Dining service workers at Rollins College, employed by Sodexo, gathered at an anti-union rally on campus last week, just two weeks after employees filed a petition to unionize. But workers who support the unionization effort allege that the event was orchestrated by management.
About 25 people attended the “No Union” rally last Tuesday, ostensibly to demonstrate opposition to unionizing with Unite Here Local 362, a hospitality workers union that represents thousands of workers across Florida, including Sodexo food service employees at Disney World.
Workers gathered outside of the Bush Science Center at the college in Winter Park, and marched around the campus holding signs with phrases such as “No Union,” “Stop Dictatorship” and “Groovin’ Without a Union.”
But several of the “no-union” attendees, including a senior supervisor who led the rally and who notified Orlando Weekly of the event, were management-level Sodexo employees who likely wouldn’t be eligible for union representation anyway.
“It was bullshit,” Mateo Herrera, a Sodexo dining service worker who has vocally supported the union effort, told Orlando Weekly. “The people who were there? Most of them were managers.”
Some of them were likely rank and file workers who'd be eligible for union membership, he conceded, but he believes that some might have been on the clock, and thus paid — and potentially coerced by management — to be there.
T-shirts decorated with the words “No Union” covered with a red circle and slash (so, “yes union”?) were distributed among the small group of mostly Black and Hispanic workers, ranging in age, who attended.
Orlando Weekly sent a list of questions to the Sodexo management team at Rollins College last week, and called and left multiple voicemails for the team regarding these allegations, but did not receive a response prior to publication
Federal labor law strictly prohibits employers from interfering with the formation of a union, and protects workers' rights to form a union, or to choose not to, free from intimidation or coercion by their employer.
Sodexo, a French food and facilities management company that's worth billions, has a long history of deploying anti-union tactics, although the company consistently denies allegations of anti-union behavior.
In February, Sodexo told Orlando Weekly that they respect employees’ decision to unionize or not to unionize, pointing to the hundreds of contracts they have with Unite Here locals and other labor unions across the country. For instance, the company recently agreed to a contract with Unite Here Local 737 for its Orange County Convention Center food-service employees.
Pro-union Sodexo employees at the Rollins College campus, however, have shared a different story about the company's response to the organizing effort, and students and faculty of the college, located just outside of Orlando, have rallied behind them to support their right to a free and fair union election process.
“We believe as Rollins students that a fair and free election is what the workers deserve,” Mikhail Guchkov, a 20-year old Rollins College student, said to a group of about 50 at a student-organized rally in support of workers' rights on Wednesday.
That rally was organized by a coalition of student groups, including the Young Democratic Socialists of America at Rollins College, the Black Student Union, the Muslim Student Union, and Spectrum, a group for LGBTQ+ students and allies.
“A union is about the workers,” Guchkov said, acknowledging that it’s not up to the students to decide whether union representation is the right choice for the workers, but for those who cook and serve their food, and who clean the cafeterias on campus.
“It is about them voting, and it is about them choosing it in the end. If they decide they don't want it, that is up to them,” Guchkov said. “But if they decide that they do want it, we want it to be so that they don’t have any sort of pushback.”
A group of about 50 students and faculty marched around the campus, alternating between chants in English — "What's disgusting? Union busting!" — and chants in Spanish, the native language of many of the employees — "El pueblo unido jamás será vencido" ("The people united will never be defeated").
Multiple workers who are supportive of the union effort told Orlando Weekly that management has surveilled workers, intimidated workers, and — since launching the organizing campaign — has scheduled some of them for fewer hours, prompting some to seek additional work elsewhere.
Herrera, a young part-time employee who also studies at the University of Central Florida, joked that he’s “just struggling with the broke-ness” before adding that he does feel fortunate to have scholarships and loans that help him stay afloat.
Dining service workers employed by Sodexo at Rollins College — which is itself a wealthy, non-unionized institution — generally make around $15 per hour, with some making more and others less.
A living wage in Orange County, where the college is located, is an estimated $18.85 for a single adult with no children, provided you’re paying less than $1200 in rent per month.
And wages, according to some, can often remain stagnant.
“I’ve heard stories of workers here that have worked here for 20 years and still have a wage of $15 an hour, which is an utterly unlivable wage,” said Liam Gundy, a Sodexo employee.
“I’ve witnessed management ripping, like violently ripping [pro-union] flyers off the walls, I’ve seen many lies expressed by management to try and suppress the voices of the workers,” Gundy added.
Inconsistent scheduling, inadequate healthcare benefits, and preferential status for some employees are other issues workers involved in the organizing drive have voiced.
Rollins College confirmed to Orlando Weekly that they approved both the “pro” and “no” union events last week, but would not reveal who organized the "no" event.
It’s unclear how much anti-union sentiment there actually is among workers who would be eligible to vote on union representation, or if some of those who attended the "no" union event were even aware they wouldn't be eligible for union membership.
Eric Clinton, president of Unite Here Local 362, told Orlando Weekly last week that a majority of workers had signed petitions in support of unionization.
At least 30% support from eligible employees is required to file a petition for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board.
