Ben Smidt

A petition entitled “UWEC says no to Sodexho” was delivered to Vice Chancellor Andy Soll Thursday with 624 signatures and became the centerpiece of the Chancellor’s Roundtable discussion later that day.

The petition was based on information that Sodexho is involved with private prisons, said senior Chrissy Smith, president of Amnesty International. However, with many students concerned about Sodexho’s involvement with private prisons, public relations director of Sodexho, Leslie Aun, cleared up many misconceptions.

“Sodexho does not own prisons anywhere in the world. We are not in the business of owning prisons,” Aun said.

Many students at the roundtable said they felt that they did not have a fair chance to express their opinion until the university was in contract negotiations with Sodexho.

Sophomore Nate Keiser, director of Student Senate’s Student Services, was a member of the committee who chose Sodexho. He said half of the committee consisted of students. The rest of the student body had opportunities to participate through surveys and open forums, he said.

Student Senate President Sarah Schuh, also a member of the committee, said there was low attendance at the open forums. Schuh, a sophomore, said she also told students they were the allies in this and encouraged them to bring their comments forward throughout the remainder of the process.

Concerns about the new campus food service provider were also expressed by employees of Chartwells, the campus’s current provider. Members of Local Union #517 questioned the reasoning behind having to be re-interviewed. ÿ

Terry O’Leary, human resources director for campus services of Sodexho, said all of the current Chartwells employees will be interviewed. “We need to identify skills and put people in the right positions,” he said, adding that not everyone will remain in the same jobs.

Sherry Wold, a member of the union since 1978, said that is not how the process was in the past. Working for five different food service providers, Wold said employees were never re-interviewed; they just took the same jobs. This is the first time it’s come up, she said.

“We’ve become a family here,” said Tiffany Watkins, a member of union #517. “We want to make sure you remember the workers that put in the time to get the best service you can get.”

Aun described the history of Sodexho as first providing food services to prisons in France in the mid 1980s. In the mid 1990s it entered in an agreement with Corrections Corporation of America.

Sodexho became a shareholder of CCA and entered a 50/50 partnership with CC Australia and a 50/50 stake in U.K. Detention Services. ÿ

Sodexho became a financial partner of Deer Park prison in Australia. CCA managed the facility and allegedly had significant issues, Aun said.

The partnership seemed to be working out, Aun said, but then Sodexho became aware of controversies over CCA’s business practices.ÿ Sodexho determined after consideration that their business practices and philosophy were not the same.

“In June of 2000, we took the first step in ending our relations with CCA by buying out their shares,” Aun said.

In June of 2001, Sodexho sold all of the CCA stock and no longer has any business ties with CCA.

“Once we became aware of it, we severed the relationship right away. We’re not perfect, but we got out as quickly as possible,” Aun said.

Sodexho also took over and was awarded the contract for Acacia prison in Australia, a technologically advanced, good facility, she said. At about the same time Sodexho won the contract for Forest Bank prison in the U.K.ÿAun said the prison was considered to have good cleanliness, good relations between guards and inmates and all of the things you’d hope you’d find.

Aun stresses that all the prisons are owned by government.

“We take credit for the good stuff in Acacia and the facility in the U.K., which have been operated by us,” Aun said. “They have been under our management. We feel that our management of these facilities are trying to improve the quality of daily life.”

Currently, Sodexho provides the support services for Forest Bank and Acacia prisons. However, it does not provide the justice for these prisons, Aun said. The government is on site to provide the justice. It simply provides food, medical care, ground services, programs to cope with depression, teachers and any other support services. Aun also said the services provided at these prisons represents only 1 percent of Sodexho’s income.

Regardless of the outcome of the contracts, union members made it clear they want to remain informed about the future of their jobs. However, it is currently illegal for Sodexho to talk to employees of Chartwells because they are under a contract.

“As soon as we have an agreement, we’ll move forward as quickly as possible,” O’Leary said.