Pension Fund Gains Mean Worker Pain as Aramark Cuts Pay
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Rick Thorne worked as a custodian in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, schools for 22 years, earning $20 an hour cleaning floors, cutting grass and setting up for assemblies in the community, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of Boston.
In March 2011, the 5,500-student system put its custodial contract out for bid. Aramark Corp., a Philadelphia-based global food-service and facility-management company, agreed to clean the town’s seven schools for $841,000 annually, $400,000 less than the custodians’ union. Aramark offered Thorne and other members their jobs back, at $8.25 to $8.75 an hour. They declined.