Loyola University’s Sodexo workers are trying to form a union to ensure a “shield of protection” for their jobs.

Sodexo, Loyola’s food service provider for over 20 years, is one of the world’s largest catering and facilities management companies. Not only do some employees on campus say they believe some of the company’s practices are unfair, but also employees across the nation.

Some American workers protested the staff policy  Jan. 25 at the company’s annual, general meeting in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, a suburb of Paris.

Several Loyola workers said they believe forming a union is the best option to secure their jobs and guarantee better treatment.

Rob Harman, a union organizer for Service Employees International Union and former Loyola student, has been speaking to Loyola Sodexo workers about building a union since October 2009. The SEIU has members from Xavier University, Dillard University and the Recovery School District. Now, he and his team are working with Loyola and Tulane University Sodexo workers to form a union.

“One of the key points (of success) is having large-scale involvement,” Harman said.

In order to achieve this, Harman met with various student groups from Loyola and Tulane. A major group involved is Loyola University Community Action Program. As a former member, Harman said he is not surprised by their involvement.

“LUCAP stepped up right at the beginning and said they wanted to do this,” he said.

In November, students working on the campaign began circulating a petition in support of “the right of Sodexo employees to form a union in order to secure more equitable working conditions.”

“This is us being preemptive in terms of taking a stand in support of the workers,” said Jamie Broussard, LUCAP co-chairwoman and sociology senior.

The Student Government Association has also shown support by passing a resolution, “Declaration of Support for Loyola Sodexo Employees” Feb. 2.

Though the petition and the resolution heightened student awareness, Sodexo management does not believe a union is necessary.

“One of the reasons I enjoy Loyola is that the students have an interest in the world around them … but I don’t see that a union is a real benefit to our staff,” said Ben Hartley, an area manager for Sodexo, in response to the student petition. “With that being said, if our associates decide that they want a union to represent them, then they will have a union to represent them.”

Chad Carson, LUCAP co-chairman and sociology senior, said “an overwhelming majority” of Sodexo workers presented a petition asking management to recognize them as a labor union during the first week of the semester.

“Any attempt from management now to convince them otherwise is coercion on their original decision,” Carson said.

As representatives of LUCAP and the students working on the campaign, Broussard and Carson met with M.L. “Cissy” Petty, vice president and associate provost of student affairs, to voice “concerns (they) had in relation to the workers being able to form a union and to open up dialogue about the fact that this is going on at our campus,” Broussard said.

“It was our first meeting and I wanted to hear their concerns, and then I could do some fact finding,” Petty said in an e-mail.

At the meeting, Petty was not interested in talking about a hypothetical situation, according to Broussard.

“We understood her logic in not wanting to talk about something that was alarmist if it hadn’t been going on,” Broussard said.

At a Sodexo staff meeting Jan. 27, Loyola’s employees viewed a video discouraging unions. Workers said they believe the video was played to “scare employees” from forming a union. 

“It was intimidation … Nothing specified why we should have a union. The movie was made by Sodexo, it wasn’t of another union that failed,” one worker said.

But Hartley said the video “provided factual information about unions to employees.”

The viewing of the video prompted Broussard and Carson to meet with Petty for a second time Jan. 28 to address the actuality of the “hypothetical situation.”

“I had not seen the video, and wanted to talk with Ben Hartley about the video … I felt it was important to get the (Sodexo) management folks involved answering questions directly,” Petty said.

Since the union meets with employees after their shifts and does not pay them to receive information, Sodexo could have done the same with the video — shown it after hours, Petty noted.

On Jan. 29, Petty sent a campus-wide e-mail supporting “whatever Sodexo and its employees decide to do regarding collective bargaining.”

“She was committed to wanting to see the workers’ conditions in the job improve but she felt like that should be a dialogue between management and the workers — if a union is the right thing to do,” Broussard said

To encourage such dialogue, Sodexo management placed each of its Loyola workers in one of four focus groups. Two of the groups meet with management each week, thus allowing each employee to meet every other week. Meetings are not mandatory and workers are paid to attend them.

“The meetings are designed so we can solicit input from the associates and also so we can together figure out better ways to communicate with each other,” Hartley said.

Some workers said they do not believe meetings are necessary. They said they want a “shield of protection” for their jobs and a union would achieve that.

“Next year … we don’t know if we’ll have a job,” one worker said.

Unfair wages are another major concern among workers.

“All the years I have been here, you would not believe the money that I make,” said one Sodexo employee.

According to Hartley, pay increases are determined by profitability.

“Typically, our regional offices give us a target, say this past year the target was 2.5 percent. We administer raises based on performance, but not to exceed that 2.5 percent,” he said. “If I have an associate who has been outstanding … I can give that person five percent, but it’s at the expense of some of the other people, so somebody might get a one percent raise.”

Many workers also want Sodexo to provide them with affordable health insurance.

“Health insurance is expensive and it’s going to get more expensive,” Hartley said. “I don’t think that’s a function of a company that you work for. I think that’s a function of the healthcare industry and the insurance industry in general.”

“We have benefits that would have been unheard of years ago,” he said. “We have a lifeworks program … counseling services, of course health and all those standard benefits that you think a corporation would have. I think Sodexo does a good job at trying to support staff as much as they can.”

Precious Esie can be reached at [email protected]