Ali Shahbazi has been working in the cafeteria at Robarts library for over twelve years, and still makes less than $10 an hour. He is one of over 200 non-unionized food-service employees who work on the U of T campuses. Shahbazi and many of his co-workers are fed up with their employer, French multi-national Sodexho, and are in the process of trying to set up a union to represent them.
Unionization of Sodexho at U of T has been an ongoing process over the past summer, and a major hurdle in the process was cleared in late July when five U of T Sodexho employees submitted a petition asking the management to allow unionization activities to continue without interference. The petition asked the management to “refrain from threatening workers or holding meetings to dissuade workers from organizing.” It goes on to request the Sodexho “maintain an atmosphere free from pressure, intimidation and harassment,” and that it “agree to recognize our [u]nion.” Approximately thirty workers signed the petition.
According to Patricia Chong, organizer for UNITE-HERE (the union the employees are looking to join; it stands for the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees & Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees), the next step in the unionization process is getting the majority of workers to sign a second petition authorizing UNITE-HERE to become the collective bargaining agent for the employees. UNITE-HERE represents approximately 50,000 Canadian workers employed in a variety of sectors, including the hotel, garment, and food-service industries.
Every Sodexho employee interviewed by The Varsity said they didn’t feel Sodexho’s management team respected them, and many were reluctant to talk openly about their employer for fear of reprisal. Most staff members alleged low wages, favouritism, racial discrimination, high staff turnover among employees and managers, and inconsistencies in scheduling and hours as the main reasons why they are angry with the management.
The general manager of U of T Sodexho, Hadi Chahin, dismisses most of the workers allegations outright. When asked about the claims of racial discrimination, Chahin was unequivocal: “There is no racial discrimination at Sodexho,” he said. He also told The Varsity that the allegations of favoritism are unfounded: He confirmed that Sodexho has a company-wide policy stating only individuals with university degrees are promoted to management, but also said that the company’s internal promotion practices are “fair.”
As for complaints of low pay, Chahin said the wages Sodexho pays its employees at U of T are “above industry standard” and “competitive for the food-service industry.” He also said he had personally undertaken a review of the wage rates at U of T Sodexho, and believes that the current wages being paid are “fair and consistent.” He noted that unionized Sodexho locations at other university campuses-such as Queens University in Kingstong-pay their workers “comparable wages” to those paid at U of T.
Chahin seemed reflective when asked why his employees appear not to respect company management. “We have an open door policy, and employees are free to come to the management with any of their concerns,” he said. When asked directly why he thought employees were trying to unionize, he wouldn’t comment, only noting it was their right to do so. He also refused to say if Sodexho would recognize UNITE-HERE as the collective bargaining agent for the U of T Sodexho employees if a petition were presented requesting it.
Chahin also said that union organizers have not been up front in dealing with Sodexho employees. He accused UNITE-HERE organizers of “harassment” in trying to get employees to sign on to the union. He said that new employees were contacted by union organizers at their homes, and the new employees told the management they didn’t know how union organizers had obtained thier contact information.
Chong disagrees with Chahin’s assessment of the union’s tactics to recruit more petition signatures.
“Workers talking to other workers is not harassment,” said Chong. She also said that what other unionized Sodexho employees are being paid in other parts of Canada is immaterial. “If workers at U of T can’t survive on the wages they are being paid, then there is a problem”
When asked if he thought employees with children living in the GTA could survive on the wages paid to full-time Sodexho employees, Chahin said “I’m not saying it’s easy. It’s just the nature of the food-service business.”
University administration appears to be supporting the employees’ cause. While the administration generally steers clear commenting on the labor issues of its subcontractors, Vice President Human Resources and Equity Angela Hildyard declared U of T a “union friendly environment” in an open letter to Chahin. She noted that the Sodexho employees are the only workers on campus without representation. “The vast majority of the University’s non-academic employees are represented by trade unions,” she said.
Sodexho’s labor practices have been widely criticized, mostly in the United States. The company employs approximately 7000 people in Canada. It has been the defendant in a class action racial discrimination law suit filed in the United States. In granting class action certification to the litigation, the judge in the case, Ellen Segal Huvelle, said the plaintiffs (a group of former and current African American Sodexho managers) had made “a significant showing” of a “common policy of racial discrimination” at Sodexho locations in the United States.
According to the Sodexho Canada’s website, the company has been the target of union pressure tactics, and is under attack because “union membership rates in the U.S. have declined sharply.” Thirteen percent of Sodexho’s US workforce is unionized, compared with 48 percent in Canada.
