Check out the local news coverage, below:
Student run organization boycotts large manufacturers and distributors of food packaging
Vestal, NY (WBNG Binghamton) A student run organization at Binghamton University is boycotting Pactiv and Reynolds, one of the companies the university contracts with for dining services.
SOAR, or Students Organizing against Reynolds, is a student run organization at Binghamton University that’s fighting with the company.
Pactiv and Reynolds workers traveled up from New Jersey to speak with SOAR about the company’s working conditions in its factories.
SOAR wants to see the company and Reynolds meet the workers’ demands, which includes:
-The right to take bathroom breaks
-The right to sick days and parental leave
-The right to speak out and organize without retaliation
-Reinstatement with back pay for those laid-off or fired
-The right to a 40-hour work week and no mandatory overtime
“In the factories the conditions were sometimes over 100 degrees, and I probably won’t have to deal with that, however, something like mandatory overtime, that is something I can identify with, SOAR member,” Mary Lister, said.
Pactiv and Reynolds representatives met with SOAR on Friday at the university o hear their arguments.
After two hours, the company denied that the employees are mistreated and says SOAR doesn’t have enough evidence to back up its argument.
Pactiv and Reynolds denied to comment on the protest.
“I think that underestimated what students are community groups can do to their public image and I feel very strongly that there is a good likely-hood there will be a local boycott that will succeed,” Citizen Action Community Organizer, Isaac Silberman-Gorn, said.
SOAR will continue to work with Pactiv and Reynolds until the worker’s demands are met.
The organization plans to go around to other SUNY schools who use the company and get the word out.
See the video at http://www.wbng.com/news/local/Student-run-organization-boycotts–376786441.html
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