Rock Hill hit with 177 layoffs after Winthrop University changes vendors
A change in food vendors by Winthrop University will cost one provider nearly 180 jobs. For impacted workers, Winthrop already has another company signed on to serve.
Food and facilities services company Sodexo filed a WARN notice with the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce detailing plans to cut 177 jobs in York County. WARN notices are required for companies planning large-scale job losses.
The Sodexo notice listed Thursday, July 31, as the final date for its job losses.
The company wrote that Winthrop informed them July 9 about its intention to use a different vendor for all food services locations after this month, according to the Sodexo notice provided to The Herald by the state workforce department.
Among the job losses are 55 cashiers, 22 utility workers, 18 food service workers, 17 cooks and 15 baristas. Manager and supervisor roles are also included in the layoffs, according to the notice.
In a faculty and staff message Tuesday, Winthrop President Edward Serna wrote that Chartwells is the new dining services, snack and beverage service on campus. That company serves more than 320 colleges and universities nationwide, Serna wrote, and was selected after a lengthy bid process.
Chartwells is a division of Charlotte-based Compass Group USA.
“The company invests in high-tech, food-infused social spaces that bring campus communities together to promote meaningful relationships and interactions,” Serna wrote.
Winthrop University vendor changes
Serna notified the campus community this spring that job losses could come as part of facilities changes. Outsourcing plans could lead to job losses for workers in maintenance, utilities and other jobs, Serna said in a March email to staff. No job count was given at the time, but estimates from Winthrop CFO and vice president for finance and business affairs Kevin Butler put potential losses at 50 or 60 employees.
Any new vendor selected as part of that process would, Serna said, be required to interview workers whose jobs were impacted for opportunities with the new company. It was estimated some job losses could involve retiring workers, too.
Those plans weren’t about cost savings or funding cuts, Serna said. They were due to maintenance staffing issues created by a strong labor market. Outsourcing roles would help Winthrop fill open positions and keep workers in them, Serna said.
At the time, Winthrop cited food service — along with bookstore and police jobs — as areas where it has outsourced jobs for years with success.
Winthrop, a four-year public university in Rock Hill, has nearly 5,000 students and more than 650 employees.
Sodexo jobs in Rock Hill
The Sodexo filing only mentions jobs at Winthrop. Sodexo also works with the Rock Hill School District, where the company has more than 115 employees.
Sodexo lists job openings in Rock Hill among its 46 positions across South Carolina. There’s a chef manager position to oversee six schools. There are full-time and part-time positions for food service workers and food supervisors in Rock Hill, too.
Other company opportunities across South Carolina are in Spartanburg, Columbia, Parris Island, Charleston and Orangeburg, among others. They include school and healthcare jobs like cook, chef, cashier, baker and banquet captain.
Job losses in South Carolina
With the Sodexo filing, South Carolina has 25 WARN notices this year impacting more than 3,200 jobs. The Winthrop change is the first filing to impact York, Lancaster or Chester counties.
Some filings come from facility closures, while others are layoff at companies that will continue to operate.
Among them, Chartwells filed in May to lay off 350 workers in Spartanburg County. Sodexo filed the same month to lay off 210 workers in Dorchester County.
As of mid-July, the state’s unemployment rate of 4.1% remained steady from May. It also matched the national unemployment rate. The state added more than 5,600 workers from May to June, but also added nearly 260 people to its unemployed count, according to the state workforce department.
The three-county Rock Hill region had a slightly lower unemployment rate for the first quarter of this year, at 3.9%.
