Food Service Workers

IUF submits proposed global rights agreement to Sodexo

2010-05-17T15:31:45Z

Following the February 2010 commitment in principle by Sodexo CEO Michel Landel the IUF has now formally submitted a proposal for an International Framework Agreement between the IUF and Sodexo.

]]> IUF General Secretary, Ron Oswald commenting on the proposal from the IUF pointed out that “The IUF has proposed an agreement with Sodexo which will not only confirm the company’s commitment to internationally recognized rights, notably the right workers have to freely chose to join a union and have that union bargain on their behalf, but also and more chllenging have proposed measures that would commit Sodexo to guarantees for Sodexo workers of concrete and unimpeded access to those rights.” He added, “We have consulted our membership in this company and the proposal we have now sent to the company has the unanimous backing of our catering membership in this major global player. We hope that Sodexo makes good on their commitment in principle and delivers an agreement we and the company can be proud of.”

Compass appoints New Group Managing Director for Compass Group UK

2010-04-17T12:54:24Z

The Compass group has announced the appointment of Ian Sarson as Group Managing Director for Compass Group UK.

]]> Sarson’s career has been exclusively within the food, support services and hospitality sectors, including a spell in Asia and as Managing Director for Specialist Markets in the UK and Ireland leadership team.

Sarson replaces outgoing UK managing director Ian El-Mokadem's who had held the position for the past four years.

IUF OECD complaint against Compass maintained – no progress towards justice in Algeria

2010-04-17T12:03:13Z

The IUF has maintained its formal complaint against the global catering giant Compass with no end in sight to Compass’s continued pressure on a key fired union representative in Hassi Messaoud, Algeria.

]]> IUF general secretary Ron Oswald commented, “Through our approaches to the company we have sought to prevail on Compass to review and change its attitude to workers seeking to form a union in Algeria. We have continued to do so even as we have now progressed our formal complaint under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises through the UK OECD National Contact Point.” Oswald added, “Despite our efforts the company remains intransigent and as a result we are left with no choice but to use all the formal processes available to us. We will also explore with our affiliates in the catering sector and beyond ways to mount considerably more pressure publicly on Compass to do the right thing. We will do so in defence of a group of workers in Algeria who have asked for nothing more than their internationally guaranteed rights to form and join a trade union of their choice.”

The CAFÉ web site will provide updates on this situation as it moves forward and will also analyse generally Compass’s behaviour in relation to workers’ rights around the world.

UK Union leader shares his experience of meeting with Sodexo workers in the United States

2010-04-15T14:24:25Z

By BOB ORAM
Unison National Executive Council Member

]]> I like to think that I am brave. I like to think that I have courage. But what I witnessed today humbled me.

A small Latino woman whose arm was so badly burned lifting out a high, heavy tray of scalding food, burned her arm really badly and whilst bleeding on the floor, was not allowed to go off shift. Another diagnosed with cancer who was told the day before she was no longer required. Workers who have recently had their precious hours cut, meaning they will all have to work harder in their second jobs just to make ends meet, all because they spoke to the union. Workers who on $8.50 an hour have no health insurance unless they pay $100 a week. Workers with no pension provision unless they pay for it. Workers with no job security and who live in constant fear of a management who “like to intimidate us just for fun”. These are really brave courageous people who knew they were being glared at by managers just for talking to our delegation, as is their right, when on their own break time.

By going to the managers of the Sodexo contract at George Mason University in Washington DC to demand that the company recognises the Service Employees International Union as their union, they risk far more than we, from the CGT in France and UNISON in the UK can ever imagine.

This was all in the land of the ‘free’. Free to do what? Allow capitalism, raw in tooth and claw, rip the dignity and humanity out of their loyal and dedicated workers? What about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? Article 23(4) says “Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his or her interests” .Why is that not upheld in the USA today?.

The workers we met spoke with pride of the work they do and the commitment they have to a quality service. They don’t ask for the earth – justice, respect and the right to decent terms and conditions is all they want. But it is profit, that is the altar of greed for companies that don’t care about their workers and would not even take a petition from them today when they asked for their basic human rights.

They were the bravest of the brave and I was honoured to have met them.

