School Kitchen Staff Frying;

Heat a Health Threat
School Kitchen Staff Frying


Even as praise pours in for Mayor Bloomberg's summer school feeding program, the workers involved say kitchens that can exceed 100 degrees on a hot day are no cause for celebration.

The Chief-Leader/Meredith Kolodner NO THANKS FOR FREE SAUNA: School kitchen workers Maria Greonjanc (left), Vasiliki Siklas, and Godfrey Hercules work at Grover Cleveland High School in Queens and say some days the heat and humidity is overwhelming. 'It's like a sauna in here, but you don't have to pay for it,' said Ms. Greonjanc. The city expects to serve more than 4.4 million lunches and 2 million breakfasts to children under 19 this summer, making it the largest summer meal program in the nation. But workers say they have been complaining for years about the sweltering conditions that have caused them to faint and vomit on the warmest summer days. There are no state laws that regulate air temperature in workplaces, but that may change for city school kitchens if a bill passed by the State Legislature is signed by Governor Spitzer. It is being opposed vigorously by the Bloomberg administration, however, as too expensive.

'Shouldn't Be Like This'

"I don't work in an office; I know we work in the kitchen," said Sylvia Randazzo, a Cook at P.S. 93 in Queens. "But it shouldn't be like this. It's too much."

The temperature in the P.S. 93 kitchen, where some of the windows are broken surged past 100 degrees last week, and the humidity took its toll. By noon on July 10, one of the School Lunch Aides had vomited from the heat. A 68-year-old kitchen worker who was toiling over a steam table exuding vapor said she was having trouble standing. The day before, a school custodian cleaning a window passed out and fell off his ladder. Last summer, a kitchen worker fainted in the middle of the P.S. 93 kitchen and had to be carried out.

SUSAN JOHN: Money's there for conversion. In recent years the Department of Education has made efforts to locate summer school classes in buildings with air conditioning, but some schools that have comfortable classrooms, like Grover Cleveland High School, don't have cooling systems in the kitchens.

'Like a Sauna'

"It's like a sauna in here, but you don't have to pay for it," said Maria Greonjanc, a School Lunch Aide at Grover Cleveland who managed to keep her sense of humor while she served chicken fingers to children from the neighborhood. All city children under 19 years are eligible for the free lunch and breakfast program, and all of the meals are prepared by the school kitchen workers.

Ms. Greonjanc's kitchen had four ovens going, a stove plus a steam table. She and School Lunch Helper Vasiliki Siklas were serving the children from a room with no windows, and their faces were dripping with sweat. "They give us the fans, but all they do is circulate the hot air," said Ms. Greonjanc.

No Heat Limit

She added that the new uniforms issued by the DOE, which are a heavy cotton collar shirt and khaki pants, are much hotter than the white, light cotton uniforms they wore a few years ago.

School employees in Queens say that just less than half the school cafeterias open for the summer there have air-conditioning. "Whether or not you get in a school where there's air-conditioning is like hitting the lottery," said Tony Ferina, a shop steward for Local 372 of District Council 37, which represents the kitchen workers. "A lot of the members are in their 50s. I think it's abuse."

There are no Federal or state laws that limit the temperature in which employees can work, although according to Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations, employers are supposed to protect the health and safety of their workers and cannot expose them to "known hazards."

The city also lacks temperature workplace regulations, although it has an ordinance that makes it illegal for carriage horses to work in temperatures that exceed 90 degrees.

Mayor: All Up to Code

The State Legislature has passed bills the past four years that would have required cooler conditions in the kitchens, but they were all vetoed by then-Governor Pataki. The bill passed this year would authorize the state Commissioner of Labor to set regulations for air temperature standards. Advocates noted that unlike previous years, when the city had complained that there was no funding for the improvements, the 2006-07 budget provides $1.8 billion for school construction aid. DC 37, which pushed for the bill, declined to comment.

The Bloomberg administration, however, still opposes the measure. "One hundred percent of DOE cafeterias are in compliance with ventilation regulations set forth in the New York City building code," mayoral spokeswoman Dawn Walker stated in an e-mail. "This legislation, which has already been vetoed multiple times, amounts to nothing more than an unfunded mandate which would cost over $750,000 for each of NYC's 1,400 schools."

The bill's sponsor disputed the Mayor's financial estimates, noting that some school cafeteria kitchens did not have overheating problems and would not need to be upgraded.

"The cost is borne by the New York State Board of Education," said Assemblywoman Susan John's spokesman, Allan Richards. "The Legislature has appropriated $1.8 billion for school construction, so it's no longer a non-funded mandate."

'Money's There'

A spokeswoman from the Governor's Office said she could not comment on whether Mr. Spitzer would sign the bill.

School kitchen workers said that they listened to the weather reports each morning with a sense of dread. " I understand it's not going to be easy to put in air conditioning, but even an exhaust fan to blow the hot air out would help," said Ms. Randazzo. "People tell us they have no money in the budget, but I see the money. It's just not for us."