Campus News

September 21, 2011

University Senate focuses on labor issues, next steps

More than 100 Emory faculty, students and staff attended a special joint University Senate and Faculty Council meeting on Sept. 20 to discuss labor and workforce issues, with a focus on concerns raised by students regarding Emory’s food service vendor, Sodexo.

At the conclusion of the nearly two-hour session, University Senate/Faculty Council President Erica Brownfield outlined the Senate’s next steps. An ad hoc committee of faculty, students and staff—working with the executive committee of the University Senate—will develop a recommendation on whether Emory should continue its contract with Sodexo. This recommendation will be presented to the University Senate in October, and also delivered to President Jim Wagner. 

The purpose of the meeting was to consider a list of allegations and demands related to Sodexo that had been drafted by Students and Workers in Solidarity (SWS) and responded to by Emory administrators.

Sodexo Vice President for Employee and Corporate Relations Thomas Mackall outlined the company’s track record of external recognition, “reflecting a company with a strong commitment to respect human rights.” 

“Sodexo has a demonstrable record of respect for safety of its workers, and for employees’ rights and freedom of association and right for collective bargaining,” Mackall said.

Emory Assistant Vice President for Finance and Operations Eric Bymaster, who represented the university, said “To date, Emory is pleased and satisfied with Sodexo’s performance with the contract.” He continued: “Sodexo conducts itself consistently with our ethical standards and expectations. We also believe they are in compliance with all U.S. labor laws and international labor relations acts.”

Several SWS representatives gave remarks, including Emory College student Meghan Jordan. “Numbers and statistics don’t illustrate the struggles” of Sodexo workers on campus, said Jordan. “Our goal today is simply to give a human face to an issue that has remained for too long in the abstract. We come to plead that we look deeper at this issue beyond quantitative data and into the story of the lives of these members of our community,” she said.

Emory is at a “moral crossroads” with a two-tiered labor system of University employees and contract workers that “represents an untenable and unsustainable status quo,” argued SWS member Joseph Diaz, a graduate student.

Wagner was asked to provide an update on the April arrest of four Emory students on trespass charges after they refused repeated requests to vacate a group of tents on the Quadrangle as part of a protest against Sodexo. Wagner recounted offers over the summer by the administration to seek dismissal of the charges if the students would affirm their willingness to abide by existing university policies, such as the Emory policy governing use of the Quad, and agree not to sue Emory. At the Senate meeting, President Wagner reiterated the administration’s offer. 

The Q&A included questions about differences in benefits between Emory employees and contracted employees. In response to a question why Sodexo has not offered MARTA passes to campus food service workers, Mackall noted that the National Labor Relations Act prohibits offering benefits that depart from the company’s historical set of compensation and benefits while a labor-organizing effort is under way.

Candler School of Theology professor Timothy Jackson asked about the circumstances that led to the student arrests.

“The chain of events that I’ve heard described by you and others,” he said, directing his remarks to SWS, “is that you knew you were violating the law and you were choosing to make a conscientious statement of civil disobedience. It seems to me that part of what you have to do is acknowledge responsibility for that, and accept the consequences. We’ve said a lot about how the university might have gone the extra mile, and I’m all for that, but the students could have done things as well that could have obviated this problem.”

For more on workforce and labor issues on Emory’s campus, visit www.emory.edu/workforce-labor.

View video of the Sept. 20 meeting:

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