Who is Sodexo?: A Company Profile

Sodexo is a multi-service company that subcontracts work in food service, laundry service, security, and janitors in schools and corporate buildings. They've even dipped their fingers in the prison industrial complex, meaning that they operate private for-profit prisons contracted out with local governments, in Chile, Australia, the UK, and several other EU member nations. Sodexo is huge; they're the 22nd largest employer in the world with over 380,000 employees. As of 2009 Sodexo had a revenue of 20 billion, making them number 437 of the Fortune 500. Because of their size, and the nature of the industries they work in, Sodexo made a billion dollars in profit in 2008, despite the global recession.

In France, Sodexo is the 2nd largest employer after the French government. Sodexo workers in France are all unionized, get 1 month of vacation, and paid sick days. That's a stark difference compared to Sodexo workers in America. For Sodexo workers in Massachusetts, the average wage is $10.16/hr. Because of this, nine out of ten Sodexo workers in Massachusetts qualify for public assistance such as food stamps, WIC, and/or fuel assistance. Furthermore, since US labor law is very weak, Sodexo's workers' right to organize is not respected despite Sodexo's official lip service.

Sodexo has a record of union-busting. In 1998 a manual was leaked ot the International Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union (HERE) titled, "Progressive approach to Labor: Union Avoidance," which prescribed threatening employees considering strike that they would be fired for doing so. More recently Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report which documented widespread anti-union captive audience meetings in the USA. In one case in a laundry facility in Phoenix Arizona, after a majority of workers petitioned the NLRB for a union election, Sodexo held many captive audience meetings filled with threats. When several workers from the same shop held a demonstration in favor of unionization, four of them were fired. The report documents managers using the threat of termination of employment if workers cannot, "work as a team." Finally among other abuse, the report documents how during a training management was advised to tell workers:

• The union is allowed to make promises because it doesn't pay your wages. The union's promises are meaningless.
• There are some people who, for their own selfish reasons, have been putting a lot of pressure on many of you…. [T]hese people would manipulate things for their own ends.
• A union is not concerned about job security. It cares only about its security, which means your dues in the union's pocket.
• If you read the newspapers and watch the news, you know how many represented companies have closed their doors in this state and all over the country…. Nearly every labor union contract contains language that provides for the potential of layoffs.
• The company has the legal right to conduct its business and hire permanent economic replacements for every striker…. the company would do what it had to do to ensure business continuity in the event of a strike.
• You may want to ask yourself why some people have been promoting a strike when they know that employees risk being permanently replaced. Ask yourself what they have to gain.

Sodexo has furthermore told management:

• Tell employees that union representatives are manipulators who make meaningless promises and care only about collecting dues. This implicitly brands workers who support the union as dupes or collaborators.
• tell employees "you know how many represented companies have closed their doors in this state and all over the country." This implicitly warns workers that their jobs are at risk if they form a union.
• Sodexo advised managers to tell employees that the company can hire permanent replacements and "would do what it had to do" in the event of a strike, a statement permitted under US labor law, but fraught with menace and contrary to international standards.

As Sodexo workers across the U.S. continue their efforts to form a union in order to win fair and safe working conditions, respect and dignity on the job, and a voice with their employer to create stable, good jobs, HRW's report asserts that Sodexo has threatened, interrogated and fired workers who tried to form a union.

The official stance of the company is that "Sodexo recognizes and respects the rights of our employees to unionize, or not to unionize, as they choose." But as this evidence shows, the anti-union campaign that has been going on at Clark is part of a company wide violation of labor rights. This past spring of 2010, after the SEIU started organizing Clark workers Sodexo had two higher ups from corporate come in and lead a anti-union meeting that workers were told was a mandatory training. During this meeting workers were told that if they signed anything for the union they would be "signing themselves away" and also that workers would be "earning less under a union contract." Both of these lies are protected against under labor law. Clark allowed Sodexo to use Clark premises and even our Media Services to conduct that meeting.