One Sodexo Inc. employee who works at Ohio State cleaning Ohio Stadium and stocking the concession stands says she cannot afford to eat every day on her $9.30-per-hour salary.
Sandy Dailey, 52, has worked for Sodexo for 10 years. She said she received her first review and raise in November, increasing her salary by $1 per hour.
“I can’t live on that salary,” Dailey said. “Part of the time, I can’t afford to eat.”
Sodexo is a France-based corporation that subcontracts its workers to facilities, including universities, hospitals and athletic stadiums, to run concession stands.
Sodexo employees at several institutions, including OSU, recently voted to authorize strikes because of what they say is the corporation’s poor treatment of its workers and restrictions on their ability to unionize, said Laurie Couch, spokeswoman for Service Employees International Union.
“The workers are pretty fired up,” Couch said. “They’ve been trying to organize a union for a couple of months now, and management has responded by punishing them and threatening them.”
Couch said the Sodexo workers at OSU will likely strike, though the union has not set a date.
Alfred King, director of public relations for Sodexo USA, said Sodexo pays its employees well and respects their right to collectively bargain.
“Sodexo provides competitive wages, and our benefits eligibility for front line employees is the most liberal in our industry,” King said in an e-mail. “Sodexo respects the rights of our employees to join a union or not, as they choose.”
King added that 40 of Sodexo’s employees at OSU have worked there for at least five years, “which would indicate satisfaction with their job and treatment.”
But Dailey is not satisfied. She said her wages aren’t high enough for her to afford health insurance or pay her medical bills.
“I don’t have medical or nothin’, and I got blood pressure medicine that I can’t afford,” she said. “I’m still gettin’ billed for my treatment, and I don’t get my medicine because I can’t afford it. I was havin’ chest pains this morning.”
Dailey said she doesn’t know how much she owes because she usually can’t bring herself to open her bills.
“I know I owe thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars to OSU for the doctor bill,” she said.
Dailey said Sodexo wages are so low that some of its employees qualify for welfare. She wants to be able to form a union with her co-workers to help increase their pay, she said, but Sodexo management has responded with intimidation.
“They tried to give us that $1 raise,” she said, referring to the raise she received in November, “and said if they gave us that $1 raise, they didn’t want us to get a union.”
Dailey cares for her boyfriend, who has multiple sclerosis, but she said when she requested time off from work to care for him, she met resistance from management.
“I requested Sunday off because my boyfriend has MS and I have to take care of him,” she said. “They got mad at me.”
Many Sodexo employees have recently shown that they are willing to follow through with the strikes they voted to approve, said Terasia Bradford, treasurer of OSU United Students Against Sweatshops and an advocate for Sodexo employees. One such strike took place Saturday at the Columbus Crew Stadium.
Joe Musick, 20, has worked for Sodexo since he was 15 years old. He is a stand supervisor at Crew Stadium making $9 per hour and was involved in Saturday’s strike.
“We were striking in response to the unfair labor practices, the treatment of my fellow co-workers and everything that has happened,” Musick said, noting that in his five years with the company, he has received only one raise, which increased his salary by $1 per hour.
A majority of the about 12 employees working that day walked off-site just before the beginning of the soccer game, prompting confusion and ire among managers, Musick said.
“One of the managers actually made a direct comment and said that if any of the workers that were on strike came in and tried to talk to anybody, they would be fired,” he said.
Musick said he and his co-workers have not yet received a response from Sodexo regarding the strike.
Although Musick has worked for Sodexo for five years, he said he is not happy with the way the company treats him.
“If the company portrays this image that they treat their employees very well and that things are good for workers here, that’s not the case,” he said. “As human beings, we deserve to be treated better than this.”
Musick said that when he injured his back, his manager stifled his attempt to receive compensation.
“I, myself, injured my back on the job, and I sat down with my manager and filled out the paperwork for the workman’s (compensation) claim,” he said. “The next day, when I came to work, he told me if I contacted the insurance company to receive payment for it, then he would have to take me off the schedule and didn’t know for how long.”
Musick said his entire family has worked for Sodexo at one point and that they all struggle financially. He said his uncle was recently fired for his involvement in attempts to unionize.
King did not return phone calls seeking comment on allegations Dailey and Musick made.
Bradford said the treatment of Sodexo employees is inexcusable and that OSU has failed to acknowledge the mistreatment of the 24 full-time and about 100 seasonal Sodexo employees who work at the university.
“President (E. Gordon) Gee would rather go to your frat party on Saturday night than sit down and talk to us about this,” she said. “But we aren’t going away. We won’t let them get away with this because this is something the workers are dealing with 365 days a year.”
OSU is taking a neutral position in the situation, said OSU spokesman Jim Lynch.
“Every employer is entitled to its own views on unionization and employee relations, just as every employee is entitled to vote on representation,” Lynch said in an e-mail. “We should not infringe on the rights of either party.”
Lynch said Sodexo has a contingency plan in place should a strike occur.
Musick said he will go on strike again if Sodexo does not respect the needs of its employees.
“I hope that we don’t have to go on strike again,” he said, “but we’ll keep fighting until they recognize us.”
