Bwog imagines this is what the pizza oven looked like

Bwog imagines this is what the pizza oven must’ve looked like

Thanks to the 1100-signature petition delivered by Student–Worker Solidarity to Columbia Dining, John Jay Dining Hall workers no longer have to endure a ridiculously hot kitchen. Pizza-baking, which apparently puts out a lot of heat, has been moved downstairs until Dining can put in better ventilation.

Press release:

This evening, workers at John Jay excitedly informed SWS that the kitchens had become drastically cooler. According to the dining staff in a Tuesday meeting with the administration, Scott Wright, VP of Campus Services, informed workers that in response to SWS’ administrative confrontations and dining hall protests, they decided to turn off the upstairs pizza oven and prepare food downstairs until a long term ventilation solution could be reached. Workers reported that the next day the kitchens were considerably cooler.

According to one worker, “It’s much better. You guys made a big difference. It fell on deaf ears when we told the administration, but when you guys got involved they suddenly came through. On a scale of one to ten, y’all were a twelve.”

SWS welcomes the news that these stopgap safety measures have begun to be implemented despite prior resistance from the administration. While these preliminary changes are encouraging, SWS will continue to hold the administration accountable to their long term promise to make John Jay Dining Hall, and all university workplaces, a safe place to work.

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