1. How does the SEIU’s plan give Sodexo’s U.S. workers influence they might not have outside of a union? Do you think the effort described in this case will benefit these workers? Why or why not?
2. What do the SEIU’s goals seem to be with regard to Sodexo? What would you expect Sodexo’s goals to be in this situation?

The Service Employees International Union [planned to] picket the annual meeting of French food-service group Sodexo in Paris on January 25 [2010] as U.S. unions take their organizing efforts abroad. Sodexo, which employs 380,000 people worldwide including 110,000 in the U.S., is “engaging in behavior around the world that would not be acceptable in their home country,” says Mitch Ackerman, an SEIU executive vice-president who heads the Washington-based union’s property services division.
With more than 5 million Americans now employed by foreign-owned companies, U.S. labor unions are starting to export their grievances. In industries ranging from food service to telecommunications, foreign companies are coming under attack in their home countries from American unions, which are teaming up with local labor groups to criticize the companies’ U.S. labor practices.