While Republican union busters await their demise in Wisconsin, students in Georgia have taken up the torch of workers' rights. In a shocking development on a usually peaceful campus, Emory university administrators decided to have pro-union Emory students arrested for their multi-day protest of Sodexo's treatment of food service employees. Sodexo has a long and ignominious history of union busting and mistreatment of food service workers on university campuses across the country. Much as I would love to credit Emory University students for pioneering the movement against Sodexo, this truly has become a nationwide student backlash against the company. But the excellently organized Emory group, Students and Workers in Solidarity (SWS), has made me and other students realize that union busters do not only work in the State Houses, but also in our own open-minded campuses.
The controversy began in earnest with calls on Emory President Wagner to terminate Sodexo's contract to service the student cafeterias. President Wagner answered with a thoughtful yet ultimately inadequate response explaining his refusal to form a panel to look at the Sodexo conflict in detail. If there were complaints about Sodexo at just one university, their continuous denials might be believable. But there have been problems at nearby Georgia Tech and faraway Tulane, Ohio State, Loyola, and Denver universities. The choice to form a union is easily stonewalled by Sodexo. The Senate filibsuter of the Employee Free Choice Act prevented the creation of binding arbitration that would have bound employers and employees to negotiate so that neither side could run out the clock on union formation. And so, the fighting between employers and employees continues indefinitely.
Two weeks ago SWS organized a rally against Sodexo that brought the esteemed Reverend Joe Lowery and State Senator Vincent Fort to speak on campus. A few former Sodexo employees spoke about the management's unjust practices. Last night, seven students on the Emory quad were arrested for having set up signs and occupying tents in protest of Sodexo's contract. This should not have happened. An Emory Wheel editorial quoted Emory's stated mission: “create, preserve, teach and apply knowledge in the service of humanity." It is easy to support students when they agree with university administration, but it a true test of a university's character to live up to its mission during times of discord. This arrest of student protestors sent exactly the wrong message.
I am a blogger for Students for a New American Politics, a PAC created to have student voices heard. Please check out our website. Please recommend for increased student involvement in politics.