Mar
27
It’s officially been a week since the Sodexo Truth Tour kicked off and since Carina, a Sodexo worker from the Dominican Republic, arrived in the U.S. to speak out against Sodexo’s injustices and mistreatment towards its workers around the globe. In just the first few days of the tour Carina has addressed crowds of hundreds and has joined campus workers in speaking publicly about abuses committed by Sodexo and has even come face to face with university administrators.
Check out the run down:
The tour kicked off at the 18th Annual MEChA Conference in non other than Madison, Wisconsin.
Carina, along with workers from Ohio State University, shared their experiences working under Sodexo and marched with students and community members to take a stand for workers rights everywhere. Carina had the unique opportunity to address a growing crowd of 300 students and community members and to talk about her own experiences as a worker in the Dominican Republic fighting for many of the same rights as workers in the U.S. The conference concluded with MEChA, one of the largest Latino student activists groups in the nation, endorsing the Kick Out Sodexo campaign and making plans to collaborate with USAS to take on the Big 3 now and in the future.
The tour continued with public speaking events at Ursinus College, George Mason University (GMU), and Lafayette College. Extra exciting were the opportunities Carina had to confront the President of Ursinus College, Sodexo lackies at George Mason University, and trustees at Lafayette College. Ursinus College president Corson refused to even address Carina’s working conditions in the Dominican Republic and falsely claimed there wasn’t a problem with Sodexo at Ursinus even though we know workers tried to organize and were intimidated by Sodexo.
At GMU Carina and a worker from the George Mason campus met with Mark Kraner, campus director for Sodexo, who blatantly distributed false information not only about Sodexo workers in the U.S. and other countries but about Carina herself and her coworkers in the Dominican Republic. That evening Carina joined GMU workers Martha Zelaya and Marina Libora in speaking out against Sodexo’s abuses and lies and encouraging students to join the campaign.
After a speaking event Thursday, students at Lafayette College held an actionFriday morning outside of a trustees meeting holding banners high lighting the locations where Sodexo has abused the human rights of its workers. What was suppose to be a simple display of support for Sodexo workers, turned into Carina and other invited guests being kicked off the campus by security. Lafayette bigwigs and security are clearly freaked so we can only imagine what’s to come as students escalate the fight.
This is just the beginning of the Sodexo Truth Tour so stay tuned to hear more from students and workers across the globe as they continue the fight against Sodexo.
