Feb
21
Minutes before 11:00AM on February 4, students activists quietly slipped into Ohio State’s Thompson Memorial Library, a building the university spent $109 million renovating while allowing major OSU contractor Sodexo to continue paying poverty wages and violating human rights on OSU’s campus and around the world.
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When 11:00AM struck, a student from Texas blasted Queen’s “We Will Rock You” from a boombox, signalling the nearly 100 activists hidden inside to begin chanting “O-H-I-O Kick Out Sodexo!”, unfurling huge banners and letting hundreds of leaflet fly down the center atrium. Check out the video to see the “flash mob”.
Outside, hundreds of students rallied with community leaders and local clergy. Students from across the country had converged on the Ohio State University for the 2011 National Conference of United Students Against Sweatshops. Marc Auerbach, spokesperson for the Defend Ohio Coalition, expressed outrage that public universities hand over multi-million dollar contracts to Sodexo: “We stand with you in fighting Sodexo, and the Sodexo model, where we use public resources to suppress workers’ rights and enrich private corporations.” KB Brower, USAS Coordinating Committee member and William & Mary student, pointed out that OSU President Gordon Gee is “the highest paid public [university] administrator in the country” while Sodexo workers on campus struggle with poverty wages.
Pastor Dale Snyder of the Bethel AME Church agreed: “This is a public institution. It’s supposed to care about the needs of all people, and especially the needs of people who take care of us every day. I encourage you to keep on struggling. Keep on fighting. Don’t give up. Don’t lose heart. … We must speak up for [workers'] right to organize.”
As OSU sophomore Natalie Yoon announced, “We’re going to show President Gee what we’re made of!”, a high-energy march began that encircled campus and ended at Bricker Hall, the administration building. Outside the windows of the office of President Gordon Gee, OSU senior Ryan Marchese emphasized, “It’s been too long. This campaign has been going on at Ohio State for a year and a half … and our president won’t even take a minute to look at [Sodexo workers'] situation.” Rev. Joel King, a first cousin of Rev. MLK Jr., also encouraged the crowd to stay strong in the fight for worker rights.
In a disturbing denial of responsibility, OSU spokesperson Jim Lynch later told the Lantern, “OSU is not directly involved in this matter.” As one student eloquently rebuts during the video, “The President is held accountable for signing a contract with Sodexo, so you can’t just say it’s Sodexo workers, it’s workers at this university that are being mistreated.”
Students entered the office asking for a meeting with President Gee, but administrators told students Gee would not speak with students and would not schedule a meeting with Gee. Baffled by administrators claiming Gee was “not available,” OSU sophomore Terasia Bradford shot back, “I know somebody’s got a phone number somewhere for President Gee!” Finally, students left chanting “We’ll be back!”
And we will be back, as many times as it takes, until OSU stops ignoring students and starts respecting workers!
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Credits for the video: Video by Will Delphia, 2nd camera Bryan MacCormack, voiceover by Beastie Salih.
[...] hip-hop collective from Chicago) and a local performer. Check out more on the conference at: http://kickoutsodexo.usas.org/2011/02/21/hundreds-march-ohio-state-flash-mob/, and you can see the video from the action below (one of our members was on the boombox [...]