IUF Accuses Compass of Major Rights Violations in Algeria

2010-04-15T05:49:54Z

In Hassi Messaoud, Algeria, 850 kilometers southeast of Algiers, Eurest Support Services, a subsidiary of Compass Group, subcontracts catering and hospitality services to a score of multinationals like Schlumberger, Halliburton, Repsol, BP, Ciepsa, Burlington. Hundreds of ESS employees live in tents; under desert temperatures, and suffer difficult hygiene and living conditions.

]]> Shifts last 6 weeks without a day off. Monthly salary is on average 18.000 dinars (185 Euros). In December 2006, ESS workers decided to create a union to defend their dignity and to improve their working conditions. But management intervened to prevent them from doing so, suspending the general secretary and dismissing at least 10 other union activists.

Yacine, who had an exemplary work record with Compass, started to have problems with management after he was elected general secretary of the union. After being suspended from work, the company decided to pursue him through he courts. He has faced identical allegations in numerous different cases, amounting to 22 court hearings over three years.

The IUF has submitted a complaint to the OECD UK National Contact Point relating to the case of Yacine Zaid and his co-workers and is calling on Compass to reinstate Yacine, and allow these Eurest workers to access their right to form and join a union and have their union represent them and negoitate their terms and conditions of employment.

UK and French Delegation to the USA show solidarity with Sodexo workers and SEIU

2010-04-14T20:33:58Z

A delegation of Sodexo workers and union leaders from the CFDT and CGT in France and UNISON in the United Kingdom are visiting the United States for three days of activity in support of SEIU and Sodexo workers.

]]> SEIU is protesting what the union points to as Sodexo's attempts to deny workers through threats, intimidation, among other things their right to join union.

"These workers' dignity is affected," said Jean-Michel Dupire of the CGT. "It touches my heart to hear how they are working hard to get a union."

"There is a lot of work that needs to be done," agreed Emlie Wirtz, also of the CFDT.

"A Sodexo worker, whether they live in France or in America--should all have the same rights, the same advantages," said Silvie Beccari of the CFDT. "In France, workers have the right to give their opinions. It should be the same in the U.S."

"In France, every worker has the right to join a union; the law protects them," explained Pascal Ronet. "In the U.K., everyone has the individual right to join a union, as well," added Bob Oram.

"We need a lot of support, and we are blessed because people are hearing our voices," said Sandra Villanueva, a Sodexo worker at GMU for 11 years. "It's good to learn about workers in other countries, and we need a lot of support. It makes me feel good to know that we are not alone."

John Fox of Unison agreed. "It's not just us who are here with you," he said of the delegation from the U.K. "The people back in England who can't be here are thinking of all of these workers too."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp1uKxdoofs)

In New Orleans, Sodexo Workers Testify Before City Council About Sodexo's Illegal Practices and Failure to Help With the City's Recovery

2010-04-14T20:18:54Z

Joined by a broad coalition of community and student supporters, Sodexo workers in New Orleans testified today before the City Council to protest the company's behavior at sites where Sodexo workers are fighting for the right to come together to raise standards in a city hungry for good jobs.

]]> The annual earnings of a Sodexo worker in New Orleans making $8.00 an hour is $16,640

"After five years I received two raises, one for 24 cents, the other for 12 cents, and now I make $8.12 an hour which makes it hard even to pay my bills," said Anthony Thomas, a Sodexo worker at Tulane University. "Just because my coworkers and I are trying to create better jobs for everyone, Sodexo has threatened and illegally questioned my coworkers and that isn't right. I hope Sodexo plays a part in creating good jobs too."

Sodexo is one of the largest employers in the New Orleans region, and as the area leader in food service management sets employment standards for thousands of workers in the market. In New Orleans, Sodexo portrays itself as a responsible employer, pledging, for example, to help recovery efforts as the floodwaters receded in 2005. But almost five years later, workers testified today, Sodexo has failed to live up to its promises.

"Before the storm, I worked for Sodexo at the school district. In the aftermath, all Sodexo did was offer to give us a payout based on our vacation time," says Zella Dase, a food service worker at Loyola University. "I didn't have any vacation and none of my coworkers that I know did either. I can't believe that they didn't offer to help us at all."

Although workers at Sodexo's unionized generally fare better than their nonunion counterparts, some of them also earn wages low enough to qualify them for public assistance.

"I've worked for Sodexo for nearly 3 years, but I've been on food stamps for over a year now," said Zarassa Harris, a Sodexo custodian in the Recovery School District. "For lunch, my kids eat free. I think it's sad that I work for a huge, profitable food service company, yet my kids have to rely on the federal government to get lunch at school."

