“"The idea is, if we're going to be building an ethics institute, I think it's really time that we put our money where our mouth is," Evans said, "and live these so-called ethics in our everyday lives, not just in our words and buildings." - Strike at DePaw University, Indiana
1. Long-term consumption of Sodexo cafeteria food is unhealthy for students.
2. Sodexo Inc. has agreed to pay $20 million to settle claims that it overcharged 21 New York school districts and the State University of New York over a five-year span. ...breached a food and vendor services contract by failing to pass on rebates from suppliers to SUNY campuses and 21 public schools across the state between 2004 and 2009. The settlement, part of an ongoing industry-wide investigation, was unsealed in federal court in Massachusetts on Tuesday.
3. Campaign contributions in the USA The Centre for Public Integrity lists Sodexho as having contributed £25,632 to the political campaigns between 1990 and the fiscal year ending 2002. Over that same period, the company won federal contracts worth $23,456,000, including military contracts to cater for marines in Afghanistan and Iraq.
4. In 2005, Sodexo lost almost $80 million settling a claim brought about by thousands of African-American employees who accused the company of barring them from promotion.
5. The Sodexo Corporation, which provides the food on campus, once owned an 8% stake in Corrections Corporation of America.
6. In 2000, in a closed-door deal, CCA (above) sold its 50% share of the prison company, United Kingdom Detention Services, to Sodexho, which already owned the other 50%
7. Sodexo’s subsidiaries work with governments to design, build, and finance new prisons across the world.
8. Sodexo owns 91 correctional facilities in the UK, Australia, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and the Netherlands.
9. owns the infamous Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre in London. Harmondsworth opened in 2001 and houses 550 detainees, some of whom are children as young as age four.
10. Sodexo also contracts with natural resource-exploiting companies such as BP, Amoco, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Occidental Petroleum, Shell, Texaco, Bechtel, Daewoo, Hyundai, Caspian Drilling, Rio Tinto, and Halliburton.
11. Sodexo collaborated with the federal government of Nigeria and its international partners in clearing 35 hectares of virgin mangrove forest on the southern edge of Rivers State in the Niger Delta, placing indigenous Ijaw community under severe threat.
12. They are totally integral to the government's 'privatization of public services' drive, happily taking on unpopular sectors with gusto.
13. Still heavily involved with the prison industry in the UK and Australia.
14. 4/27/2010 - 200 Sodexo Cafeteria Workers at the UPitt Walk Off to Protest Intimidation & Unaffordable Health Care (this strike is one of five recent strikes across the country, including: George Mason University in Virginia, Tulane and Loyola Universities in New Orleans, and the Pittsgrove Township School District in New Jersey )
References:
Title:http://media.www.thedepauw.com/media/storage/paper912/news/2006/09/19/News/Students.Plan.Sodexho.Boycott-2287807.shtml Indiana strike
1. http://www.queensjournal.ca/story/2009-01-19/editorials/make-meal-plan-optional/
2.http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2010/07/21/sodexo_to_pay_20m_for_overcharging_ny_schools/
3. http://www.crocodyl.org/wiki/sodexho_alliance
4. http://dailyuw.com/2010/11/30/slap-vs-sodexo/
5. http://tcnjperspective.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/sodexo/
6. http://tcnjperspective.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/sodexo/
7. http://tcnjperspective.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/sodexo/
8. http://tcnjperspective.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/sodexo/
9. http://tcnjperspective.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/sodexo/
10. http://issuu.com/tcnjperspective/docs/issue1
11. http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=834
12. http://www.crocodyl.org/wiki/sodexho_alliance
13. http://www.crocodyl.org/wiki/sodexho_alliance
14. http://www.seiu.org/2010/04/200-sodexo-cafeteria-workers-at-the-upitt-walk-off-to-protest-intimidation-unaffordable-health-care.php
World Learning's Mission Statement:
“World Learning works globally to enhance the capacity and commitment of individuals, institutions and communities to create a more peaceful and just world.”
-http://blogs.worldlearning.org/now/2009/12/08/2009-celebrating-a-year-of-mission-driven-success/
“World Learning promotes international and intercultural understanding, democracy, social justice and economic development through education, training, and field projects around the globe. In the fulfillment of this mission, we prepare individuals, institutions, and communities to be inspiring and effective leaders of change”
- http://blogs.sit.edu/graduate-institute/2009/02/12/sit-graduate-institute-mission-statement/
Sodexo does not and has never represented this vision.
“World Learning’s power to achieve our mission lies in you, the hundreds of thousands of people in our network who dedicate their lives, in ways both large and small, to achieving positive social change in this world.” - Adam Weinberg
We cannot achieve positive social change in this world by supporting Sodexo that feeds us and maintain our grounds here at home base.
“The mission of the SIT Graduate Institute is to prepare students to be interculturally effective leaders, professionals, and citizens. In so doing, SIT fosters a worldwide network of individuals and organizations committed to responsible global citizenship.”
-http://blogs.sit.edu/graduate-institute/2009/02/12/sit-graduate-institute-mission-statement/
World Learning's Adam Weinberg also works to do “creative and innovative work to address global poverty.”(http://blogs.worldlearning.org/now/2010/11/18/thank-you-from-world-learning/ )
Workers for Sodexo nationwide in the United States make incomes that are well below the poverty level and qualify for government assistance.
Our leadership here at SIT Graduate Institute has been bought into the multi-national, corporate world of Sodexo – a company that shreds the values of our school and our mission.
The workers on campus were not notified of the changes until mid-semester, Fall 2010 – the administration made the decisions well before the information was given to employees and students.
Sodexo claims to have "changed their ways" and are offering us "what we want" by searching out and utilizing local farms "when they can."
HOWEVER:
Sodexo's current behavior does not absolve them of the responsibility for the behaviors they have maintained and are currently maintaining.
Sodexo has accumulated its power due to the path of injustice and domination. It may have changed names (formally Sodexho) and sold its shares (in the US) in some unpopular ventures, yet we must remember Sodexo's history, remember our missions, and how they do not harmonize in the least.
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