At the heart of Howard University’s dining halls are Sodexo employees, cooking and serving food to students while leaving lasting impressions on the Bison community.

However, concerns surrounding the mistreatment of Sodexo cafe employees have re-emerged. Students and staff have protested and planned demonstrations in support of the dining hall staff taking place on Howard’s campus.

A more recent example of this action was a protest held on Feb. 7 in front of the Armour J. Blackburn University Center in which they demanded higher pay and justice for Sodexo employee, Mr. Pierre who was recently terminated. 

Here are the experiences of employees and students and their feelings about Howard University’s dining halls, in their own words.

Subject: Ms. Hollis, a Sodexo employee 

How long have you been a Howard employee?

“A lot of years.”

What are the best and worst aspects of your job?

“The worst thing is the door opening when it’s cold outside. The best thing is when my sweeties and my pumpkins come in when I see my babies coming in.”

Do you feel Sodexo employees are treated fairly?

“No.”

What is your pay rate?

“$17.60 when everyone should be making $20 and over when you been here for years.”

How is the work environment?

“You have your ups and your downs, I guess it depends on what mood the manager is in when you come in here.”

What can be done by the administration to fix the relationship between Sodexo, yourself, and your colleagues?

“I think they can, well I think if they wanted to be fair you should treat everybody how you wanted to be treated. People come to work to do a job not to be disrespected.”

How does this treatment make you feel? 

“Well, when they do things just makes you feel disrespected, they don’t respect you.”

Do you have anything else the public should know?

“I feel Sodexo is being unfair to their employees. We are the glue that keeps your company going, if you take away us you still have to bring more glue. You have to treat us like human beings.”

Subject: Jayden Cartwright, a junior at Howard University

How often do you eat in the cafe? 

“Two to three times a week.”

What do you think the cafe workers’ pay is?

“I hope it’s good enough obviously it’s a lot of things that go on behind the scenes. They should get incentivized for what they do. More needs to be done but I don’t know how much more.”

How do you feel towards the cafe workers? 

“I know a couple of them. I say hi out of respect. As students, we should know it’s not their obligation to feed us. Once you pop in more and more that’s how you build a relationship.”

Do you think Sodexo employees are treated fairly?

“I would say no, but I think that’s the purpose of this interaction right now if people were treated fairly I wouldn’t be being interviewed.”

What should be done to fix the problem?

“I think the university should engage in conversations that are uncomfortable.  A lot of workers expressed their frustration, the principle of being not only heard, not just listened to.”

Subject: Aaron McIntyre, a freshman at Howard University and attendee of prior demonstrations regarding Sodexo workers 

How often do you eat in the cafe?

“Every day, two to three times a day.”

What do you think the cafe worker’s pay is?

“I know based on what they talk about, I’ve overheard people talking about struggling to afford housing right now so it’s definitely not a liveable wage.”

How do you feel towards the cafe workers?

“I actually love them. I am a musician and Ms. Hollis asks me when new stuff is coming out and what I’m working on every time I see her.”

Do you think Sodexo employees are treated fairly? 

“Not at all um even hearing conversations that happened here in Punch Out I’ve more than heard conversations of how they’re disrespected and overworked and always on their feet. They are definitely not treated respectfully.”

What should be done to fix the problem?

The university needs to ensure job security for unionizing, so at this point, their jobs are still up on the line when they try to do actions. Even if the university doesn’t agree with their actions, which they should, they need to at least be secure in their jobs. 

I reached out to the Howard University Office of University Communications as well as the Howard University Office of Human Resources for an official statement and they did not provide any comments. 

As concerns of unjust pay and unhealthy work environments remain, Sodexo employees and Howard University students continue to make their voices heard.