These sorts of low-wage jobs exacerbate the problems in a city that is in desperate need of good jobs and lasting economic development. Nearly one in four New Orleanians lives below the poverty line, almost double the poverty rate for the United States as a whole.

At today's hearing, workers released a report on Sodexo's track record in New Orleans, Hardship in the Big Easy: How Sodexo's practices leave New Orleans workers in poverty. The report reveals that Sodexo Facilities management erased overtime from weekly time reports from time clocks every Wednesday or Thursday, leaving workers a total of $22,000 out of pocket over the course of last year. Sodexo eventually had to pay back the money after workers put pressure on the company.

Sodexo's Stock Price Dips Aftter lawmaker requests US Marine Contract Probe

2010-04-13T18:18:53Z

A dip in Sodexo share prices over the last few days seemed to that investors were nervous as news emerged that a U.S. lawmaker has requested a probe of Sodexo's performance on a massive U.S. Marines food service contract. The company's stock price has dropped since a €45.01 close on April 7th.

]]> According to Reuters, Representative Loretta Sanchez "called on the Government Accountability Office" to "investigate key aspects" of an eight-year, $881 million Sodexo food service contract "at mess halls on Marine Corps bases throughout the continental United Stated."

In a press release, Sanchez said that "the government has an obligation to use taxpayer dollars responsibly. There are significant concerns that Sodexo's food services have been more expensive and less effective than originally promised...this is part of a larger effort to target waste in government."

According to the release, here are the circumstances:

· "In 2001, the Marine Corps decided to consolidate its food service contracts at the national level in the hopes that it would save about $20 million per year and free up 594 food specialists for other assignments."

· "To meet these goals and win the new contract, Sodexo proposed centralizing much of the Marine Corps food production at a "cook-chill" facility in Tennessee, where food would be prepared, refrigerated, and shipped around the country for reheating on base."

· "In July 2007, Sodexo terminated its Marine-related operations at the facility even though its 'cook-chill' technology gave Sodexo a competitive advantage during the bidding process."

· "Sodexo's decision came just one month after a voluntary USDA recall of nearly 3,000 pounds of chicken that may have been contaminated with the Listeria bacteria, some of which was shipped to Camp Pendleton and the Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego."

· "Public records show that there had been a pattern of food safety problems at the facility both before and after the USDA recall, including 70 USDA records of food safety noncompliance between December 2005 and September 2009."

As the current contract expires, Sodexo and other contractors, including Compass Group and Aramark, are hoping to win the account, which the London Evening Standard estimates is worth approximately $1.4 billion.

A trader was quoted as saying that "there is concern that Sodexo's offer is more expensive and less attractive than it was initially."

Tell Sodexo that you want a global agreement!

2010-04-12T11:08:10Z

At the Sodexo Annual Shareholders meeting earlier this year, the CEO of Sodexo stated that the company would be willing to negotiate a global agreement with the IUF. An agreement will ensure that workers have the freedom to unionise and bargain collectively to raise standards and working conditions for Sodexo workers all over the world

We want to tell Sodexo that we welcome their committment to negotiations and look forward to a global agreement with the IUF. To sign up and show your support, click this link.

Sodexo Workers gather in Paris for Shareholders meeting

2010-01-28T14:05:39Z

As Sodexo shareholders gathered for their annual meeting this week in Paris, a delegation of the company’s employees and their unions from France, the US, and the UK called for a global guarantee from Sodexo to improve pay and working conditions and guarantee the fundamental rights of Sodexo workers.

]]> In an emotional exchange, workers from all three countries shared their experiences of working at Sodexo and spoke out about a wide array of abuses by the company, including refusing to allow workers to form a union without company opposition, discriminating against minority workers, failing to pay people for all the hours they worked, and failing to pay nationally agreed-upon wage rates.

"We’re trying to form a union, but Sodexo forced us into mandatory anti-union meetings, showed us anti-union videos, and brought individual workers in for one-on-one meetings with supervisors," said Brenda Espinoza, a food service worker at Doctors Hospital in Manteca, California. "People are scared because the bosses have never come at us like this before."

Unions representing Sodexo workers in France, the UK and North America issued a joint statement calling on the company to guarantee decent salaries and working conditions and ensure unimpeded access to their right to join trade unions.

