Sodexo great for Gonzaga

Like many students, I was alarmed by Jake Palmer's article "Sodexo accused of labor abuses."  Alarmed by the unconcealed bias and hastily drawn conclusions contained within, the facts are this:  One woman in the Dominican Republic was fired for allegedly attempting to start a union.  Sodexo claimed it was for poor work performance.  Regardless, this is a single employee out of 380,000, and it is essentially her word against Sodexo's.  Also, the new regional manager of Sodexo on campus recently cut employee hours in order to make more money.  Because of these two assertions, according to the article, we should kick Sodexo off of our campus.

I am almost certain that cutting back work hours when it is cost-effective is a universal practice of all managers in all professions that utilize hourly wages.  But I am even more certain that the controversial firing of an employee in the Dominican Republic has no implications for Sodexo here at Gonzaga.  As a Sodexo employee, I know that Sodexo buys its staff work shoes (worth $25).  Every Thursday in the main office at the COG when I hand them their paychecks, I see a diverse, happy, hard-working group of people, many of whom have worked at Sodexo for decades, enjoying the benefits that few small businesses can match.  They work hard because they are inspired by a management that appreciates them, gets to know them as people, and is concerned for their general well-being.  

Advocating the removal of Sodexo from campus because of an anti-corporate zeal to take on "the man" and save the oppressed is a misplaced goal at Gonzaga.