A tide of purple-shirted, yellow-sign-waving protesters…

A tide of purple-shirted, yellow-sign-waving protesters descended on Market Central yesterday afternoon.

Protesters from the Service Employees International Union joined a protest by Pitt student group Students in Solidarity with Service Workers.

After a brief but loud protest inside the cafeteria, police asked the protesters to leave. The group soon dispersed after leaving Towers.

“Everyone dispersed as soon as the police asked,” said Pitt junior Shannon Sweeney, a member of the group.

Matt Painter, a spokesman for the Service Employees International Union, a union Sodexo employees can join for representation, said the group was protesting against Sodexo’s treatment of its non-unionized workers on Pitt’s campus. Sodexo runs Pitt’s dining services at all of its campuses.

He said that about 150 of Sodexo’s employees at Pitt were not in unions and received worse pay and benefits than unionized workers. The non-union workers were the focus of the protest and SEIU’s action, he said.

Students in Solidarity with Service Workers focuses on “pressuring the University” to help provide better work environments for its employees, Sweeney said. Although the Sodexo employees are not part of the University staff, she said Pitt could dictate the terms of its contract with Sodexo, providing for better pay and work benefits.

Pitt spokesman John Fedele did not have a comment, stating that the protest was an issue between the union and Sodexo.

The local SEIU chapter filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board on March 24, alleging that Sodexo employees were coerced and interrogated, according to the National Labor Relations Board website.