Sodexho Workers at York University Move to Unionize Chris Jai Centeno, Excalibur (York University) TORONTO (CUP)—Unite Here, an organization representing over 50,000 members in Canada that include hospitality industry employees, will be helping Sodexho workers unionize. According to Unite Here’s organizing coordinator, Courney Radic, Sodexho workers at York are completely overworked and underpaid. “There’s over 100 Sodexho employees on campus who . .. work for an incredibly rich company. They’re getting paid really low wages and are suffering from tremendous workloads,” said Radic. Radic further states that non-union workers do not have any job and health insurance guarantees. “Being non-union, you are constantly living in fear of ‘Am I getting fired tomorrow?’ ‘Am I going to lose my health insurance tomorrow?’ ‘Will my hours be cut tomorrow?’; and having a union means stability in your job, and that means seniority rights,” said Radic, adding that seniority is a union word that does not exist outside of a collective agreement. Sodexho representatives say it is the employees’ decision to cast a ballot and choose if they would like to be represented. “Our employees have a right to consider representation and that is something that we will honour and respect,” said Jon Kristjanson, VP Communications for Sodexho. “They have a voice if they would like to be represented by a third party and... we encourage them to educate themselves, understand what the opportunity is at hand, and make an educated decision from that and we respect that accordingly,” he added. Kristjanson also added that since Unite Here represents hospitality workers, they stand to reason that they are always looking for new members. “The organizing effort is obviously to solicit encouragement of our employees to vote in favour of being represented and our employees are going to discuss that among themselves and make a decision. I don’t know personally how the employees feel about that, but whether they are thinking positively towards enrolling or not, in the end of the day it will be determined by the right to exercise their vote.” According to Radic, upon organizing, Sodexho locations have put up “No Solicitation” signs to intimidate employee. “No Solicitation signs went up in all of their sites and what the union finds is particularly interesting is that for me, unions are talking to each other and talking to union organizers about their workplace problems. Putting up No Solicitation signs is just a union busting tactic that they’re trying to use to scare the workers [into believing] that they are not allowed to talk to us.” In a recently released statement, Sodexho employee Wendy Wang said that by joining a union, workers have a tight to do things and change their workplace. “I want [to join a] union because I need better pay, better benefits, a reasonable workload ,and to be treated fairly, respectfully,” it read. However, Kristjanson said he feels a union cannot guarantee workers job security. “If you simply read some of the major newspapers today, 30,000 employees are going to lose their jobs at General Motors, which is a huge company that’s paid well and has great benefits for the most part, but unfortunately if the model doesn’t allow them to keep those employees under theit employment, this is what happens.” “Sodexho has a solid business model. We are an employer of 320,000 people worldwide and we’re a company that’s growing [and] providing some interesting employment opportunities, but it doesn’t guarantee that in every case all employees will get what they want out of their employee/employer relationship,” he added. Unite Here also helped to organize Sodexho employees at the University of Toronto last spring. In September 2004, the decision by Sodexho employees at U of T to create a union resulted in the indefinite suspension of two union organizers two months later. The decision was later overturned and the union organizers were reinstated the next week. Douglas College Upcoming Events Canada’s National Day of Remembrance and Action On Violence Against Women Tuesday, December 6th New Westminster Campus 1:15-2:00pm Amelia Douglas Art Gallery Foyer David Lam Campus 12:00-—12:45pm Atrium On December 6, 1989, 14 women were killed at L’Ecole Polytechnique, University of Montreal, by a man who said that women should not be allowed into engineering school. Afterwards, the murderer killed himself. Thirteen of the women who died that day were stu- dents, the 14th, a University employee. Their hopes, their dreams, their wishes and those of their loved ones—all that they lived for—were destroyed in a matter of minutes. On the 16th anniversary of this tragedy, the Douglas College community will gather at the New Westminster and David Lam campuses in loving memory of all women and children who have been victims of violence. We will be joining with other people across the country as we remember, grieve, and reflect on concrete actions that we can take to prevent and eliminate all forms of gender-based violence. Organized by the December 6th Organizing Commit- tee, Douglas College Women’s Centre, and the Douglas Students’ Union. For more information, please call: 604.527.5148 or 604.777.6257. Professional Development Day (PDD) Back by Popular Demand at Douglas College February 8, 2006 at New Westminster Campus What is PDD? College employees set a day aside every two years to gather together to reflect on and discuss issues related to working in a public community college. Daytime classes are can- celled and department staffing is kept to a minimum so as many employees as possible can attend. The planning committee for PDD is hard at work re- scheduling last year’s sessions where possible and arranging new speakers to augment the program for this year. Please mark your calendars for Ethics and Education, February 8, 2006 at the New Westminster Campus. The planning committee is always seeking new ideas and welcomes your participation. For more information please contact the Douglas Development Office at 5411, or e-mail Lin Langley at langleyl|@douglas.be.ca. World AIDS Day December 1, 2005 10:00am-—3:00pm Join us for music, videos, and more! Concourse, New Westminster Campus For more information, call 604.527.5474 or e-mail: yirani@portal.douglas.bc.ca Organized by the Douglas Students Union Pride Collective Texas Hold ’em Tournament Community Social Service Worker Program Fundraiser Friday, December 2, 2005 6pm Douglas Students Union, New Westminster Campus Tickets: $50 Eight Cash Prizes valued up to $2500! Must be 19 years of age/bring photo ID Only 80 tickets will be sold For more info contact Maegan at 604.603.3753