Posted by Tina
Tonight big union is in the news. This story, posted from Reuters, is the first of what could be many battles to come as unions push to increase their numbers:
WASHINGTON, March 17 (Reuters Legal) – The American unit of French catering giant Sodexo SA on Thursday filed a civil racketeering lawsuit accusing the Service Employees International Union of engaging in illegal tactics in its efforts to unionize workers.
The company levied numerous charges accusing the union of threats concerning employees and company property, engaging in illegal tactics to steer business away from Sodexo and attempting to publicly tarnish its reputation.
The lawsuit is the latest twist in a fight over a bid by SEIU to represent some of the 80,000 of Sodexo’s hourly employees who are not union members, a multi-year effort by the union. Some 18,000 hourly employees are union members.
“We work constructively with unions every day but the SEIU has crossed the line by breaking the law,” Robert Stern, general counsel for Sodexo USA, said in a statement. “We will not tolerate the SEIU’s tactics any longer.”
The company filed the lawsuit in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, and asked for an injunction against SEIU, as well as unspecified monetary damages.