The Los Angeles Loyolan, Volume 92, Issue 31 - February 20, 2014

■л0ОАШаёШ> LOYOLAN true intentions of service organ iz at ions. Pages 6-7 The best and worst moments of the Sochi Winter Olympics so far. Page 10 EST. 1921 VOLUME 92 I ISSUE 31 Community stands by Torres Kevin Halladay-Glynn | Loyolan A group of Sodexo workers, professors, students and Unite Here Local 11 union members came together in the conference room of the Jesuit Community Friday afternoon to reach out to Father John Mitchell for help and guidance regarding Torres' removal. www.LALOYOLAN.com Advocate for Iraqi youth speaks Jeremy Courtney co-founded a nonprofit to treat Iraqi children with heart defects. Amanda Lopez Contributor @LALoyolan “He came into the cafe, and he had this little girl. She had big brown eyes, dark hair, and all I really see coming into the cafe is my little girl. I just remember thinking, is there anything I wouldn’t do for my little girl?” said Jeremy Courtney of the young Iraqi girl that inspired him to launch his nonprofit organization, Preemptive Love Coalition. During Convo on Tuesday, Ignatians service organization hosted the event where Courtney spoke about PLC, how it was founded and what it strives to do. Courtney is the со -founder of PLC, an organization that helps save the lives of thousands of Iraqi children in need of heart surgeries. PLC uses its resources to train Iraqi surgeons and nurses so that they can perform heart surgeries for children with heart defects. Courtney told the story of how his wife and he originally moved to Iraq in the midst of the war and Suddam Hussein’s regime in hopes of aiding the lives of widows who had been affected. After becoming discouraged with the organization they arrived with, Courtney still felt the need to remain in Iraq, as he saw a tremendous sense of need around him. In Iraq, Courtney befriended a cafe See Love | Page 4 Faculty, staff and students gathered to perform an action in support of Daniel Torres. Zaneta Pereira Incoming Editor in Chief @zanyzaneta Daniel Torres has worked in the LMU’s Jesuit Community’s kitchen for 22 years. When he returned to his job after win¬ ter break, the last thing he expected was to be called into a meeting and told that he would no longer be able to work there. “I never had any knowledge of this; I never had any discipline before or any complaints before,” Torres said. “It was never brought to my attention that I was underperforming.” According to the written request for Tor¬ res’ removal sent from John Mitchell, S.J., minister of the Jesuit Community, to Ja¬ son Adams, the Sodexo resident district manager, Torres was removed from his position because “members of the Com¬ munity over the course of the year often have expressed dissatisfaction with the meals which Daniel has prepared for us.” When contacted by the Loyolan, Adams stated that he was “not authorized to discuss personnel matters.” He added, “We are work¬ ing to find a solution for Daniel as we speak.” Mitchell’s letter also stated, “I had hoped that with time and experience, this situa¬ tion would improve, but it has not. His rep¬ ertoire seems limited and unimaginative.” At 3 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 14, a group of campus Sodexo workers, Unite Here Lo¬ cal 11 union members and LMU professors and students gathered outside the Jesuit Community to take action about Torres’ situation. The group was invited inside to speak with Mitchell, to whom they pre¬ sented Torres’ case and a broken-heart valentine as a symbol of his situation. At the Jesuit residences, Torres had been a year-round employee with a 40- hour work week. However, since his re¬ moval, he explained that the jobs Sodexo offered him were vastly different. Accord¬ ing to Torres, Sodexo has offered various See Torres | Page 2 Generosity flows by the pint Talia Baugnon | Loyolan The twice-annual UCLA blood drive kicked off in St. Rob's auditorium Tuesday and continues through today. Both walk-ins and those with appointments can stop by and donate a pint of blood. Here, a student squeezes a beanbag to get the blood flowing. Union vote paused The NLRB has suspended the adjunct faculty’s election after allegations of interference. Kevin O’Keeffe Editor in Chief @kevinpokeeffe Adjunct faculty eager to vote on whether to establish a union will have to wait a bit longer. According to a press release from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the group assisting adjunct faculty on campus with attempts to unionize the vote has been halted by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).’ The press release alleges that LMU caused “administrative interference” with the election, whichledtothe vote beingsuspended last Thursday. Executive Vice President and Provost Joseph HelUge confirmed the NLRB’s blocking of the vote in a letter to faculty sent last Friday. “The election was postponed because of unresolved allegations of unfair labor practices filed by the Service Employees International Union,” Hellige said. The allegations, according to political science adjimct professor Emily Hallock, included participating in “coercive or intimidating behavior” toward adjuncts and creating “ a hostile work environment .” “They sent misleading information and some information that was meant to scare us out of voting for a union,” Hallock added. Hallock insisted that the election was just suspended and will resume when the NLRB’s election has concluded. “We don’t want to delay our election to form a union at LMU, but this is an important decision that affects our students, our colleagues and the LMU community,” adjunct communication studies lecturer Darrin S. Murray was quoted as saying in SEIU’s press release. Arik Greenberg, a faculty member in the Department of Theological Studies, accused LMU of prohibiting faculty “from making a free and fair decision about forming our union” by hiring outside consultants to work with them during the election. Greenberg, who previously called the nationwide unionization battle a great civil rights issue in an interview with the Loyolan, lamented that LMU “did not follow the example set by Georgetown University,” the Jesuit university in Washington, D.C., that SEIU successfully unionized last May. According to Hellige, LMU administrators have “not been provided with any specific details or evidence relating to these allegations” of election interference. The provost declined to comment beyond his letter for this story. Hallock said the investigation process would likely wrap up either this week or next.