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On Sep. 18th, 2003, after 21 months of negotiations, a week-long work stoppage, and a three-week strike, Yale finally settled a terrific contract with its 4,000 clerical, technical, service, and maintenance employees. Contracts were subsequently ratified by the membership by large margins.
Contract Summary
Local 34 details
Local 35 details
However, the settlement left 150 dietary workers at Yale-New Haven Hospital returning to work without a contract. In addition, workers struggling for the right to organize at YNHH and in the graduate school still have a hard fight ahead of them. Also, despite the major victories won by New Haven community members during the strike (especially in the areas of job access and training), the University and the city still remain far from equal partners. Organizing continues on all of these fronts.
And now, for those who want to relive the magic...
"We're Not Gonna Take It": The Official Strike Timeline
(Lingering) Questions
& Answers
Why did workers choose to strike?
4,000 workers at Yale were without a contract for over a year and
a half. Negotiations, petitions, peaceful rallies, civil disobedience,
and a five-day work stoppage did not result in a just contract that
recognized their contributions to Yale or afforded them a voice on the
job. Since the strike meant a huge risk and hardship for working families,
employees only undertook it as a last resort.
Who called the strike?
In September, and again in the spring, the union membership voted to empower
their elected representatives on the negotiating committees to call
for a strike as a last resort.
What were the main issues?
According to negotiating team members, “Pensions, wages and retroactive
pay, and Local 34 job security.”
How could the strike have been averted?
Union spokespeople repeatedly promised not to call a strike if
Yale either a) returned to the bargaining table or b) agreed to submit
the contract issues to an impartial third party arbitrator. Under this
process, called binding arbitration,
the third party would settle the contract and both sides would accept the results.
The unions twice requested binding arbitration to avert a strike,
in February and August. Also, negotiations progessed much more quickly once Yale President Richard Levin and Vice President of Finance and Administration Bruce Alexander personally joined negotiations. Had they entered negotiations earlier in the 20-month stall, as workers frequently requested, that also might have averted a strike.
What did the strike have to do with graduate students and
hospital workers?
Graduate teachers and researchers at Yale are currently organizing to
form a union, as are health-care workers at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
While Locals 34 and 35 strongly support their organizing drives, it was the noncooperation of Yale negotiators and administrators that forced workers out on strike. Contrary to most public statements from the Yale administration, negotiations
weren’t being held up by demands for GESO and 1199 organizing rights.
Binding arbitration would not have included those issues, nor would they appear
in the contract. That said, graduate students and hospital workers played a crucial role in winning the contracts. They walked the picket lines, wrote letters, moved classes, organized educational events, and participated in civil disobedience.
What did we win?
We won good wages, great pensions, retroactive pay. We won stronger job security and subcontracting controls, as well as union jobs in Sprague Hall and the Congress Avenue Building. We won a community seat at the table to promote Yale hiring from minority communities, worker training, and job growth to de-segregate the workforce. We won a joint best-practices committee to find solutions to the historically bitter labor relations at Yale. We won increased tuition reimbursement for employees and their children. We lowered the retirement age to 60. Most of all, we demonstrated that solidarity works, and that organizing to break down barriers of race, class, age, and gender ultimately leads to better jobs and lives for everybody.
What now?
Great contracts for 4,000 workers in New Haven will have a strong positive impact on the University and the city. But many critical issues of economic justice and social welfare at Yale and in New Haven were not settled during the strike. Most immediately, the 150 dietary workers at Yale-New Haven Hospital remain without a contract. Another 4,000 workers in the graduate school and YNHH are struggling to organize under the weight of a powerful (and expensive) anti-union campaign. The city of New Haven is far from equal partnership with Yale University, and many critical issues--including public education, tax status, healthcare, and homeownership--have yet to be addressed.
Stay tuned.
Archived Material
Check here for off-campus class locations, if you're still interested. For the record, 244 professors and graduate students moved 358 classes off-campus, affecting approximately 8393 students.
Archived updates from the Union and the University.
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