Jersey City, NJ – More than 50 campus dining workers at St. Peter’s College have voted to unionize and join UNITE HERE Local 100. Campus dining workers at New Jersey’s only Jesuit, Catholic college are employees of the multinational food service company Sodexo.

The Sodexo workers at St. Peter’s voted on Monday, November 22nd to join UNITE HERE Local 100. The workers will now prepare to negotiate a first contract.

"I support the union because we deserve a voice on the job. Now we will be able to negotiate for better wages and benefits that will mean a lot to our families," said Cleveland Williams, who has worked at St. Peter’s for 4 years.

Emily Martinez, a St. Peter’s cafeteria worker said, "To me, having a union means having fairness. St. Peter’s is a Catholic college and fairness and justice are values for everyone here. For me as a Catholic, I’m glad we were able to choose to form a union and make these values real."

The St. Peter’s workers are the second group of cafeteria workers at a Catholic college or university to win union representation with UNITE HERE in the past week. On November 16th, over 200 dining workers at Loyola University Chicago joined UNITE HERE Local 1.

In joining UNITE HERE Local 100, the St. Peter’s workers join campus food service workers at fourteen other campuses including City University of New York, Manhattan College, New York Law School, Sarah Lawrence College, and the New School. With UNITE HERE Local 100, campus dining workers at New York-area university and college campuses have achieved contracts that improve wages, ensure a safe and humane workload, and get access to affordable family health care.

UNITE HERE represents over 250,000 workers throughout the U.S. and Canada who work in the hospitality, gaming, food service, and airport industries.

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