Capitol Infrastructure

The Department of Administration recently rebid the food service contract for the cafeterias in the Capitol complex. The existing vendor, ARAMARK, got the boot and was replaced by Taher, Inc. (pronounced TAH-her). For people who like to eat, that's fabulous news. The food offered by ARAMARK was nothing short of atrocious; it was notorious for mystery meats injected with who knows what chemicals and there were very few healthy choices. When we stopped by the Dept. of Transportation building cafeteria earlier this week, the food looked terrific. The salad bar looked fresher, grilled paninis are now offered in the sandwich line, and the full meal option was roast pork loin with apple chutney, baby carrots and parsley-buttered potatoes. Your publisher opted for her usual turkey sandwich and chicken noodle soup. Both were good quality, equal to Lunds' or Kowalski's' standards. And, at $5.30, that's about a buck cheaper for the same choices offered by ARAMARK. For people held hostage in the Capitol next session, lunch will now be something you can actually look forward to.

Unless you are a card carrying union member or a Democrat (or Republican, for that matter) who supports unions.

When ARAMARK didn't get the contract, it fired all the Capitol Cafeteria employees. Taher allowed everyone to reapply and some were hired back -- but there are no longer health care benefits. The Star Tribune's Nick Coleman opines the union angle here. About the only thing that made ARAMARK palatable was the people the company had working in the cafeterias. Capitol regulars will be delighted to know that long-time cashier Juanita Calavero remains, at the same hourly pay albeit without health care (fortunately for Juanita, she's now on her husband's health care plan). AFSCME Council 5 has advised all its members (about 30,000) to boycott the cafeteria. Eliot Seide, the union's passionate and articulate executive director, says, "An injury to one is an injury to all." The other state employee union, the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees (MAPE), is also asking state employees to boycott the cafeterias. MAPE gave $200 to each of the six MnDOT cafeteria employees who were laid off, and the union also raised an impressive $1,752 one day going door-to-door in the MnDOT building. These funds were also distributed to the six from MnDOT.

The laid off (fired) cafeteria workers, represented by UNITE HERE Local 17, continue to picket the MnDOT building, handing out brown paper lunch bags. As you can see from the text on the bag, Local 17 is supplying Taher, Inc. owner Bruce Taher's phone number and email. We tried to reach Taher but he's out of town.

The unions, of course, blame GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Jim Monroe, MAPE's executive director says, "For the governor to hire a vendor that lays off veteran cafeteria workers and takes their benefits away is simply wrong." Taher was awarded the two-year contract (with a three-year extension option) in a three-way bidding contest (ARAMARK and Treat America) were the other bidders. The bid evaluation team was comprised of nine state employees in the Department of Administration. To the Pawlenty Administration, the matter is over. The bid has been awarded.

The picketing workers and the boycott could cut two ways. First, this is the summer of a non-election year and not much is happening in the Capitol complex. Only 18 cafeteria workers lost their jobs. AFSCME and MAPE members may be honoring the boycott for now, but that could fizzle out. Bringing lunch every day or leaving the Capitol area are inconvenient options. [The day we stopped by MnDOT, there were the usual number of people in the cafeteria, including a couple of DFL legislators and staff.]

On the other hand, this is the summer of a non-election year. Things are slow. Democrats have had a hard time finding traction on issues against Pawlenty. Could well be that AFSCME and MAPE double down on the boycott. In his column, Coleman made the obvious connection: With Michael Moore's Sicko in local theaters, it's the perfect time to slam a GOP administration on lack of health care benefits for working people. Finally, as best we can tell, all the union players to date don't know that Bruce Taher is a long-time member in good standing of the conservative think tank, the Center of the American Experiment. Now they do, and that could add fuel to picket line and boycott fires.

For the unions, it's a shame that the Legislature won't be in session until next year. No self-respecting DFL legislator would be caught dead in one of the cafeterias if the unions were seriously pushing the boycott. And that becomes the operative issue...do the unions make this a battle and do union interests trump empty stomachs in a boycott?

[A couple of asides worth noting. Taher has taken all the mystery out of the meat, so to speak. There's nutrition data on all the packaged goods, and Taher makes "wellness/nutrition" one of its selling points. For example, the company was the first food service management company in the country to ban the use of all trans fats. Another subtle but big difference is that the Taher name is on the packages and the paper cups. ARAMARK never marked its goods. In your publisher's view, when your name is on the package, you care a lot more about the quality of what's in it.]