Sodexho Food Service and the Service Employees International Union Local 1 reached a tentative agreement on a new contract for employees Monday night after negotiating throughout the day, according to Brigid O'Brien Miller, director of university communication .

O'Brien Miller was not able to give information on the details of the tentative deal.

The agreement was reached at about 9 p.m. Monday, according to Mary Pat Pfeil, senior director of university communication.

Calls to Jerry Dohr, Sodexho's general manager for Marquette; John-david Morgan, Local 1 staff member; and Dan Iverson, vice president of Local 1, requesting comment about the agreement were not returned as of 11:30 p.m. Monday.

Earlier in the evening, Morgan said progress had been made throughout the day, but he was not able to provide specific information on the current state of each side's proposals and demands.

Morgan said negotiations began when the workers' contract expired on June 30 of this year.

Employees have been working under the terms of the old contract while negotiations take place, Morgan said.

The biggest issue for Local 1 going into Monday's talks was Sodexho's proposal to cut pay for new cashiers, food service workers and utility workers, Morgan said.

Sodexho had proposed hourly pay cuts of 8 cents per hour for new cashiers, 40 cents per hour for new food service workers and 52 cents per hour for new utility workers, Morgan said.

Starting pay is currently $9.52 per hour for cashiers, $9.63 for food service workers and $9.52 for general service workers, he said.

Morgan said while the proposed pay cuts would not affect current employees, "anyone new hired would be starting at a lower standard of living," he said.

He also said pay cuts for new employees would mean that "new workers are second-class citizens" and would create tension between new and current employees.

A Sodexho proposal to cut probationary pay during the first 90 days of employment was also in dispute going into Monday's talks, Morgan said.

According to Morgan, workers under the current system earn 30 cents less per hour than their standard starting pay for the first 30 days and 15 cents less per hour for the next 60 days of probation.

Under the proposal, workers would be paid 50 cents less per hour for the entire 90-day period, Morgan said.

He said while a probationary period is a common practice, Sodexho's proposal essentially "means working for $8.50 an hour for the first three months," which he said was unfair to employees.

Local 1 also opposed Sodexho proposals that would restrict the use of vacation time to the summer and reduce the maximum number of sick days granted to employees each year from 12 to eight, Morgan said.

"We'd like employees to be able to take vacations when they're able to and not be squeezed into those three months," he said.

Morgan said Local 1 had reservations about Sodexho's proposal to switch workers from the union's health insurance policy to a more costly Sodexho plan.

Local 1 has been pushing to get Sodexho to cover a greater portion of the premiums, he said.

Morgan said Sodexho's offer of annual 15-cent raises would be of little use if new employees had to pay for it.

"It's a step backward," he said.

Dohr, Sodexho's general manager for Marquette, said last Wednesday that he would not comment on negotiations while they were occurring.

Tyrone Thorton, a Straz Tower cafeteria worker for six years, said he would like to see existing holidays and benefits preserved in the new contract.

Thorton, who said he has attended all Local 1 meetings on the contract dispute, cited health insurance as his top concern for a new contract.

He said he had confidence in Local 1's efforts in negotiations.

"I believe that they will do the right thing," he said.

About 140 Sodexho employees work at Marquette, earning between $9 and $11 an hour, according to Morgan.

This article was published in The Marquette Tribune on October 11, 2005.