Clark Workers STRIKE!

On 14 October 2010 Clark Sodexo workers went on strike in demand that their right to unionization be recognized. Clark Sodexo workers were initially presented the possibility of unionization by the Service Employees International Union Local 615 during the winter of 2009-2010. Since then much worker activism has culminated in workers going on strike. Clark workers are demanding a fair and expedient means to unionization, including card check, better wages and health care, and respect on the job.



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In response Clark workers were given the following letter with their paycheck by General Manager Stu Gerhardt:

We have heard that the SEIU may be calling for an employee strike on other job action sometime later this week. This would follow the unions activity from last Thursday, October 14th, where the union convinced a number of you to engage in a work stoppage by not showing up for work on that date. As you know we have an obligation to Clark University and its students to provide good and valuable service. We cannot miss a day. As a result, we want every employee to come to work as scheduled and work with us to find other solutions to problems that may exist.

Sodexo recognizes that you have the right to engage in protexted activity under the labor laws. We will not interfere with those rights.

However, the law also places limits on the rights of employees to engage in frequent or intermittent strikes and says that employees who engage in intermittent strikes in violation of the rules can lose the protection of the labor laws.

We value each and ever one of you. If you want to talk about these matters. please ask your supervisor or me, and we will follow the unions directions as to what to do, please be sure the union has checked out the law and knows what it is talking about.

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Even though Stu knew that SEIU had no plans for another strike in the immediate future, he found it necessary to threaten employees so as to keep them from building confidence and solidarity in the workplace. If Sodexo did respect food service workers, they would not be engaged in an agressive anti-union campaign that has involved forced audience anti-union presentations, surveillance of workers' meetings, illegal lies about the union, and discriminatorily disciplining pro-union employees.

Clark food service workers continue to fight for a union because collective bargaining is the only means to hold management accountable. It is common practice for employers to give a few more vocal employees a raise or promotion during times of union activism, only to take away those benefits when the threat of the union is gone.