Interim Chancellor David Ward released a statement Wednesday stating the University of Wisconsin-Madison will review its contracts with Palermo’s Pizza following a request by a university committee to cut ties with the pizza company.
The Labor Licensing Policy Committee sent a letter to Ward Wednesday urging him to cut ties with Palermo’s Pizza after workers went on strike following allegations of unfair labor practices and prohibiting employees from creating a union.
In the statement, Ward said he will review the committee’s request to cut ties, but the university currently has no plans to take action. Ward said while certain parties within the university, including the athletic department and the Wisconsin Union, have sponsorship agreements with Palermo’s, UW-Madison as an institution is not “a party to this dispute.”
Still, Ward said he urges all involved parties to continue working toward resolving the issue.
Student Labor Action Coalition and LLPC member Lingran Kong said the groups are disappointed with Ward’s response to the issue, since no plan of action was discussed or put into place to help the workers on strike.
“It’s nice to see in the statement [Ward] is acknowledging that this is a concern and laying out the facts so that people know what are the details of the contract,” Kong said. “However, there are no concrete steps being taken yet so that’s disappointing.”
Kong also said SLAC will continue to raise student awareness on the issue and to pressure the university to cut ties, naming the end of the semester as an ideal deadline.
“This issue [was] brought to Chancellor Ward’s attention at the beginning of the school year so I’m disappointed that he still hasn’t come up with a plan of action,” Kong said.
