Unions protest Aramark on Wall Street

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- With complaints about wages, health care and food quality, an organized labor campaign against food-service giant Aramark came to New York this week to target Goldman Sachs, Warburg Pincus and CCMP Capital - three of the firms that took the company private in 2006 in an $8.1 billion deal.

A union-led campaign against Aramark, which took place over ten days and several cities, culminated Thursday morning at the annual meeting of Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) in lower Manhattan. As Goldman executives and investors entered the headquarters of its asset management business on Old Slip street, they passed a group of about 50 protestors behind a police barricade who waved banners, blew whistles, banged drums and thunder sticks, and chanted slogans.

"Ar-a-mark, you no good," shouted one protestor into a microphone, "treat your workers like you should!"

For the past several months, two unions have been targeting Philadelphia-based Aramark (which had revenues of $8.4 billion through the first three quarters of 2007) as part of an effort to raise concerns about the service economy, which the union believes generally pays workers poor wages with minimal benefits. It is also part of a broader attempt by unions to shift their recruiting focus from manufacturing to service workers.

A spokesperson from Goldman Sachs says that "as an advisor to Aramark, and as a user of its services, we are keen that the dispute between the company and its employees is resolved quickly and fairly." Goldman contracts Aramark for its own cafeterias, but the protestors were workers from other locations accompanied by union staff members.

Late Wednesday afternoon, workers also went to the offices of Warburg Pincus and CCMP Capital, two of Aramark's other private-equity buyers, where they spoke to representatives of the firms. "They were polite enough to listen to us, but they said the big bosses were in a meeting," says Mark Williams, who works for Aramark at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia.

"Since the private equity deal, the company has become more arrogant," he says. "They seem tougher in union negotiations. They want us to work more to earn health-care benefits."

Some unionized Aramark workers in New York are also striking as part of a contract dispute, attracting attention from passersby with an eight-foot-tall inflatable skunk on 52nd Street. They work in three cafeterias, at the CBS Building in Midtown and two offices of the Bank of New York in lower Manhattan. At all three cafeterias the workers are employed by Aramark, not the tenants.

CBS (CBS, Fortune 500) and Bank of New York (BK, Fortune 500) spokespeople said their companies have no plans to get involved in the dispute. "Over the years, many CBS employees have gotten to know and appreciate the men and women employed in our cafeteria," says CBS spokesperson Shannon Jacobs. The cafeterias have stayed open during the protests.

Two national unions, the Washington, D.C.-based Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and New York-based UNITE HERE, are leading the campaign and the strikes. The unions first began scrutinizing Aramark in Houston in 2007, where some employees attempted to organize a union, but have spread their attention nationally. The tour that ended today at Goldman Sachs took union staffers and workers to Aramark sites in Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia.

SEIU and UNITE HERE have protested Aramark at school cafeterias the company runs in Chicago, Detroit and New Haven, saying that employees are underpaid and claiming that Aramark tolerates unhealthy conditions and poor-quality food.

Aramark denies the charges. "We have consistently high levels of satisfaction in our school districts," says Aramark spokeswoman Kristine Grow. "We have a range of food quality and safety standards that we are required to meet. We pay very close attention to make sure we meet and exceed those standards."

"The only thing that has changed since we went private is the unions coming forward with these claims," says Grow. "We are very careful to ensure we pay competitive wages, and the vast majority of our employees do have access to a health-care plan."