"As a signatory to the UN Global Compact Sodexo often states that its employees are amongst its most important assets. In practice the reality for Sodexo workers in an economic sector where workers are too often insecure and woefully remunerated can fall short of both Sodexo's own stated standards and the standards we would expect from a global company. To allow Sodexo workers the opportunity to advance their working and living standards the IUF calls on Sodexo to guarantee their employees access to the fundamental rights of freedom of association and collective bargaining and to do so across the entire company operation worldwide through engagement with workers and representative unions at national and international levels." said Ron Oswald, IUF General Secretary in a press statement released by the unions taking part in the event.

The delegation also communicated with shareholders inside and outside of the company’s annual shareholders meeting in U.S. Sodexo workers delivered petition signatures from thousands of Sodexo employees across 10 American States telling Sodexo management "that it’s time to raise standards for all Sodexo workers and we want the freedom to form a union."

UK: Victory for Sodexo workers at North Devon NHS Trust

2010-01-24T09:44:09Z

Following two days of strike action, 200 UNISON members working for Sodexo in North Devon NHS Trust, have won their bid for better pay and improved terms, in line with a national agreement set out in October 2006.

]]> The deal will cover staff working as cleaners, cooks and porters, some of the lowest paid staff working for contractors in the public sector. They will receive a lump sum of up to £3,600, as well as a salary increase from 1 January, 2010, and other benefits including sick pay.

Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary, said:

"I am proud of our members for making a stand. It is never easy going on strike, particularly if you are low paid. But this action has shown what can be achieved when members stay solid and determined. These were low paid cooks, cleaners and porters, who have been waiting for three years to get the pay and terms they are entitled to under a national agreement. Their success is the first major example of UNISON's Three Companies Project, which targets the multi-national private companies Compass, Aramark and Sodexo that are now winning the majority of public sector contracts in the NHS and schools. The key to the project is to organise not just in one company, but in all the companies across the industry, so that one can't undercut the other with different conditions of service. Mr Prentis vowed that "we will go into these multinational companies and we will recruit, we will organise, we will unionise and we will get the rate for the job."

UK-UNISON members to strike against Sodexo

2010-01-04T13:39:59Z

UNISON members at the North Devon hospital Trust employed by Sodexo have voted by a massive 97% in favour of strike action over unpaid wages and conditions going back over 3 years to 1st October 2006. The strike is due to start at midnight on 4th January for 2 days followed by weekly action.

]]> The dispute is over the refusal of the Trust and Sodexo to pay full terms and conditions agreed with the National Health Service (NHS), the trade unions and private contractors in a Joint National Statement in 2005. This was part of this was part of an agreement to end the 'two tier' workforce in the NHS.

Instead the Trust has used the funding to help reduce its £8 million deficit. The Trust now has no deficit but the workers have been told there is no money left for their 3 year back pay or for the payment of the improvements in wages and terms.

The workforce has organised itself in the last few months in order to campaign for their entitlements. Membership has rise from 45 to 213 since June this year and they now have an organising committee of 5 stewards. Members are still only receiving £6.77 an hour plus an attendance allowance of 22p an hour. Most get no enhanced pay for overtime, weekend working, evening or overnight work. Few are in a pension scheme.

In an effort to avert the strike the Trust and Sodexo have announced that they will now pay sick pay arrangements for all from the 1st January and will honour the holiday entitlements of Agenda for Change from the same date. But this will take no account for the 3 years unpaid rates and will still be paid on the wrong rates.
UNISON, which is likely to become an IUF member in 2010, is a major British public sector union with more than 1.3 million members working in the public services, for private contractors providing public services and in the essential utilities. They include frontline staff and managers working full or part time in local authorities, the NHS, the police service, colleges and schools, the electricity, gas and water industries, transport and the voluntary sector.

Aramark collects 20% service charge - but stiffs the staff

2008-10-08T18:29:09Z

Aramark has been accused of adding a 20% service charge to bills at Massachusetts Convention Center Authority but not passing that charge onto staff.

For full story from Boston.com click here.

Sodexo Completes Purchase of Score Groupe in France

2008-10-01T08:28:58Z

Sodexo strengthens its dominance of the catering sector in France. Read more of this story here

Compass claims good fourth quarter prospects

2008-09-30T11:33:20Z