The following is a post submitted by Taylor Lacaillade, Archival Processing Assistant for GW’s International Brotherhood of Teamsters archives and GW undergraduate student. Taylor is an undergraduate student at GW with a double major in Political Science and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Taylor is also a member of the GW Progressive Student Union Coordinating Committee. PSU is a non-hierarchical organization run by a coordinating committee. This post was inspired by the historical PSU records Taylor found while working in the archives and her own experience as a member of GW’s PSU.
The GW Progressive Student Union: A history of organizing around workers’ rights.
The most recent actions led by GW’s Progressive Student Union (PSU) have focused on employment security of dining hall workers and custodial workers. In 2016, PSU ran a very large campaign in solidarity with the J-Street dining hall workers. GW’s contract with Sodexo, the campus food provider at the time, was coming to a close. It became apparent that GW was not intending to renew the contract with Sodexo. So what was to become of the dining halls and the workers employed there? No one knew. Sources said that GW was planning on scrapping the dining hall completely.
PSU sought to once again fight against this attack on the dining hall workers. Through a campaign titled Fair Jobs GW, PSU fought for full retention of the dining hall workers who had served the GW community for year. PSU also demanded transparency from the University in the transition process, emphasizing the need to alert both workers and students of the changes being made to the University. After a petition, a rally, a social media campaign, multiple letter deliveries, multiple meetings with administrators, and a hunger strike, GW ultimately shut down the dining hall, placed a small number of former dining hall workers in GW catering (now handled by the company Restaurant Associates), and left a larger (but unknown) number of former dining workers to either seek employment in other Restaurant Associates locations or somewhere else entirely.
This is not the first time PSU has fought alongside the dining hall workers. PSU has run multiple similar campaigns during its nearly four-decade history. For example, between 1989 and 1992, PSU and dining hall workers worked together to combat The Marriott Corporation. The Marriott Corporation attempted to make major cut-backs to the benefits of the dining hall workers during contract negotiations. The Marriott Corporation targeted the already measly healthcare benefits won through union organizing. Dining hall workers and student organizers joined forces to reject these cut-backs and demand a smooth contract negotiation with the Food and Beverage Workers' Union.
Despite nearly four decades of organizing, a constant stream of student activists coming and graduating, multiple food provider transitions, and major changes to the administration, the same fights are being fought. These fights will continue as long as the tensions between labor and administrations exist. There is a long history of student and worker solidarity at the George Washington University. Students and workers will continue to fight together for years to come- be it against the administration, corporations, or any other entity that threatens labor on campus.