GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. — After two days of striking, Guilford County Schools nutrition workers have agreed to return to schools, following conversations with district officials.
“We are really grateful to our hardworking employees for their decision to return,” Guilford County Schools Superintendent Dr. Whitney Oakley said. “We know that they share our commitment to doing what’s best for kids and students well-being, and we do look forward to continuing to serve our students together.”
Oakley said she met with leaders Monday to have an open conversation about their concerns.
“When I met with school nutrition leaders yesterday to discuss their concerns I was really clear and honest with them and said that we would do everything that we could,” Dr. Oakley said. “But it’s gonna take all of us to be civically involved and united to advocate for fair pay at all different levels of government.”
However, after Monday’s conversation many nutrition workers felt that more could be done.
“And somebody single that comes to the school to work in the kitchen, that is not a livable wage for a single person with children or without,” one nutrition worker who participated in the walkout said. “We have a hard time keeping people because we don’t pay them what they are worth.”
On Tuesday, the school district shared their agreed upon plan with the public, stating that school nutrition assistants will receive a 4 percent increase while school nutrition managers will get a 7 percent increase in addition to a potential quarterly bonus. Managers who serve over 100 meals on average per day will qualify for that pro-rated quarterly bonus.
Oakley also stated that they are working to launch an advisory council to give nutrition workers a voice at the table.
“Moving forward we will launch an advisory council for school nutrition employees so that we can have honest and proactive discussions on ways to improve a few things: our services to students, creating a positive working environment and figuring out how we can continue to advocate for fair compensation,” she said.
While they have come to a solution now, both sides agree there’s a long road ahead.
“North Carolina continues to celebrate being the number one state in the country for business, but we can’t do that and at the same time be the last for public education and how we compensate our employees,” Dr. Oakley said.
“Because now we know we have everybody on board cause like before we had a lot of conversations but we didn’t really have any action,” Ahmad Haamid, a cafeteria manager at Hunter Elementary School said.