From: "Wahome, Kimamo" <WAHOMEK@uwec.edu> Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 15:20:52 -0600 Subject: Sodexho vs. Labour Message-ID: <E3F0E607B3CF71418CE725F002B5F60440DE8E43FF@CHERRYPEPSI.uwec.edu>
In Davis, Sodexho Workers Struggle
Why a Union Matters
by Seth Sandronsky
November 24, 2007
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Sodexho food-service workers at University California Davis and social just
ice groups such as Students Organizing for Change have been busy mobilizing
for improved labor conditions. Their goal is for the company's 500 contrac
ted-out workers to become university employees, represented by the American
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299.
The university and Sodexho, the French multinational firm, see the matter a
bit differently. These two parties, however, have made some concessions to
part of Sodexho's work force in talks which excluded the workers. UC Davis
and the company, for example, decided to give non-student (career) workers
, about a third of the Davis total, pay raises of $1.00 to $3.00 per hour i
n mid-October. Hourly wages of student workers, the bulk of employees, stay
the same. Meanwhile, a number of career workers who got wage hikes also ha
d their hours cut, said Max Alper, lead organizer for AFSCME Local 3299. Th
e union represents food-service employees at the other nine UC campuses and
five medical centers.
In this "win some, lose some" situation at UC Davis, the Sodexho food-servi
ce workers earning higher wages with lower hours now are hard-pressed to ad
dress the problem. The reason for this is simple. They and their student co
-workers labor without a union contract in place. Absent a union to represe
nt them in workplace matters of hours and wages with their corporate employ
er, Sodexho workers are a little like cats without claws in a fight. Thus t
he plight of being private-sector workers who want union representation bri
ngs the Sodexho workers and their allies full circle to the labor condition
s that sparked the Davis labor solidarity movement early this year.
In an echo of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s in the American South,
two dozen people sat down in a non-violent civil disobedience rally at a D
avis intersection in support of the Sodexho workers this May 1. Police arre
sted the protesters on misdemeanor charges of unlawful assembly. Later, the
Yolo County DA chose to prosecute them. Pre-trial motions, which include t
he role of UC Davis in the prosecution of the demonstrators, continue Febru
ary 4, Alper said.
In the meantime, the company has agreed with UC Davis to pay a greater shar
e of the health-care coverage for the career workers, plus a monthly $100 s
tipend to help offset their living costs in general, effective January 1, 2
008. The union-free UC Davis contract with Sodexho is set to expire in June
2010.
###
Seth Sandronsky lives and writes in Sacramento .
