In corporate America, there are countless stories of workers who are underpaid and of large businesses treating their employees — their lifeblood — unfairly.
It’s a symptom of the money-driven world in which we live, a symptom of something that goes beyond just one higher education institution in the Southern Tier.
But that does not mean that the Binghamton University community can condone or turn a blind eye to what Sodexo, the contracted food service supplier on campus, is attempting to do in our own dining halls.
In negotiations of a new contract, Sodexo is asking its employees to pay 25 percent of their health care, money Sodexo believes its workers can find amidst their already meager wages. The stories of John and Mike, Sodexo employees, should be telling (see Page 1).
Binghamton University, “The Premier Public in the Northeast,” wants to shrug off responsibility for the actions of a company it allows on campus.
“The negotations are between Sodexo and their employees,” said a University spokesman.
Just stand aside and plead dumb — from breadth through depth to abhorrent ignorance.
BU students feel a bond with their dining hall workers. You see the same people every day, you learn their names and you appreciate the work they do. Apparently, the corporation and the University reaping the profits from their hard work can’t do the same.
Today at the polls and in all the campaigning that led to Election Day, health care has been a divisive issue. But there’s no question here.
Sodexo needs to not only scrap any plans to force employees to pay for their own health care, but increase its wages and treat its workers like decent people. And Binghamton University needs to realize that all of its actions speak to its integrity, not just the propaganda it releases on its Web site, and not just the grants its researchers are able to land.
Wait until the Fiske Guide to Colleges gets a load of this.