Correction appended

Contract negotiations between Aramark and Dining Services workers have stalled due to a disagreement over health insurance coverage, according to Dana Simon, the organizing director of Unite HERE Local 26, the union that represents the roughly 125 unionized Dining Services workers.

In an interview with the Justice, Simon said, "The biggest problem for the food and services workers throughout the summer and right now is that Aramark wants to … diminish the health insurance benefits to the workers."

Last May, Aramark and Dining Services workers began formal negotiations to establish a new 5-year contract before the old one expired on June 30. According to Simon, Dining Services workers have since continued to operate under the terms of the old contract and said that the old contract "will continue to cover the workers until a new one is negotiated."

Director of Dining Services Aaron Bennos wrote in an email to the Justice that he could not "comment on specifics regarding contract negotiations, as they are confidential." Bennos, an Aramark representative, further wrote, "We [the Aramark representatives] continue to bargain in good faith and hope to reach a new agreement soon."

In an email to the Brandeis Labor Coalition listserv, club administrator Dara Rosenkrantz '12 urged club members to attend a Tuesday meeting with Harry Grill, a Unite HERE representative, to learn more details about the negotiations and "so that we can advocate for fair policies at the place we call home about 8 months out of the year."

According to Simon, the main point of contention between Aramark and the unionized workers concerns which specific health insurance package will cover the workers under a new contract.

"They [the representatives of Aramark] are proposing to move from one health plan that is provided by Tufts [Health Plan] to a different health plan that is provided by Tufts but that has dramatically, dramatically lower levels of coverage. When you say lower levels of coverage, the other way to say it is dramatically higher costs for the workers," stated Simon.

Simon said that the union offered Aramark what he called a "rational alternative," a health insurance plan from Unite HERE's health insurance trust fund that would "decrease Aramark's costs significantly and provide an even higher level of benefits than the workers are currently getting with their current plan."

In a interview with the Justice, Julie Richards, the head shop steward of the unionized Dining Services workers and also a cashier in the Usdan Café, echoed Simon's concern about the issue of health insurance coverage.

"We love working [at Brandeis], you know. But we also need to have the insurance, you know. It's all about the insurance, I think. ... It's coming together on a few other things, but the insurance they're holding back on, which makes everyone kind of worried," said Richards.

According to Simon, "We're hopeful that Aramark is going to to come to the table ready to agree to something that people can agree to that does not involve taking away their heath insurance or worsening their health insurance."

Correction: The negotiations between Aramark and Dining Services workers have stalled but have not reached an impasse as originally reported.