UW-Madison's Wisconsin Union administration held a food staff forum Thursday, which lasted two hours, to address any employee concerns at Memorial Union.
This third open forum allowed student employees to voice their opinions of the working conditions at the Union. In February, some Union workers signed a petition demanding better working conditions and sent it to the Offices of the Dean of Students. Employees viewed the petition as a long awaited chance for their voice to be heard.
I've been working here for over year now and I've heard numerous complaints by students '¦ and I want to know what took so long to hear our concerns,"" said Muhammad Sankari, UW-Madison sophomore.
At the forum, student employees and managers tried to tighten the disconnection between management as student employees shared their thoughts about the reality of their working conditions. They raised questions on the issues regarding wage, working environment, mistreatment and lack of communication.
Sankari, who works 25 to 30 hours a week in the Union, said the reason for the disconnect between student employees and managers is because of poor management of wage.
Beside the wage issue, many students raised the issue of working environment at the Union.
According to Jenny Peek, a UW-Madison freshman, employees are not getting anything back in return no matter how much energy they put into their work, not even a small word of encouragement.
""I stay here because I love the atmosphere but it is the overall atmosphere that has been changed,"" Peek said. ""Something really needs to be adjusted.""
The recent addition of cameras in the Union as well as employee thievery changed what used to be a hospitable environment at the Union, employees said.
In October 2007, the Union began an investigation of several Stiftskeller employees who were suspected of stealing from cash registers. In late February, five former employees were charged with stealing nearly $15,000 from the Union bar's cash registers.
""You can feel that moral is down and the Union that used to be a lot of bond is now not there,"" Food Service Director Carl Korz said. ""We need to figure out clever and creative ways to get [employee] recognition and the other things back up.""
Peek said she was pleased with the outcome of the forum.
""It was nice to have lots of people in management actually here talking.""
