Sodexo fires back at Service Employees International Union

Sodexo has issued a response following a rally by some its cafeteria workers at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine today, targeting local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union for its involvement in the employees’ effort to unionize.

Sodexo’s Director of Public Relations Alfred King said the SEIU is leading a smear campaign against the food service company.

 

“The SEIU wants Sodexo to give up our employees’ ability to choose, through a federally-supervised secret ballot election, whether they want this, or any union, to represent them,” King said in a statement.

He said Sodexo encourages employees to use a secret ballot vote in deciding whether to form a union and that it “respects the rights of our employees to join a union or not, as they choose.”

King said more than 15 percent of the French company is unionized and says the average hourly wage for PCOM workers is competitive.

The employees staged a walk-off today at 12:30, demanding they be allowed to unionize to earn better wages.