The Advocate

A Brief History of Restaurant Associates and the GC

Dan Skinner & Antonia Levy

Founded in the 1950s by Abraham Wechsler, Restaurant Associates (RA) was acquired in 1998 by the British foodservice leviathan, Compass Group. With about 10,000 employees, RA boasted sales of $465 million last year (according to Hoover’s Online) and has collected an impressive array of corporate and cultural accounts—what RA calls a “crème-de-la-crème list” from Goldman Sachs to the Museum of Metropolitan Art. Currently, RA is headed up by CEO Nick Valenti, who also serves on the board of the NYC chapter of the New York State Restaurant Association and is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Culinary Institute of America. In 1997, Valenti was honored by Mayor Rudolph Guiliani for his service with the City’s Meals on Wheels program.

Some Restaurant Associates Accounts

Condé Nast
Time Warner
Sony Music
Deutsche Bank
UBS
Ernst & Young
Morgan Stanley
Lehman Brothers
Google
Grey Global
Various prestigious law firms
Rockefeller University
Harvard Business School
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Carnegie Hall
The American Museum of Natural History
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Boston Museum of Fine Arts
The Philadelphia Museum of Art
The National Museum of the American Indian

(Source: www.restaurantassociates.com)

Restaurant Associates is a proud company. It thinks its name “synonymous with exciting restaurant concepts and high-quality foodservice” and characterizes its network of delectable outfits as an “empire.” However, for many labor unions and activists, the name conjures a history of unfair labor practices: strike-breaking, union-busting and general tactics of intimidation are among the general charges labor unions have made against RA.

Similarly, while RA hails itself as the inventor of the “glamorous but highly competitive theme restaurant” in the 1950s and praises itself for its “commitment to upscale corporate dining,” many GC students have come to know RA as yet another an unwelcome symbol of the increased corporatization of public education. While the firing of Lazeena Gaffoor (see news article) has become an issue for many students, others are focused on the broader issue of RA’s presence in the school in general. Thus, much like the giant Hummer advertisement donning the façade of the building, the general appropriateness of the GC’s contract with RA has been called into question.

For years, the all-too-familiar giant inflatable rats used to demarcate sites of unfair and illegal labor practices have frequented RA dining establishments throughout New York City. In 2001, for example, the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE) Local 37 charged RA with refusing to rehire union employees laid off when the JFK Arrivals Terminal was reopened after construction. Only a handful of employees were invited back to interview for jobs in the new terminal and, HERE reports, views on unionization were a major consideration in RA’s hiring practices. Publicly, RA acknowledged as much when, the month before the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the terminal, Ann Silver, Vice President for Human Resources told Newsday, "We're committed to being a union-free company" (April 2001).

Similarly, in 2001 workers charged RA with using tactics of “intimidation” when the 95 RA bartenders, cooks, cashiers, dishwashers, and waiters who work at the Metropolitan Opera attempted to unionize. At a protest outside of the Met in 2001, HERE Vice President Ron Richardson framed the issue: "I've been dealing with Restaurant Associates for 25 years, and I've negotiated contracts with them in other parts of the country. It's no different at Lincoln Center than it is anywhere else with them. They want to use $240 million to renovate this building, but they won't spend even 1% of that to give their workers a decent wage or decent benefits. It's just more for the greedy and less for the needy." Despite Silver’s comment, Human Resources Manager Sherley Montina says that RA is in no way opposed to collective bargaining; she pointed out that although RA workers at the GC are not unionized, they do have a “bargaining unit.” In addition, RA kitchen staff at the GC currently have contracts, while other employees—such as register operators like Ms. Gaffoor—do not.
RA has been the food service provider at the GC for well over 20 years, having moved with the GC from the former campus on 42nd Street. According to Vice President Persico, the current contract with RA was established in 1999 and expires in 2007. While Vice President Persico arrived at the GC after the current contract was negotiated, it is his “understanding” that other providers were considered.

According to Vice President of Finance and Administration Persico and RA Regional Manager Mark Romano, the terms of RA’s current contract gives RA exclusive catering rights within the building, with the exception of departmental spaces. Thus, all events held in GC common spaces are contractually obligated to use RA services for catering, which includes events such as the Starbucks managerial meeting held last month in the Dining Commons. From events such as these, the GC administration collects rent and/or a commission and negotiates custodial and security arrangements. RA negotiates the terms regarding food service.

The Advocate is currently looking into the terms of the contract the GC has with RA, which will be the focus of follow-up articles in Spring 2005. For students interested in the contract, it is available for perusal at The Advocate’s offices in room 5396.