Hopkins Dining transitioned into a self-operated model in 2022 after separating from Bon Appétit Management Company. The University stated that the transition would create greater flexibility and oversight of the dining facilities on campus.
In interviews with The News-Letter, five dining workers described the challenges facing their work. They drew attention to understaffing, safety and concerns about temporary workers being able to sign up for shifts before employees. The identities of these personnel will remain anonymous, as The News-Letter grants anonymity to individuals who are at risk of losing their jobs by disclosing information.
Understaffed and overworked staff
Homewood dining locations with meal swipe options consist of four different locations: Hopkins Café, Nolan’s on 33rd, CharMar and Levering Kitchens. These locations serve as the primary dining locations on campus, especially to freshmen and sophomores who are required to have meal plans.
Hopkins dining halls are composed of several different stations, creating a variety of options for the students to choose from. Dining workers get assigned to a certain station to help cook the food or serve students.
Several Hopkins Dining employees expressed that management has failed to adequately schedule the workers, causing some employees to have to handle several stations at the same time and leaving them exhausted with the workload.
“The Red Lantern station [at Levering Kitchens] should have two people serving the line,” one employee explained. “They take cooks that are supposed to be cooking and put them on the line to help serve. They are not supposed to be line serving, but they will jump in and help because of the students.”
Another worker supported the claim that the issue of understaffing has the greatest impact on the students, as it disrupts the workflow in the kitchen.
“If you have less people working in there, nothing is really going to be done,” she emphasized. “Who ends up hurt is the kids. That's why sometimes you go [to Nolan’s and] there's no food, because nobody's cooking in the back. There are athletes that come [at night] and I know they've just finished practice, and I feel bad when we don't have food.”
One employee gave an example of one of her colleagues who works at the dishwashing area at Nolan’s on 33rd, shedding light on the duties he has to handle all at once and equipment challenges that make their jobs harder.
“First he has to wash the dishes, and then [take out] the trash, and it's not just one trash,” she said. “On top of that, he has to bring the plates from the back to the front. The conveyor belt is broken, and I don't know when — if ever — they are going to get it fixed. This is hurting [the personnel].”
In an interview to The News-Letter, another employee stated that feeling overworked is a shared sentiment among the personnel, and used the Woodstone station at Hopkins Café, which serves pizza, pasta and bread, as an example.
“We're all overworked,” she stated. “The pizza station is one person running pizza and pasta. When she comes in, she's expected to roll pizza dough, par-cook the dough, top pieces, bowl pasta, make pasta, serve the line and cook at the same time. There is no way that she can do all of that alone.”
Temporary workers
When Hopkins Dining shifted from being managed by Bon Appétit to the University, all employees who wanted to stay were rehired. In addition to this pre-existing dining team, management has been hiring additional dining workers through a temporary worker agency.
Regular dining workers are hourly employees who receive regular wages for shifts that they sign up for or are assigned to for up to 40 hours a week. Any hours worked weekly beyond 40 require overtime pay as established by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The same requirement applies to temporary workers (“temps”) who differ from regular workers in that they are managed by an agency external to Hopkins Dining.
In an email to The News-Letter, a Hopkins spokesperson stated that temps are only brought in to fill staff absences due to call-outs, vacations or periodic vacancies.
According to the union contract that was signed between the Hopkins Dining employees — represented by UNITE HERE Local 7 — and the University, temps can only be offered the shifts if the shifts have not been filled by employees.
In interviews with The News-Letter, multiple employees alleged that management is violating the contract by offering shifts to temps before employees.
“Temps are only supposed to come in if they don't have no one to fill the shift,” an employee explained. “Any open shifts are supposed to be posted in every unit every week. We sign to work for them. A temp is never supposed to come before us.”
In an email to The News-Letter, Tracy Lingo, the president of the Local 7 Union, which represents Hopkins Dining employees — supported this claim, confirming that the University’s dining management has — in some instances — not offered open shifts to union workers before temporary employees.
“This is an issue that we have been fighting constantly over the past two years and have raised with the University repeatedly during our monthly labor management meetings,” Lingo explained. “The root of the problem is that Hopkins has not hired enough workers to fully cover the needed shifts. Under our contract, open shifts are supposed to be posted for union members to pick up.”
Lingo further elaborated on the actions Local 7 took to tackle this problem, along with the difficulties that have come with enforcing the contract.
“When we are able to catch that a particular shift has not been posted, we have won grievances and the University has been forced to pay Union workers back wages,” Lingo wrote. “But keeping track of the temp work and posted shifts is a tremendous amount of work that our rank and file workers do every week. Meanwhile we have repeatedly sent the university qualified applicants who get rejected or never hear back from the university.”
Two workers allege that the situation has left some workers unable to volunteer for certain shifts and fall under their required hours, and shared their frustration with the situation. Employees also pointed out that the dress code rules have been much stricter for full-time employees than for temporary workers.
“The temps come in here and can wear anything,” one employee said. “But if we forget our aprons, we get in trouble. I feel like this is not fair. If you want to make a rule, make sure it applies to everybody.”
According to two employees interviewed, regular staff find themselves in situations where they have to train temps while maintaining their duties. One worker explained the process of training temporary workers while still trying to fulfill assigned duties in an interview with The News-Letter.
“When temps come in, management will tell them an employee name and send them to their station,” she said. “They leave it up to us to train them; along with being swamped with all of this work that you're already in the midst of doing, you have to stop what you're doing to train a temp in the process.”
