Student Government Dining Committee Releases Letter Condemning ‘False Claims and Accusations’

 Four Student Government Senators, who meet weekly with dining management, distributed a letter condemning Sodexo employee and Service Employees International Union claims. (Screenshot)
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UPDATED 3:42 p.m. student response added

Student Government’s Administrative Subcommittee on Dining Services released a letter to George Mason University student media, university relations and university administrators late Thursday night condemning the ‘false claims and accusations’ leveled against Sodexo and Mason Dining by the Service Employees International Union. 

The letter, signed by the dining committee’s four Student Government Senators who meet weekly with dining management in representation of the student body, comes less than a day after over 70 Sodexo employees went on strike and marched on North Plaza, and outlines ‘frivolous claims’ made recently by members of the SEIU at the on-campus protest and march, as well as the union’s Web site.

“Some dining employees that have teamed up with the SEIU have accused dining administrators, such as Resident District Manager Denise Ammaccapane, of not listening or responding to their concerns about low wages, a lack of hours, and insufficient benefits,” the letter reads. “In reality, the workers have never contacted dining administrators to seek help on such matters.”

“We can tell you from frequent meetings with Ms. Ammaccapane, Bill Fry and Peggy Morales that they are some of the most receptive and responsive people when it comes to addressing any student or employee concerns.”

The letter goes on to speak of harassment not by dining management, as the SEIU has previously claimed, but by employees in favor of unionization to other workers with differing opinions.

“This has made for a hostile work environment,” it reads. In reference to Wednesday’s events in which over 70 protesters illegally marched into dining offices underneath Southside, the letter argues that students have been left feeling uneasy as well, through ‘scare tactics and intimidation’ at the hands of SEIU.

The union’s support of Sodexo employees at Mason is only a fraction of a larger nationwide project, Clean Up Sodexo, which has inspired demonstrated protests and sit-ins from Pennsylvania to New Orleans. Recent events on college campuses of the Clean Up Sodexo project, which says its goal is “to shed a new light on how people think about Sodexo,” come amid a transfer of leadership in the SEIU, poor financial status and ebb in growth, according to The Washington Post.

Thursday’s strike, which allegedly grew to over 100 workers, forced dining management to close Taco Bell and Freshen’s early. The new Jazzman’s in the School of Art building was also closed, due to a lack of manpower.

The ‘bottom line’, according the dining committee’s letter, is that while the Senators support the protesters’ first amendment rights, the committee “can attest to the integrity and principles of Mason Dining’s employment and safety practices and the administrators that oversee them.” Wage claims are ‘totally unfounded’, and reduced hours are not ‘unfairly adjusted,’ but the results of low sales in tough economic times.

Further emphasis was placed on the presence of SEIU media personnel at the week’s events, claiming that doing so turns otherwise peaceful protest into ‘unruly commotion’ and a ‘media fiasco’.

Dining Committee Senior Ranking Member Alex Romano, who has served on the committee since October 2008, spoke with Connect2Mason in brief comment after the letter was sent.

“I’m directly involved in this, and this isn’t with everything, [but] if I see something that’s wrong – myself, personally – for lack of better terms, I will go all out in defending the right cause,” said Romano.

CLICK HERE FOR A PDF OF THE LETTER


UPDATED: Many students have commented on the dining committee letter through social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Robert Gehl, a cultural studies doctoral candidate at Mason, submitted this letter in response to the dining committee's claims of representation of the student body.

"Take a deep breath and count the ways in which your lack of Jazzman's coffee for a few hours on a weekday compares to a family's lack of health care and benefits," it reads.