March 16th, 2020
University College Cork (UCC) environmental society will cut all ties with the university’s catering provider over last week’s decision to lay off campus restaurant staff.
The catering firm Kylemore
Services Group (KSG) has let all staff go who were working at the campus’s main
eatery. It is believed that the staff has been told to avail of social welfare
services provided by the State while coping with unemployment.
The move followed the university’s
decision to close its doors for the remainder of the semester, a preventative
measure advised by the Government to contain the spread of COVID-19.
The on-campus restaurant went disposable
plastic-free in 2018, with the university’s environmental society working with
the company to implement green initiatives.
Working with UCC’s Green Campus
committee that includes the environmental society, KSG ran successful green projects
such as from Meatless Mondays and discounts for reusable mugs.
However, the society’s vice chair Síofra
Richardson has now said that it will cut ties with the company. “Environmentalism
is inherently linked with social justice, and that means that we are going to
stand up for workers’ rights,” Ms Richardson told The Green News.
“The idea of climate justice
is that we, in our transition into a sustainable society, need to make sure
that no one is left behind,” she added. She also called on the university to
guarantee that its contractors uphold the values that the third-level
institution stands for and stills in its students.
“I am very upset. As a
contractor, UCC has the right to make sure the companies provide good working
conditions, social security and have proper contracts,” she added. Asha
Woodhouse, the environmental society’s finance officer, also told The Green
News that KSG’s decision to let go of the eatery’s staff is
“disgraceful”.
“We had supported them in the
past with a lot of their green initiatives, but we don’t want to support them
anymore now that we heard how they had treated their workers,” she said.
Encouraging students to speak up
against injustices that take place on campus grounds, Ms Woodhouse said that
“we often forget that we have a powerful voice, and we can use it.”
“We make up the biggest
population of the UCC body. I think it’s important for us to stand up and use
our voice,” she said.
Green Party Councillor Lorna Bogue
said that some companies approach green initiatives from an opportunistic
standpoint as opposed to genuine concern for “climate justice” and
called on UCC to rectify the situation.
“Climate justice is tied to
workers’ rights. We have seen this from many large companies who have used
green initiatives to look good,” she said. “Then, when it comes to
the rights of their workers or allowing workers to have security, we see them
falling short on that.”
“[KSG] is a private company,
but they were offering services on UCC property, I would expect them and the
Government to condemn this behaviour,” she added.
KSG did not respond to requests
for comment. UCC said in a statement that while the university does not dictate
how KSG operates on its property, it has requested a meeting with the company’s
officials.
“UCC cannot comment on the operational matters pertaining to another company. However, UCC has requested a meeting with KSG about their operations during this Government-directed campus closure,” the statement read.
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