Sodexo workers will hold a demonstration Friday at noon, alleging that J Street managers have violated their union contract by cutting hours and staff.

In the past two months, Sodexo, the company that provides dining services at GW, has cut workers’ hours from 40 hours a week to 30 and laid off about 10 employees since December, several union workers said. Workers will display union buttons on their uniforms as members of the Progressive Student Union pass out buttons to protest what they call tough working conditions.

Allison Burket, an organizer with Unite Here, the union that represents Sodexo employeees at GW, said while venues at the eateries have changed, many workers have been there for upwards of 20 years.“The relationship is strained,” Burket said. Burket and Unite Here declined to provide a copy of the union contract, which was last fixed in 2011. The next negotiation is set for 2014.

J Street general manager Bernadette Thomas said Sodexo is “following the process outlined in the [collective bargaining] agreement” agreed upon in 2011. She added that recent staffing changes still allowed workers with scaled back hours to receive health insurance.

“The changes that were recently implemented fall within the guidelines of that 2011 contract,” Thomas said.

One Sodexo employee, Rochelle Kelly, said workers sometimes serve up to 50 students at a time due to the layoffs, and that managers have also screamed at workers and discouraged them from talking to students.

“What they’re taking us through is just emotional, stressful and is a problem with everybody,” she said.

Former Sodexo employee Rosita McCollum said she was fired last week after 12 years as a server but that the union said it would take action.

A cook for Metro Diner, Therrece Brown, said she is worried about her future with Sodexo and whether management will keep her around.

Sam Nelson, a member of GW’s Progressive Student Union, said students must consider Sodexo workers part of their community.

“We need to consider Sodexo workers part of the GW community, like professor and faculty,” Nelson said.

Sodexo employees across the city, from school cafeterias, to hospitals and government buildings, are organizing a city-wide rally at the African American Civil War Memorial Feb.  28.