Washington: Andre Blount has been serving food to dignitaries at the World Bank headquarters for the last ten years and he says he has only received one salary increase so far and that is fifty cents! This week, as leaders from around the world are in Washington, D.C., to attend the World Bank’s spring meeting, Blount and her colleagues are trying to draw attention to their plight.
These employees work to serve food at the programs of an organization whose mission is to fight poverty, and these employees of this organization are themselves struggling financially. About a quarter of the World Bank’s food workers work as contract workers, union leaders say, and have joined as contract workers here through Compass Group North America. They rely on public benefits like SNAP or food stamps to make ends meet. This is a terrible situation, says 33-year-old Blount, who was protesting with union members outside the World Bank.
- World Bank contract workers who care about the world’s poor are underpaid
- Employees serving meals to leaders from around the world have to rely on charitable food stamps for meals themselves!
World Bank officials are debating how to help people around the world, but the organization’s own hundreds of employees are struggling to run a household. On the other hand, inside the lobby of the World Bank are T-shirts and tote bags with the words End Poverty (End Poverty) for sale. This bank’s grand building houses high-brand restaurants in expensive cafeterias where expensive soups and expensive dishes are available. The World Bank hosts banquets for delegations from India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka etc. and the staff who serve them have to struggle to get food for their families themselves.
A labor union leader says the World Bank’s job is to end poverty by raising the incomes of people in every country, but we believe they should start with the food service workers working here, who find it difficult to pay their expenses even after working hard. These employees get a salary of 17 or 18 dollars an hour, while according to the index, looking at the inflation of the city of Washington, a person here needs to get a salary of 22.15 dollars an hour.