Workers will give update on their fight to address low wages, unaffordable health care, and Sodexo’s unfair labor practices

Community, religious, and elected leaders in the Worcester area, and Clark students, will join Sodexo workers at the university for a campaign briefing on Wednesday, October 13.

The briefing will outline next steps that Clark Sodexo workers, who are supported by the Service Employees International Union, are planning in their months-long fight to improve their lives and the lives of their communities.

Clark Sodexo workers say they want to address ongoing, serious problems at their workplace, citing their low (in some cases, near-poverty) wages, an unaffordable company-offered health plan priced beyond the reach of many Clark Sodexo employees, and Sodexo’s pattern of intimidating, interfering with, and restraining U.S. Sodexo workers who are seeking to form a union.

Protests against intimidation of union supporters, substandard wages, and working conditions at Sodexo have broken out at colleges and other sites across the country in recent weeks, including at George Mason University in Virginia, Morehouse College in Atlanta, Tulane University in New Orleans, in the Highland Park, New Jersey school district, and at major league soccer venue Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio.

WHAT: Briefing on Sodexo workers’ campaign for a better future at Clark University

WHEN: 10 a.m., Wednesday, October 13, 2010

WHERE: Red Square, Clark University campus, Worcester, MA
(near the statue of Sigmund Freud)

WHO: Clark Sodexo workers and leaders from SEIU Local 615, joined by community,
religious, student and elected leaders who support Sodexo Clark workers’ fight to improve their communities

VISUALS: Clark Sodexo workers will display thousands of petitions from the Worcester community and across the state, supporting their struggle.

* SEIU Local 615 represents 17,000 property service workers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.