Lingo explained that the differences between unionized dining hall workers and temporary workers hired by a staffing agency goes beyond just training differences. She explained that the benefits and protections guaranteed to union workers through their contract are not offered to temporary workers, which disadvantages these workers.
Lingo elaborated that the Union doesn’t have information as to what temporary worker training exactly consists of, or if the qualifications of temporary workers are checked when they are offered shifts.
“It is unclear to us what training the temp workers have or do not have,” Lingo stated. “Many temp workers tell us they saw the shifts posted on app list Instawork which allow workers to pick up shifts. Workers may have to answer questions about their qualifications, but it is unclear how or if any person from the apps checks these qualifications.”
In an email to The News-Letter, a University spokesperson confirmed that all temporary workers are subject to background checks and are trained through the temp agency.
“Johns Hopkins uses a staffing agency to provide temporary staff. Temporary staff are not considered JHU employees and they receive training through their agency,” the spokesperson stated.
Communication issues with the management
Hopkins Dining managers are present at the dining halls to provide oversight and lead daily operations in collaboration with the culinary team. The employees explained in their interviews that having managers present in the dining halls is important to quickly fix the issues that come up during service times.
During the interviews conducted with these workers, multiple employees expressed that they felt that management was not concerned about them and stated their complaints and requests often go unheard.
Multiple employees alleged that managers are not often present on the floor in the dining hall to resolve issues.
“Everything is out of control, and the higher people that run it really don't care,” one worker said. “They don't come in there to check and make sure everything's right — not unless there's a complaint. They need to really realize that it takes everybody to pull together to make this work.”
One employee voiced that the lack of response from management to worker concerns makes the dining hall employees feel like they are undervalued.
“It's almost like we're treated like we're just at the bottom of everything,” she said. “We're under everybody. We're under housekeeping. We're under management. It doesn't matter who it is. Like Hopkins Dining is [at] the bottom of the Hopkins chain at the University.”
A University spokesperson stated that all complaints made by workers to management are considered on a case-by-case basis and directed to the appropriate channels.
“Management takes all complaints seriously and based on the information shared, will take appropriate action consistent with JHU policies and procedures and will keep the reporting employee informed of the status of the investigation, where feasible and provide any additional support the employee may need,” they wrote.
Ongoing Mice Infestation
Multiple Hopkins Dining employees stated that there was a mice infestation issue at Tossed Kitchens in Levering Kitchens. Hopkins Dining originally announced that the station would be closed until further notice due to maintenance repairs in October 2024, and the station is now open again.
In an email to The News-Letter, a University spokesperson confirmed that a rodent issue was identified below the subfloor at Tossed Kitchens, and stated that the location was closed as soon as the issue was noticed so the floor and wall could be removed.
Security Concerns
CharMar operates until midnight every day of the week. Two Hopkins Dining workers brought up worries about the lack of safety for the CharMar personnel.
One employee criticized the management’s decision to employ only one cashier for hours close to midnight, expressing the chaos that takes place at CharMar toward closing times.
“They'll have one cashier,” she said. “She's the only one on the door and when it's time to close, if a whole group comes in, she's there and has to sit there to deal with that. It happened so many times.”
Another employee stated their disappointment with the lack of security concern from the management when it comes to the incidents that are happening around campus.
“Personally, I don't think the management is really concerned about their employees,” he said. “My main concern is employee safety. I don't feel comfortable the way they do things.”
The worker further explained the series of events that take place when potentially dangerous, non-Hopkins-affiliated individuals come into the place.
“Over in CharMar, we have people coming in off the street,” he stated. “They pretend to come in, search around and steal. They are sometimes very aggressive with the students and us. [The management doesn't] have no one there to secure us — particularly at night, when they have only one cashier.”
A University spokesperson provided information on the security measures available at Hopkins dining facilities, stating that all dining facilities fall within the patrol area for Public Safety officers who are present on all campuses 24 hours a day for 365 days a year.
“Additionally, Public Safety text and email alerts provide timely information that aids our community in making informed safety decisions, including dining staff,” they wrote. “You can find information about our alert systems here. Dining employees should call public safety if they have a concern. For All Campuses: Dial (667) 208-1200. The Public Safety Escort Program is also available.”
Future Action
Lingo stated that the Union will continue to work towards more benefits for dining personnel, including negotiating for unemployment benefits during academic breaks, which workers were previously eligible for under Bon Appétit.
“One other issue we have had to address with the university is that when our members worked for subcontractors like Bon Appétit they were eligible for unemployment during breaks in the [school] year,” Lingo wrote. “During bargaining we asked Hopkins to provide workers with a stipend equal to unemployment and they refused. They are supposed to offer everyone full time work year round, but this has been difficult to enforce.”
Lingo further explained that although the language in the contract guarantees workers 40 hours, it had been difficult for many workers to reach 40 hours with scheduled shifts, and that the Union has taken action to enforce full time work. The Union will return to bargaining with the University this spring, and Lingo shared an optimistic perspective on the possibility for improved working conditions.
“We [will] be going back into bargaining this coming spring and look forward to working with other campus Union’s and the campus community to win a contract with even better benefits and wages for Hopkins Dining workers,” she wrote.
One employee was less optimistic about the possibility for change. In an interview with The News-Letter, she shared her bleak outlook on improving working conditions.
“It's like speaking on deaf ears,” she stated. “You can't ask for something that you know that you're not going to receive. It's kind of pointless — you learn to deal with it.”
Samhi Boppana contributed reporting to this article.
