Wackenhut and Columbia College Chicago

by biverson | October 29, 2007 at 07:54 am

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One of my students wrote this for the Columbia Chronicle, our school paper. Greg Palast, investigative journalist and writer, appeared at Columbia on October 27, 2007 and talked about vote caging, government deception, and Wackenhut, which now has the destinction of being a bigger union-buster than Walmart.

We might be saving money, but what kind of message is the College giving to students, staff, and the world?

At a school with a credo like “Create Change…” some are wondering why the college is hiring companies that do not.
The Service Employees International Union, SEIU, held a conference with local congressmen and an alderman to discuss misconduct, labor and human rights violations committed in the last two years by Wackenhut Corporation, a private security company employed by Columbia, on Oct. 6 at the University Center of Chicago, 525 S. State St.

Complaints came from Columbia employees, and others from around the globe.

In a new contract ratified in May 2007 with Columbia, Wackenhut used outdated labor laws to bar employees from joining the union of their choice, a decision that some believe puts students at risk. Other problems include Wackenhut being accused of racism and worker’s rights abuse in Africa, and in the United States, it has fraudulently collected millions in government contracts and created national security risks.