While contract negotiations between the teachers’s union and the Princeton Public Schools Board of Education (BOE) have taken center stage at recent public Board meetings, those between the district’s food service workers and their employer Nutri-Serve seem to have dropped out of sight.

The district’s food service workers have been hoping that their union, Local 32 BJ Service Employees International Union, will come to an agreement on a contract dispute with Nutri-Serve that began shortly after the company took over management of school food services last year.

In June 2014, the BOE unanimously approved a $61,245 food service contract with Nutri-Serve Food Management, Inc. for the 2014-15 school year. Existing cafeteria staff were offered jobs with the new contractor, which replaced Chartwells School Dining Services, which had served Princeton’s schools for 15 years.

Nutri-Serve was contracted for one year with the option for four additional one-year renewals.

Although the BOE has repeatedly pointed out that it is not a party to the negotiations between the company it hired and its employees, a number of food service workers have appealed to the Board to intercede on their behalf at recent meetings.

Many of the school cafeteria workers earn in the region of $9 an hour and have been serving food to Princeton’s school children for more than a decade. They claim that Nutri-Serve has not only taken away their health insurance and sick day benefits, it has been disrespectful to their needs. According to their union, Nutri-Serve unilaterally and unlawfully changed the terms of its contract with the employees.

Union representatives last met with the company on February 23 but as yet no further meeting has yet been scheduled.

“The Union sets the schedule for our meetings which have so far been held at the Princeton Public Library,” said Karen Maier, founder, owner, and president of Nutri-Serve. “The negotiations started last August and the meetings take place when the Union rep Edith Villavicencio is available; she has a lot to do and isn’t always available,” said Ms. Maier.

Despite being advised by her lawyer not to talk to the press, Ms. Maier spoke candidly with Town Topics about the dispute, the only union negotiation that the company is involved in.

According to Ms. Maier, an unfair labor practice suit that the union filed against her company was dismissed; the union filed an appeal on March 6. Ms. Maier, who has been working in the school food service industry since 1976, launched Nutri-Serve 28 years ago from the second bedroom of her condominium home. Today, the company serves some 78,000 children every day and over 60 percent of the company’s business is contract work with boards of education.

As far as Ms. Maier is concerned, the operations in Princeton’s schools are fine. “We hired a bi-lingual manager Joel Rosa and we have good relations with the employees,” she said. And while she believes progress has been made in the negotiations, with some better benefits being offered, she reports that holidays are the “hold up” for employees who work for 180 days in the year.

“But morale-wise things are good and we have a nice relationship with the employees,” said Ms. Maier. “We’ve made a good faith effort and our operation is working, the workers get sick days and we are providing health benefits.” The company has also provided more staff training.

“Our employees are really nice people, they gave gifts to our managers at Christmas time; they are family people who love children and need their jobs. I’m available, they can talk to me if they want to,” said the business owner who pointed out that a union contract is not essential for operations to continue.

Ms. Maier laughed at the accusation made in the public comment session at last month’s Board meeting that Nutri-Serve is a “union-busting organization.” “That’s ridiculous, we aren’t some big international operation, we’re regional,” she said of the company which is headquartered in Burlington Township.

“I respect unions, my brother is a union electrician. We’ve been respectful to them, even offering to go into mediation, which they declined,” said Ms. Maier. “It’s up to the Union to set the date for the next talks.”

Ms Maier makes no apology for being “proactive” when it comes to feeding children in a nutritious way and saving money so that more district spending can go toward education. “Look at my mission statement,” she said. “I wrote that myself and a third of it concerns our employees. This is my life. I care about children and about employees.

Nutri-Serve’s Mission Statement reads: “To provide nutritious, high quality food and customer service by a food service staff who model a professional attitude. They are guided by a teamwork approach to management. This results in satisfied customers and a more effective program saving taxpayers money. Nutri-Serve Food Management is a responsive company with the support system and integrity to best meet the needs of our employees and clients.”

Town Topics contacted 32 BJ representative Edith Villavicencio and received this statement from the Union’s Vice President and New Jersey State Director Kevin Brown: “Food service workers provide nourishment and a clean and safe environment for students, but they can barely feed their own families when wages don’t keep up with increasing costs. In a caring and affluent community like Princeton, why is it that food service workers must struggle to make ends meet? These hardworking men and women need a living wage, paid holidays, and benefits that allow them to provide for their families. Their children deserve a bright future just like the Princeton students they serve with pride and dedication.”

According to a union spokesperson, “a fair deal has not been offered” as yet and the workers continue to hope for “a fair contract with wage increases, health insurance, and paid holidays.”

Asked whether it was likely that the district would be renewing its contract with Nutri-Serve, BOE Secretary Stephanie Kennedy said that would be her recommendation to Superintendent Steve Cochrane and the Board. “New food service managing companies generally need more than one year to be settled in to a district,” she said in an email. “It is fair to allow Nutri-Serve the opportunity to return.”