Recently in Higher Education Category

Source: By TONY NAUROTH, The Express-Times (PA), Tuesday, February 23, 2010

 

After six and a half years working for Sodexo Food and Facilities Management Services at Lafayette College, Genevieve Repsher grew tired of earning $8.25 an hour as a cashier in the Farinon Hall cafeteria.

When she showed interest in organizing fellow workers with Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, she found herself followed, watched, interrogated and disciplined by Sodexo management.

Source: By Tracy Jan, Boston Globe (MA), January 13, 2010

 

 ........ Now, the economic downturn has prompted college officials to seek the once unimaginable, the option to outsource some duties of facility workers to save on overtime costs. Doing so, officials say, would help the school preserve jobs.

But many faculty, students, and workers are questioning the move to contract out overtime work, saying it could open the door to replacing the employees with lower-wage, nonunion workers. Such a shift would run counter to Catholic traditions of social justice, they say.

Source: Mona Sonnenshein and Carol Sherman, Modern Healthcare, April 20, 2009 - 5:59 am EDT

 

In October 2006, the chief operating officer for the University of California at San Diego Medical Center wanted to evaluate the medical center's outsourced food and nutrition services for both quality and financial improvements. A consultant, who had worked successfully with this senior administrator before, was hired to evaluate the facility's current operation, including the ability of the department to meet current and future needs of the medical center and assess the possibilities for cost containment and service modification through changes in the department.

..... Through the transition to in-house management, approximately $1.6 million was saved from the annual operating budget, and services were improved after a seamless transition.

Source: UNITE HERE & SEIU Stir It Up, Fri, 01/30/2009 - 12:36

 .......  Stir It Up it is a website dedicated to helping students across the country take a stand and demand that their campus food service reflects the values of the students on campus. Too often administrators who oversee campus food service make decisions without any real input from the student body. Food service at college campuses and across the industry needs to change, and if that change is going to take place, it's going to be because of student activism and involvement.

Source: Inside Higher Ed, December 15, 2008

...... Now under threat of closing, the college is in negotiations with a public institution -- New Mexico Highlands University -- that is considering taking over the college, and a debt that could be as much as $35.3 million. While the potential deal is seen by many as a welcome lifeline, students and faculty say they're unsure how the uniqueness of Santa Fe might be preserved if the college is placed in state hands.

Source: Retriever Weekly at the University of Maryland, Tuesday September 30, 2008

At the end of last year the hoopla surrounding the new food contract made Chartwells sound like the second coming of Christ. However, when Chartwells took over during the summer, complaints started to surface about the price and quality of food. When students returned to school the cries grew louder; as meal plans became more limiting and out-of-pocket expenses started creeping higher, the complaints increased.

..... The revamp of the dining hall will also be interesting as the price of entry has increased but the quality of the food is still the same as it was in Sodexho days. Even the layout is still essentially unchanged. The entrance was moved but the flow of traffic is still convoluted and confusing.

Source: AFL-CIO blog, April 25, 2008

Kevin Christensen, lead researcher in the AFL-CIO Center for Strategic Research, writes about a great victory for food service workers and custodians with AFSCME at the University of California-Davis.

AFSCME Local 3299 has won a four-year fight to end outsourcing of food service work in the 10-campus University of California (UC) system, after UC-Davis announced last week that nearly 200 workers currently employed by Sodexho will be eligible to apply for university employment, and so become AFSCME members.

Related article from the Sacramento News Review: On the payroll

Source: Crookston Times (MN), Friday, April 4, 2008 1:16 PM

...... The proposed 10-year contract with Sodexo meets the University's high standards for quality, choice, service and responsibility and provides the best value and best financial benefit for the University and students, faculty and staff.

Key terms include employee stability and financial investments and commitments. Members of AFSCME and Teamster unions remain University of Minnesota employees at their current salary and benefit level and report to Sodexo management. Current on-site management will also continue employment and be employed by Sodexo.

Source: By Ashley Meeks, Sun-News (NM), 03/17/2008

LAS CRUCES -- It bills itself as "Your University Bookstore -- Money Spent Here Stays Here!" But some members of the New Mexico State University community are concerned that may not be the story for long.

..... Coseth Krauel, an accounting technician with the bookstore, said she and others in the American Federation of County and Municipal Employees union are afraid of losing their jobs in a management change.

...... Outsourced services at NMSU: • Food services • Vending • Ground maintenance • Printing • Some construction and shuttle services

Source: By: MADELINE MCCURRY SCHMIDT, California Aggie, 1/28/08

A delegation of six Sodexho workers met at Mrak Hall on Friday to speak to Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef regarding the demands of Sodexho food service workers to become university employees. Vanderhoef was out of the office, so the Sodexho employees spoke with assistant executive vice chancellor Bob Loessberg-Zahl to ask for the higher wages and better benefits that they hoped would come with university employment.

........ Sodexho is the food service contractor that provides service to the dining commons, retail food service and catering service at UC Davis.

The six Sodexho workers were joined by two organizers from the union of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Max Alper, an organizer of the group, said the food-service employees are directly employed by the University of California on all other UC campuses except for UC Davis.