You may have seen Lexie Grove, a second-year, protesting outside the administrative building last Thursday, April 28th. She and other members of SOUL are currently protesting the University’s decision to lay off many of the housekeeping staff at the College. Below, Grove answers a few questions about the RSO and recent protest.
What is SOUL?
SOUL is a non-hierarchal student labor organization, which works to support people employed on campus, in the city, nationally, and internationally. The group is an affiliate of United Students Against Sweatshops. There are two branches of the USAS, one focusing on campus community solidarity campaigns and one on international solidarity campaigns. Last year SOUL was heavily involved in the United Students Against Sweatshops’ Nike campaign. SOUL primarily focuses on campus solidarity networks and works heavily with Teamsters Local 743, who organizes a lot of campus workers.
How did you get involved?
I was previously not really interested in labor issues before I got to the University of Chicago, but I talked to SOUL members at an RSO fair and decided to go to a meeting. Now I am heavily involved in the RSO and am joined by a handful of students who are also very committed to SOUL and its causes.
Has it shaped your future plans in any way?
It has completely shaped a lot of the things I am interested in and has changed my academic path. I don’t want to be an organizer, but I’m interested in doing something related to labor issues and dealing with the problems that face people in regards to labor. Many people care deeply about social justice issues, but they lack the awareness that those issues are happening right in front of us every day.
What is SOUL focusing on this year?
This year SOUL is working on the University’s contract with Aramark, which is up for renewal. The University is considering other companies. The problem is that the University is not making it a requirement of the new sub-contractor to recognize the union and to keep old employees. They are currently reaching out to campus workers and pressuring the University to make it a requirement for their new sub-contractor to keep them employed. SOUL is also working on a similar issue with sub-contracting in regards to campus housekeeping and whether or not current employees will be retained with the new contractor. The University is certainly going with a different company and outsourcing employees. Current housekeepers are dealing with the possibility of being laid-off. The rally last Thursday was to draw attention to the issue and make the University pay attention to the problem at hand.
How does SOUL go about making changes, and is it usually effective?
SOUL directs everything toward President Zimmer since he has the ultimate decision-making power. When we direct our attention to [people] below him, they just claim it is people above them who make the decisions. President Zimmer can’t do that. We also reach out to Kim Goff-Crews and Sheryl Goodman who deal with students and are involved in housing and dining services. Members of SOUL usually meet with them and they give us a nice explanation of their take on the situation at hand, although meetings with them are usually pretty pointless since they don’t usually answer our questions.
In your opinion, was the recent rally successful?
The rally in front of the administration building was successful. Afterward, the University sent out an email to the people living in housing stating that there is an intention to keep the current housekeeping staff, though the email was pretty non-committal. There was definitely a good student and worker turnout.