Citing global human rights abuses, students at the University of Washington are pushing administrators to cut ties with the conglomerate that operates food service at Husky Stadium and Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
On May 11 police arrested 27 University of Washington students after a seven-hour sit-in outside the offices of interim UW President Phyllis Wise.
The students want Wise to terminate the university's five-year, $3.4 million contract with Sodexo North America. It's part of a French company that abuses workers all over the world, including food-service workers in the United States, said Morgan Currier, a member of Students United Against Sweatshops.
The allegations are based in part on a report by TransAfrica Forum, a human rights group, which says Sodexo pays poverty wages and fires workers for trying to form unions. In South America, the company has forced female workers to take pregnancy tests and fed workers spoiled food that made them sick, the report said.
In the United States, Sodexo paid $80 million in 2005 to settle a lawsuit brought by African-American employees, Currier said. Last year, the company paid New York State $20 million for overcharging public schools, she said.