Morehouse College Cafeteria Workers Go On Strike Over Unfair Labor Practices

Morehouse cafeteria workers on strike

The proof that you "OWN SOMETHING" is when labor has some grievances with you.
It is so often easy to take the side of "the little people", painting the owner as the bad guy who is merely out for profit.

Add the condition of the HBCU as yet another example of the critical confluence of interests that serve as a check upon untethered activism.

On the one side you have these cafeteria workers.  Low paid, unskilled workers who are seeking better pay and more certainty that they will have a job as they go through the cycle of starting up for the school year and then paring down for the summer as the campus is largely vacant.  They don't know if they will be needed the next year.

On the other side you have the school's administration.  The bulk of their money comes from the pockets of their customers - the mostly Black male student body that attend this prestigious institution.  Every dollar paid out in salaries is a dollar of increase in the tuitions paid by the students.  For many of these students the existing rate is nearly unaffordable.

These are the real world economic challenges that I prefer to debate.  Take away the "evilization" of one side or the other.  In the real world there are economic trade offs and often no easy answers.  I hope that all parties involved will choose to look at Morehouse's brother institution - Morris Brown College and its present fate.  Though the buildings remain standing - they are mostly empty.   The institution proved to be insolvent.  Thousands of students now have to seek their educational services elsewhere.

There are no "cafeteria workers" today at "Morris Brown College".

Cafeteria workers at Morehouse College went on strike Tuesday to protest Sodexo, the company that provides food services to the Atlanta campus.

The cafeteria has remained open and service to students has not been disrupted, Sodexo officials said.

Strike organizers accused the company of unfair labor practices, low wages and poor working conditions. Christopher Nulty, one of the organizers, said the dispute is directed at Sodexo, not Morehouse.

Company officials said in a statement that they offer affordable benefits to employees and disputed the other accusations.

Morehouse officials declined to comment and referred all media questions to Sodexo.

Workers have voted to hold strikes at other locations staffed by Sodexo, including Tulane University, Loyola University New Orleans and Ohio State University, according to a news release.