May
17
Here’s the latest from Washington state, just days after the University of Washington arrested 27 students during their peaceful sit-in to kick out Sodexo!
usas | United Students Against Sweatshops
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Arahmy del Toro, WWU junior, phone 425-273-4088
Morgan Currier, UW sophomore, 818-642-5302
Vicko Alvarez, USAS Domestic Campaigns Coordinator, 202-549-5649
Victory! W. Wash. Univ. Drops $150 Million Deal with
Controversial Dining Corporation after 50-Year Relationship
Students Celebrate Victory of 8-Month Student Campaign at WWU protesting Sodexo’s Human Rights Violations in Five Countries
After 27 Arrests, Univ. of Wash. is Last Public University in Washington doing business with France-based Outsourcing Giant Sodexo
BELLINGHAM, WA — Today, student activists at Western Washington University are celebrating a major victory after the university ended its 50-year relationship with Sodexo, who held a $150 Million contract for dining services. Sodexo, the France-based outsourcing giant that feeds more college students than any other company, is embroiled in a controversy over multiple human rights exposés this school year.
In November, responding to student protests over Sodexo’s worker abuses, WWU’s dining contract committee wrote to all bidders summarizing their “key interests and concerns,” explaining “the first topic of significant public comment was employment practices used by dining contractors.” (See http://usas.org/westernrfpletter for letter to bidders.) Western terminated its contract with Sodexo one year early. (See http://usas.org/westerntermination for notice of termination.)
“Eight months after students raised concerns about Sodexo’s human rights record, I am so glad the administration listened to us,” said Arahmy del Toro, WWU junior and Co-Chair of MEChA de Western Washington. El Movimento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA), one of the largest Latino student advocacy organizations in the country, officially endorsed the Kick Out Sodexo campaign at their National Conference this past March. “All the actions we did on campus to kick out Sodexo have really made a difference. We were planning to escalate our actions further, but now we plan on following up to make sure Aramark will respect their workers rights, not just locally, but globally.”
Last month, students at Western discovered exactly what it was like to work for Sodexo when Carina Mieses, whose unjust firing by Sodexo at the Barrick gold mine in the Dominican Republic was earlier reported among the human rights exposés, visited the WWU campus to speak out against Sodexo’s global human rights abuses. “Western’s decision is a victory for workers struggling in the Dominican Republic,” said Mieses. “The actions of university students in the U.S. have been incredibly encouraging for myself and my co-workers.”
In Seattle last Wednesday, University of Washington President Phyllis Wise ordered the arrest of 27 students occupying her office to protest the same corporation. Sodexo holds a multi-million dollar contracts with UW’s Athletics Department.
Western is the latest in a series of universities that have dropped Sodexo after student protest. In 2001, Evergreen State College dropped Sodexo over student protests over human rights violations in for-profit prisons that Sodexo had invested in. One month ago, Northeastern University in Boston also rejected a bid by Sodexo for that university’s multi-million dollar dining services contract, amidst escalating campus protests and after 500 students personally called NU’s president demanding he reject Sodexo.
This decision by Western Washington leaves the UW as the last public university in the state to continue doing business with the controversial outsourcing giant.
Last fall, Human Rights Watch and TransAfrica Forum documented Sodexo committing human rights abuses against its own workers in five countries — the United States, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Morocco and Guinea — ranging from racial discrimination, mandatory pregnancy tests, repressing freedom of association, and wage theft.
Students at the University of Washington have been running a campaign to terminate the UW’s contract with Sodexo since October. The campaign has even led to the arrest of 27 students who were peacefully protesting the contract last week. “Wise had her own students arrested for peacefully protesting the UW’s contract with Sodexo and yet Western is the school to end their contract” says Morgan Currier, a Sophomore and organizer in UW USAS. “Students fighting for this contract cut at the University of Washington are thrilled that Western Washington has made the right decision to no longer support a global human rights violator, but now more than ever, disappointed in President Wise for failing to take this same step.”
Students’ victory for human rights at Western has not gone unnoticed by students at other universities contracting with Sodexo. “We hope Western’s actions send a clear message to Wise that if she really takes social responsibility seriously there is nothing stopping her from making the right decision and terminating the University’s contract,” said Currier.
Important upcoming events:
What: UW Kick Out Sodexo Coalition’s Largest Rally Yet!
When: Thursday, May 19, 3:30 pm
Where: “Red Square” in front of Gerberding Hall, University of Washington http://www.washington.edu/maps/?l=gbd (Parking available under Odegaard Library)
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