Sodexho changes policy

Sodexho management agreed to new concessions for employees last Thursday, including a pay raise and better benefits, after a petition was presented to the representatives of the food service company by a group of concerned Fairfield students.

The meeting, attended by eight Sodexho employees and four Sodexho management representatives, was held in room 202 of the Barone campus center.

Sodexho’s Executive Director at Fairfield, Steve Schleifer, said, “As far as I’m concerned, we’re pretty much resolved everything. It probably would’ve been resolved sooner, but the formal process took a long time. I would have liked to resolve it in December, but we just couldn’t get all the parties in one room.”

Before the Thursday meeting, Sodexho employees and Fairfield students alleged that Sodexho was classifying younger workers as students even though they were not enrolled here, thereby being able to deny them higher wages and benefits.

Last week, the Students for Global Justice here at Fairfield gathered approximately 350 signatures on a petition summarizing their grievances.

Elizabeth Broad, the head of the organization, said that the students started the petition because “we don’t want to see younger workers taken advantage of.”

“The practice of taking advantage of younger workers has been happening for years,” said Katharine Cristiani, a local labor activist.

“The reason is because the workers and the students standing up for themselves and organizing,” she added.

Referring to the petition, she said. “Obviously, Sodexho cares a lot about what students think. Sodexho feared the idea of Fairfield University students and workers coming together. We won one-dollar pay raises for student workers as well as back pay.”

“This was a part of a new club, students for global justice,” said Chris Cronin ’03. “We’re looking out for the Sodexho workers. Her [Broad] club brought this to our attention. We decided to start a petition. We got a very positive response from students on campus. Being that this is a Jesuit institution, this should be something that they would want to uphold.”