Aramark

For the Phillies' seventh season at Citizens Bank Park, concessionaire Aramark wanted to throw a little change-up in the hot dog routine. Not that hot dogs are unpopular. Last season, Aramark sold 1,314,223 hot dogs at the ballpark. The Center City-based food giant wanted to create a signature variety for its home team - something memorable, something that says Philadelphia and baseball . Aramark decided that the meaty matter would be put to a fan vote. Three choices were unveiled online last month, and all were sampled at the ballpark during last week's two preseason games.

Aramark Corp., the huge Philadelphia food-service company, routinely cheats local stadium workers out of overtime pay while getting them to work through lunch and breaks without compensation, a union leader said yesterday. "Wage theft occurs when workers are not paid all their wages, or when workers are denied overtime, or when wages aren't paid at all," said Lynne Fox, manager of the Philadelphia Joint Board, an affiliate of Workers United. Fox and several Aramark workers are among plaintiffs who yesterday filed a summons in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court signaling their intention to follow it with a class-action lawsuit.

Saying it is owed $7.3 million, Aramark Corp., the Philadelphia food-services provider, has sued a New Jersey operator of correctional facilities. In the suit, Aramark contends Community Education Centers Inc., of West Caldwell, N.J., has been in default on bills since at least June 2008. Locally, Aramark services Community Education Centers facilities in Philadelphia, Delaware County, Reading, and Trenton. Aramark's lawsuit, filed Feb. 18 in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, said Community Education Centers was overdue on $5.2 million of the total, and it requested that a judgment, including interest, costs, and attorney's fees, be entered in its favor.

The National Labor Relations Board in Philadelphia filed unfair-labor-practice charges this week against Aramark Corp., accusing the Philadelphia food-service company of withholding union dues and failing to bargain. A hearing is set for May 3 before a Philadelphia NLRB administrative law judge. More than 1,300 Aramark workers at the Convention Center, St. Joseph's University, the University of Pennsylvania's Steinberg Conference Center, the Wachovia Center, Citizens' Bank Park, and Lincoln Financial Field are affected.

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Certainly, there would be no "mice-and-beans" or "rat-atouille" lunch specials on the menu. But with a track record of dismal health inspections like the one that Philadelphia-based Aramark Corp. has racked up lately at the Capitol Cafe in the state capital, the punch lines were bound to come. "So, we going to the poop-ateria?" said James Roxbury, a cafeteria regular who runs an online news service, as he welcomed me to lunch yesterday. With a buildup like that, how could I say no?

HARRISBURG - Certainly, there would be no "mice-and-beans" or "rat-atouille" lunch specials on the menu. But with a track record of dismal health inspections like the one that Philadelphia-based Aramark Corp. has racked up lately at the Capitol Cafe in the state capital, the punch lines were bound to come. "So, we going to the poop-ateria?" said James Roxbury, a cafeteria regular who runs an online news service, as he welcomed me to lunch yesterday. With a buildup like that, how could I say no?

Philadelphia-based Aramark Corp. feeds the world - with operations in 19 countries and 12,000 employees in Pennsylvania alone. It has provided catering at 15 Olympic Games since 1968, and it will handle the Vancouver Winter Games starting next month. It is the food-and-beverage provider to as many as 30 ballparks, stadiums, and arenas, as well as 40 convention and civic centers around the globe. Its vast clientele in the region includes Citizens Bank Park, Independence Blue Cross, and Lincoln Financial Field.

They scrubbed. They sanitized. They apologized. They trapped mice by the dozens. And still it wasn't enough. Yesterday, the Philadelphia-based firm that operates the Capitol cafeteria faced a panel of state lawmakers, many of whom were still steaming over unsanitary conditions that led to a three-week closing of the eatery. Some members of the House state government and agriculture committees accused Aramark - one of the largest food-service providers in the nation - of "betraying the public's trust" for allowing conditions in the restaurant to deteriorate to the point where it was ordered closed while problems were cleaned up. "I feel as if a disgusting joke was played on me and the people I represent," said Rep. Karen Boback (R., Columbia)

Thousands of state employees, elected officials from Gov. Rendell on down, and guests eat at the glass-enclosed Capitol cafeteria each week. They go for the convenience, the schmoozing, and the ever-popular macaroni and cheese. But little did they know that other diners were living under the green-domed Capitol roof, taking advantage of the cafeteria pantry after hours: mice, untold numbers of them. The discovery the week before Christmas of a rodent infestation and 16 other health-code violations in the cafeteria prompted a flurry of responses: its immediate closing, government agency finger-pointing, and calls for tougher food-safety laws.