What the “no-union” folks are saying
One of the most vocal anti-union employees who attended and spearheaded the "No Union" rally on Tuesday was Barbara Penaroque, a senior supervisor for Sodexo at Rollins who wouldn’t be eligible for union representation, according to the NLRB petition submitted by workers.
Penaroque initially contacted Orlando Weekly about the rally with the message: "Read your story on the union at rollins college with sodexo and there is another side to the story. There will be a non union rally On Tuesday April 18th from 2:30-4 With actual Sodexo employees and not fake union stand ins."
A Sodexo employee of over 20 years, Penaroque reeled off a laundry list of concerns about unionization.
One of those concerns, for instance, regarded union dues, which are traditionally paid by union members to support a union’s activities, including collective bargaining.
“We’re paying them money out of our paychecks to support their salaries,” she told Orlando Weekly, referring to union staff.
Because Florida is a right to work state, however, workers represented by Unite Here on-campus would not be required to pay union dues. Workers could voluntarily choose to pay union dues (typically representing a very small percentage of a worker's paycheck), but doing so would not be required in order for them to share in the protections of a union contract, such as scheduled raises and job benefits.
Penaroque added, to grunts of frustration and head-shaking from those gathered at the rally, that union staff all make over $100,000 annually — well above what the average Sodexo employee earns.
This is also not true. Union staff salaries are public record — anyone can look them up (including those anti-union ralliers). According to the public record records, there is not a single Unite Here Local 362 staffer who had a gross income of $100,000 in 2022.
Penaroque was also concerned about the implications of a worker strike, although it’s unclear when and if that would ever occur. “If they [the union] strike, then we all have to strike,” she told Orlando Weekly.
Worker strikes, however, have to be authorized by union membership through a vote.
Plus, the national Unite Here labor union and Unite Here Local 362 have strike funds, which (while not always able to cover the entirety of lost wages) can help compensate for lost pay during a strike.
In addition, “no-strike” provisions, which bar unionized workers from going on strike for the duration of a contract, are common in unions' collective bargaining agreements, including some of those here in Orlando.
The Walt Disney Company, for instance, which also contracts Sodexo workers represented by Unite Here Local 362, includes such a provision.
“I think the biggest point we want to get across is we’re not being mistreated,” Penaroque told Orlando Weekly, which previously reported on subpar wages and paltry benefits Sodexo workers receive.
Although Penaroque is concerned about paying those union dues, she doesn’t think their wages at the college are insufficient, and believes it’s about on par with what other employers in the region offer for similar work.
Afi Stewart, a sous chef of four years at Rollins, said she's happy with what she gets out of her workplace as is, and doesn’t want union representation.
“Everybody loves working here,” Stewart told Orlando Weekly.
As a sous chef, however, Stewart’s job is technically considered a management-level position, so she wouldn’t be eligible for union representation with Unite Here either.
Stewart added, quite passionately, that union reps have been harassing employees, following them to their cars, following them after they get off work. “If they don’t stop, I’m going to call the police,” she said.
In fact, Sodexo management already has called the police, albeit on student organizers from the University of Central Florida who were issued trespass warnings by Winter Park police for passing out pro-union flyers on the private campus.
Union staff have also been kicked off campus by campus security multiple times, according to union staff who Orlando Weekly previously spoke with.
Granted, it’s common for union staff and pro-union workers to find time outside of work hours to approach fellow coworkers about unionization during union drives — and that may not always be welcome.
Ronald Walker, who attended the "No Union" rally, does utility and custodial work in the cafeterias. He doesn’t have experience with labor unions, has never been a union member; in Florida, broadly, most people aren't.
When asked about his job, Walker said that Sodexo has made some small changes recently that have held weight for him.
Until very recently, the company had him working six nights per week, which began to feel unsustainable. “I’m too old,” he shared, walking and talking with Orlando Weekly, trailing behind the rest of the group.
But then, a couple of months ago — around the time Orlando Weekly first reported on the unionization campaign — the company reduced his six nights of work per week to five nights per week.
“The changes that they’ve made is noticeable,” he shared.
Making small changes to improve workplace conditions during or before a union drive goes public is a common tactic that employers use to dissuade unionization among employees.
Last year, for instance, Trader Joe’s announced company-wide increases in compensation and benefits the same month that workers at a store in Boulder, Colorado filed a petition to unionize.
As Orlando Weekly previously reported, Starbucks has deployed similar tactics in violation of federal labor law, offering raises and new benefits exclusively for workers at non-unionized stores, amid a wave of union organizing at Starbucks locations nationwide.
Eric Clinton, the Local 362 union president, told Orlando Weekly that, as it stands today, they’re currently determining through a collaborative process with Sodexo and the National Labor Relations Board just who will be eligible to vote in the upcoming union election, which doesn’t yet have a set date.
Sodexo apparently wants supervisors to be included in the pool of workers who would be represented by the union. Local 362 is opposed to that, on the grounds that they don’t represent supervisors elsewhere.
A hearing with the NLRB for that determination is scheduled for Wednesday, April 26.
