Cafeteria workers at Cal State University Monterey Bay, employees of Sodexho USA, have joined the local hotel and restaurant workers' union, UNITEHERE! Local 483. The 40-worker unit chose Local 483 through a “card check” process, similar to that outlined in the Employee Free Choice Act approved by the US House of Representatives last month. Maryland-based Sodexho USA has recognized the union and has agreed to contract bargaining at the beginning of May.

“I joined the union to make a better life for my family. I know that together we are stronger,” said cafeteria worker Rosa Resendiz, a mother of four. “We have the union at my other job at the Pebble Beach Lodge, so for fair pay, good benefits, and respect on the job, I knew the union was the way to go here at CSUMB."

"Look at the professors! They just got a great contract through their union,” commented kitchen worker Juan Contreras. Area hotel workers were centrally involved in the Local 483 organizing campaign at CSUMB. Workers like Lilia Vasquez, a Lobby Porter at the Park Hyatt Carmel Highlands, took time off from their jobs to talk with the cafeteria workers about the benefits of a union. “I knocked on their doors and sat with them in their homes. We talked about how hard it is to get by in the Monterey area, and how through the union we can make things better together.” Read More

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