is being released by SEIU Local 21:

The Recovery School District plans to select a food service contractor this week to take over the food program mid-school year, but the District's RFP does not address whether current food service workers will be retained as a condition of the new contract.

At issue are the more than one hundred workers who will be at risk of losing their livelihood if the RSD chooses a contractor that is not willing to commit to rehiring the workforce. Many of these workers are the sole income-providers for their families. If they were to be thrown out of work, it would be destabilizing for the students, the workers and their families, as well as the communities where they live.

The sudden layoff of more than one hundred food service workers across the District could also create operational disorder as the hiring and training of an entire new food service staff would occur in the middle of the school year considering that the food service RFP calls for the new contractor to take over the school meal program starting January 4, 2010.

Under often very difficult circumstances, cafeteria workers in the RSD do their best to provide healthy, safe, nutritious meals for the children. For many schoolchildren, these are the only meals they will eat during the day. New Orleans school children benefit from the stability of seeing the same faces in their school cafeterias.

"We do more than just serve lunch, we care for these kids," said Geraldine Ray, a cook at Langston Hughes Academy Charter School. "I am worried about what the school board's decision would mean for my family and the school children who depend on us."

Within the District's interest is selecting a contractor who can provide an experienced, well-trained workforce to assist in the contractors' transition. The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education can set criteria in choosing the RSD's food service contractor to include a commitment to worker retention and maintaining the current rates.

SEIU Local 21 LA represents 6,000 school support staff and municipal employees throughout Louisiana.

SOURCE SEIU Local 21