Local Sodexho employees picket

Employees of Sodexho serving the Recovery School District and Loyola and Tulane Universities have been picketing to publicize complaints about low wages and other grievances.

Grades, jobs and all that

The New York Times reports at least ten law schools, including Tulane have adjusted their grading systems upward - retroactively! Largely viewed as a way to rescue recent grads floundering in a tough job market, it seems band-aid weird to me. Teaching students how to provide value to employers and clients rather than grading reform would be a more substantive fix.

Walkin' in New Orleans

Yesterday was another gorgeous spring day, and late in the afternoon my daughter and I walked through the Tulane campus, and as the glory of spring was overcoming me, I heard in the distance a speaker demanding economic justice and the right to organize. Seems Sodexo workers at Tulane and Loyola need street demonstrations to pump support for their agenda. While I could only hear bits of the appeal as I walked, CLEAN UP SODEXO has a post about it. The part where the guy making $8.12 an hour says he's had only a 24¢ and 12¢ raise in five years seems a little odd. In 2005, the minimum wage was $5.15/hr. I guess the real dollars received as a result of the minimum wage rising to its current level ($7.25) are not real raises. Thats not to say that $8.12 an hour is a living wage, but my bet is that the complaining worker has seen a lot more than 36¢ in raises in the last five years.

Sodexo engages City Council

Tulane, Loyola and Recovery School District Sodexo workers took their complaints about their employer to City Hall, and afterwards to a public rally with other politicians. The SEIU is attempting to organize these workers.

Sodexo in NOLA

Sodexo workers at Tulane and Loyola universities are targeted by the SEIU according to Tulane's Hullabaloo online.