Baltimore, MD–More than 60 campus dining workers at Stevenson University have won union representation, choosing to join UNITE HERE Local 7. Campus dining workers at the Maryland liberal arts university are employees of the multinational food service company Sodexo.

The campus dining workers at Stevenson won union representation with UNITE HERE Local 7 on Friday, April 8th and will now prepare to negotiate a first contract.

"I’ve worked at Stevenson for 4 years and am so happy to have been part of winning the union. Now we’re ready to negotiate our first contract. The opportunity for better wages and benefits will mean a lot to our families," said Steven Golder, a cafeteria cook at Stevenson.

The Stevenson workers are the fifth group of cafeteria workers at a college or university to win union representation with UNITE HERE in the past 5 months.

With UNITE HERE, the Stevenson workers join the leading union of food service workers in North America, joining dining workers from over 100 campuses across the United States and Canada. In joining UNITE HERE Local 7, the Stevenson workers join campus food service workers at a number of other Maryland campuses including Johns Hopkins University, Coppin State University, and Morgan State University.

UNITE HERE Local 7 is the union for food service, airport, gaming and hotel workers in the Baltimore area.

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