> WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 3, 2000--The Hotel Employees and
Restaurant Employees International Union (HERE) received the following
press release from Not With Our Money, a student-based organization.
>
> The press release follows:
>
> Monday, April 3. Armed with stickers that read "Sodexho = Prison
Profit", students at ten colleges and universities will launch a nationwide
boycott of Sodexho-Marriott Services (NYSE: SDH), charging that the
company's close ties to the scandal-ridden Corrections Corporation of
America make it an unfit provider of campus dining services.
>
> Sodexho-Marriott's parent company, Paris-based Sodexho Alliance, is
the leading investor in the rapidly growing for-profit private prison
industry, with a 17% share in Corrections Corporation of America and a 9%
share in CCA's publicly held sister company, Prison Realty Trust (NYSE:
PZN).
>
> Sodexho Alliance owns 48% of Sodexho-Marriott, and has appointed CCA
founder "Doc" Crantz to sit on the Sodexho-Marriott board of directors.
>
> "For years, we've watched the government take money from public
universities to put record numbers of non-violent youth behind bars," says
State University of New York at Binghamton activist Cory Finger. "Now we
find out that Sodexho is trying to profit off their misery." Finger and his
fellow students have convinced campus organizations, including some
fraternities, to observe a one-day boycott of the campus food services.
>
> Private prisons make up the fastest growing segment of the U.S.
prison and jail population, which reached two million in February according
to a report by Justice Policy Institute.
>
> Reports of widespread abuse in facilities run by Corrections
Corporation of America and Wackenhut Corrections, including guard
brutality, denial of medical care and retention of prisoners beyond the
time required by law, have led to calls for a ban on private prisons.
>
> The prison controversy comes at a difficult time for
Sodexho-Marriott, which was recently forced by the General Counsel's Office
of the National Labor Relations Board to rescind illegal work rules in the
company's employee handbook.
>
> On campuses like SUNY Albany, where activists staged a sit-in on
Thursday, labor and prison activists have made common cause, making fair
treatment of workers and divestment from private prisons demands of the
campaign.
>
> According to organizers, today's activities will include the kick-off
of a student referendum to "Dump Sodexho" (Oberlin College), guerrilla
theater demonstrations (American University and Earlham College), and
potlucks for students who want to observe the boycott (Hampshire College
and SUNY Binghamton).
>
> Other campuses participating in actions today include SUNY Albany,
Skidmore College, University of California at Santa Cruz, James Madison
University, and St. Louis University, where the student government has
passed a resolution endorsing the boycott.
>
> In the past week, Sodexho-Marriott representatives have tried to
counter the campaign by claiming that Sodexho Alliance is already moving to
meet student demands for divestment, but campaign organizer Kevin Pranis
calls this "wishful thinking." "Recent filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission suggest that Sodexho will continue to invest in Prison
Realty Trust, and we get the same impression from our meeting with Sodexho
executive Jean-Pierre Cuny (who sits on the board of PRT)." Pranis
concludes, "I think we're in for a long fight."
>
> The launch of the boycott coincides with an April 4th National
Student-Labor Day of Action sponsored by Jobs With Justice, the United
States Student Association, United Students Against Sweatshops and the
National Student Labor Alliance.
>
> April 4th was chosen because it is the anniversary of the
assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King, who was shot while in
Memphis to support striking sanitation workers.
>
> CONTACT:
>
> HERE
>
> Marty Leary, 202/393-HERE
>
> or
>
> Not With Our Money
>
> Kevin Pranis, 917/860-4635
>
> kpranis at igc.org
>
> or
>
> Errol Schweitzer, 212/727-8610 x23
>
> nwomcampaign at hotmail.com
>
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