UNITE HERE Local 11 Sues State Prisons for Withholding Information About Embattled Prison Food Service Contractor Aramark

PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--UNITE HERE Local 11, a union representing thousands of Arizona food service workers, filed a lawsuit in state court last Friday against the Arizona prison system for allegedly declining to disclose information about prison food service and the performance of the prison chief food service contractor, Aramark.

Aramark is a major contractor for state facilities in Arizona, including ASU and the Phoenix Convention Center. Despite generating nearly $18.5 billion in revenues last year, Aramark pays some workers as low as $18.15 per hour, and was recently found liable by the Industrial Commission of Arizona for at least four violations of state wage theft law.

Since September 2024, Aramark has also managed non-commissary food service for the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry (ADCRR). The contract—valued at about $48 million per year—was previously held by another contractor, Trinity Services Group, before complaints over Trinity’s food quality and sanitation drew public scrutiny.

Aramark, however, has itself drawn criticism around the country for its prison food service; in its bid for the ADCRR contract in 2024, Aramark disclosed over 40 criminal or civil ongoing cases under litigation. The company also lost its contract with Mississippi DOC in 2021 after inmates alleged that food was often "spoiled, rotten, molded or undercooked and that portions were too small.” In 2015, the state of Michigan terminated its 3 year contract a year early due to allegations of unapproved menu substitutions, unsanitary conditions and employee misconduct.

Local 11 filed a public records act request with ADCRR last August seeking information on Aramark’s performance. Since then, however, prison officials have failed to provide critical documents related to the request despite repeated follow up.

“ADCRR’s prolonged, ongoing failure to furnish all public records or documents requested by Plaintiff—including multiple documents whose existence is expressly alluded to in Aramark’s Contract with the Department—constitutes a violation of Arizona’s public records law,” the complaint asserts. The complaint goes on to reference Governor Hobbs’s Executive Order 2023-06, which notes the “urgent need to provide transparency and accountability of Arizona’s corrections system,” to argue that there is “a significant public interest in information relating to the conditions of prison food service and the performance of Aramark as an ADCRR contractor.”

The lawsuit comes on the heels of recent developments in another case against the state prison system and its contractors; in February, a federal judge ordered ADCRR’s healthcare system to be placed into a court-appointed receivership after a lawsuit by the ACLU complained of inhumane conditions and treatment. In the wake of allegations in the ACLU’s lawsuit, state leaders convened a prison oversight commission to investigate health and safety issues with ADCRR and its contractors.

UNITE HERE Local 11 is a labor union representing more than 32,000 hospitality workers in Southern California and Arizona that work in hotels, restaurants, universities, convention centers and airports.