Students support housekeepers

Attempt to present petition for better working conditions rejected

By: Erika E. Perez

Posted: 2/25/10

A group of 30 students grew to approximately 50 as Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA), Hispanic Student Association (HSA) and Minority Caucus members paraded their way from outside the LEAP office toward Director of Facilities Ken Bohan's maintenance shop, showing support of Whittier College housekeepers' presentation of a petition last Friday, Febuary 19.

Bohan was not in his office when 11 workers, 50 student supporters, two campaign organizers and other members of the Whittier College community stood outside his office.
Bohan told the crowd to "get out" of the maintenance shop prior to calling Campus Safety.  When prompted, Bohan refused to accept or acknowledge the housekeepers' attempt to present the petition.
"There is no such thing as a petition," Bohan said.

He then walked into his office and Union Leader Ankush Dhupar started the group's chant, "We'll be back!"
The petition stated "that Sodexo prevent workplace injuries by providing adequate staffing and [guaranteeing] immediate access to medical attention for all work-related injuries and respect doctor-ordered work restrictions as required by state law."

"Workers are unionizing first because of the unlivable salaries. Secondly, the lack of healthcare and then the category of respect in general," Dhupar said. "There's a lack of respect to the workers. [The housekeepers] have realized a way to get what they want is to form a labor union like janitors and other service employees have."
This petition has been the housekeepers' attempt to stand up to unfair working conditions, their health and heavy work load problems that arose when Sodexo, a world leader in facilities management services was hired as Whittier College's new facilities management.

"I have 16 years [working for Sodexo] and since the Sodexo company came in around September of last year, they are not treating us with respect," Housekeeper Graciela Torres said. "We pay $200 out of our paychecks every two weeks for insurance. And last year, the doctor put me on working restrictions, but they made me do the same work I always did, even if it wasn't light work." Housekeeper Hortencia Quiñonez also said, "We have to give two weeks' notice before we take a day off to go to the doctor."

Other complaints housekeepers have made include having to do more work and put in extra time cleaning without pay.

"When another co-worker has a sick day, I have to finish my work and then do her work," Quiñonez said. "It's like doing double the work in my work day without extra pay." The workers have tried to express their stress with the workload, but no changes have been made. "When I told my boss [Custodial Manager] Yolanda Rodriguez, she would say we have no option because it is our job and we have to do it."

An issue that instigated students to get more involved in the workers' attempt to unionize was the emphasis on housekeepers being separated from the students as opposed to being part of the community.

"We have 10 minutes to get our lunch from the C.I. and go back to our lunch room because we are not allowed to eat where students eat," Quiñonez said. "Last Friday, I had a headache because I did not think the 10 minutes would be enough to get my food so I did not eat."

As a response to this, MEChA started a petition to show that students did not have a problem with workers eating at the C.I. or The Spot.

"The petition is still going around and we are going to send it to the Sodexo manager and President Hertzberger," sophomore MEChA President Wendy Barrios said. "We want the workers to have a suitable place to eat and better working conditions because they are a part of our community."

Other Whittier College students have also joined in to support the housekeepers.
"Supporting the workers at our school is an opportunity to demonstrate the humanistic values that we, as liberal arts students, often boast about. senior Alle Kamela said. "There's no energy like that you feel when working on something you care about like this."

Whittier College housekeepers are not the only ones having trouble with treatment of workers at Sodexo companies. A New York Times article about American workers' attempt to speak at Sodexo's annual general meeting in France was published on Jan. 24. The American workers, which include Housekeeper Isabel Grijalba from Whittier College, were allowed to introduce themselves, but were not allowed to continue talking once they brought up their issues with their work environment.

Dhupar explained that Sodexo employees from Fullerton College, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Centinela Hospital in Inglewood, University of Southern California and other locations are having the same problems.
"It's a national and international campaign. "Workers in the U.S. and other countries are saying exactly the same thing," Dhupar said. "Workers have gone directly to them and supervisors are basically putting their fingers in their ears and saying 'lalalala.' All the workers are saying, 'Sodexo you have to be a responsible employer everywhere.'"
Bohan and Rodriguez were contacted by the Quaker Campus and responded with, "No comment."

The housekeepers at our school have expressed their gratitude to students who are getting involved and are supporting them.

Students who are interested in supporting and helping or finding out more information about the subject are encouraged to attend Friday's meeting at 12:30 p.m. inside the Cultural Center.

"We want students to be aware that Sodexo is not living up to its standards and is hurting our workers," junior Donna Orozco, who will be leading the discussion, said. "We want to properly address this by doing our research on the company and letting Sodexo know that we will not tolerate unjustified or inhumane treatment of the workers who clean our buildings."
For those who are unable to attend the meeting there are other ways to show support for this cause.

"Students can make a difference in working conditions by making positive changes to how they live in the residence halls, dispose of waste, speak to the employees, and interact with them," Director of the Cultural Center Joy Hoffman said. "Students can make a difference simply by remembering that Sodexo employees are human beings with feelings and rights."

More information on the workers' move to change Sodexo's policy can be found at cleanupsodexo.org.