Convention center workers, who nine days ago were prepared to go on strike, have overwhelmingly approved a new contract that will give them an average wage hike of 60 percent over a four-year period.
Unite Here Local 30, which represents the food and beverage workers at the San Diego Convention Center, reported that the contract was ratified by 95 percent of those who voted Thursday. The previous contract covering the 650 workers expired June 30.
Affected workers include cooks, dishwashers, bartenders, servers and baristas, as well as those who staff the many food and drink concessions during a convention such as Comic-Con. They are employed by Sodexo Live, a food and beverage services company that the San Diego Convention Center Corp. contracts with for the many events and conferences held at the bayfront facility. Services provided by Sodexo can also include catered meals and receptions, coffee breaks and bar service.
The ratification comes just days before San Diego’s biggest convention, Comic-Con, begins next week.
“This new contract is a significant victory for our hard-working members,” said Jorge Arellano, secretary-treasurer of the local Unite Here. “We have secured a $12 raise over the next four years for non-tipped workers, which will help our members fight the skyrocketing pace of the cost of living in San Diego. Workers face a yearly 10 percent increase in their rent price, interest rates for buying a house are through the roof, and day-to-day expenditures are rising with no regulation.”
Under the new agreement, non-tipped employees such as the culinary team and dishwashers will get a $3-an-hour increase each year over the four-year term. A cook now earning $20.02 an hour, for example, will be making $32.02 by the end of the four-year contract, which amounts to a 60 percent hike.
While the $12-an-hour increase will be the same for most non-tipped employees, the overall percentage boost will vary from 55 percent to 67 percent, the union said.
In addition to the wage boost, the contract lowers dramatically the number of hours an employee has to work to be eligible for health benefits. And for the first time, full-time workers will be eligible for a pension plan that will allow them “to be able to start building a long-term savings plan for when they retire,” Arellano said.
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