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Summer '03

The Strike and the
Continuing Fight
('03-'04)

What Now?

For the many, many students who attended rallies, walked picket lines, talked to professors, and generally participated in the victory in the fall of 2003, the information below should give you some idea of the breadth and scope of the campaign, how we got where we are, and what we did to win what we won. And for the many students who are joining the Yale-New Haven community this year, read below for an introduction to the exciting social movement alive in New Haven and at Yale – the amazing victories of the past year and the fights that continue, for which we'd love to have you with us!

The Story So Far

In the fall of 2001, workers and administrators began looking for ways to change the traditionally acrimonious labor situation at Yale (see Work at Yale for information about the various unions at Yale). Union leadership looked forward to a new spirit of partnership between employees and their University, while President Richard Levin pledged to “make Yale a model of labor relations for the nation.”

Before contracts expired in January, 2002, both sides agreed to bring in an impartial labor consultant to study labor relations at Yale and develop a new path to labor peace. Yale hired John Stepp of Restructuring Associates, Inc., who published a report (in PDF) on Jan. 14th, 2002. He interviewed workers and managers (as well as Union and University leadership) to put together a set of observations and recommendations (excerpted below).

Observations:
1. Employees describe what they perceive as a caste system at Yale. Those not directly involved in intellectual or pedagogical pursuits feel consigned to an underclass... Employees have almost no input into discussions and decisions that directly affect their work.

2. Some employees believe that development and training of managers is practically nonexistent. There appears to be no shortage of managers, but a dearth of effective management or leadership.

3. Yale is described as deferring its investment in human capital, much as it did 10 years ago with its physical plant. Employees claim they are frequently denied training and development opportunities. . .

6. The University is perceived to be anti-union. Its labor strategy was described as somewhere between union containment and union avoidance.

Recommendations – three matters require immediate attention:
1. Some understanding as to how current organizing efforts will be conducted and how the Union's long-term need to grow its business will be addressed.

2. . . . substantial, sustained performance improvement will require a profound change in the way the University manages its non-academic workforce and the Union's role in representing it. A University that prides itself on developing critical thinking capabilities in its undergraduates could reap tremendous benefit from managing its own employees as if they were capable of independent thought.

3. An agreement that the forthcoming round of bargaining be fully utilized to leverage this change in strategy.

(full text of RAI Report)

Accordingly, both sides entered into interest-based bargaining training, and entered into a commitment to pursue a road to partnership. Read their Joint Statement.

However, even 20 months since contracts expired, the University had not embraced Stepp’s recommendations. Administrators refused to address “current organizing efforts,” and continued anti-union activities – which included arresting workers at Yale-New Haven Hospital and discriminating against graduate teachers for union activity (see the Free Speech section of Yale 101). Instead of “managing its own employees as if they were capable of independent thought,” Yale put little or no real effort into training and educating its workforce. Former Vice President of Finance and Administration Bob Culver called training Yale workers “money down the drain.”

And finally, rather than continuing to use RAI for interest-based bargaining on key contract issues, Yale summarily dismissed Stepp in May 2002 – then went on to threaten subcontracting (for an explanation of subcontracting, see the glossary in Work at Yale) in all new and renovated buildings.

In response to this, and to an ongoing lack of movement at the bargaining table, workers staged massive public actions throughout the 2002-03 school year in hopes of jump-starting the University. 700 workers, students, and community members (including 67 undergraduates) participated in civil disobedience on College St. in September 2002. Despite the largest civil disobedience in Connecticut history, the University made no response. After five more months of fruitless negotiations, workers engaged in a five-day work stoppage to demonstrate to Yale that they were willing to fight for their respect and dignity on the job. On Thursday, Mar. 6th, 500 undergraduates walked out in the middle of a blizzard to have “Education in the Streets” and support striking workers. The school year ended without resolution.

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While You Were Gone (Summer 2003)
The summer of 2003 followed the same pattern as previous summers. Once all the students had left, Yale negotiators began a concerted effort to weaken the Union and force workers into substandard contracts. In June, Yale negotiators asserted that they had set a rough ceiling of $9 million in new contract expenditures, and also admitted that they hadn’t really tried to improve their proposal since dismissing John Stepp the summer before. Yale also announced its intention to subcontract Sprague Hall and the Medical School stockrooms. At the end of the summer, Yale supervisors threatened to take away rolling advances from Local 34 members, which constitutes an illegal act under U.S. labor law (penalizing employees for union activity).

But the summer also saw many unprecedented victories. On June 6th, at the climax of the Medical Debt campaign (see the Connecticut Center for a New Economy section of Town and Gown), Rev. Jesse Jackson walked through Yale-New Haven Hospital and called for immediate reforms in “free bed” disclosure and debt-collection practices. The full uncovering of the scandal resulted in landmark debt-collection legislation in the Connecticut General Assembly and outright debt-forgiveness for many low-income patients.

On July 7th, after intensive lobbying by workers, clergy, community members, and undergraduates, the New Haven Board of Aldermen passed a resolution to reassess Yale’s tax status in the city. This represented a major step towards achieving a lasting and equal institutional partnership between Yale and New Haven.

On July 23rd, 500 workers and community members gathered in St. Rose of Lima Church in Fair Haven to kick off the New Haven branch of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride.

On Aug. 15th, veteran Civil Rights organizer Rev. James Lawson (L.A. SCLC director) arrived in New Haven. He met with workers and UOC members. On Aug. 25th, Sen. Joseph Lieberman came to Yale and publicly urged his alma mater to live up to its standards and settle just contracts with its workers.

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The Strike. . .
As the 2003-04 school year began, the Yale community remained in crisis. On Aug. 26th, eight Yale retirees occupied the Investment Office for more than 24 hours, demanding a meeting with Chief Investment Officer David Swensen about the pension surplus (they eventually got the meeting). On Aug. 27th, Locals 34 and 35 and dietary workers at Yale-New Haven Hospital went out on strike. Through three weeks of unprecendented solidarity among striking workers, graduate employees and Hospital workers, community members, clergy, elected officials, undergraduates, and many others (see "We're Not Gonna Take It: The Official Strike Timeline" for more details about the events of those three weeks), Yale employees achieved terrific contract settlements on Sep. 18th (for details, see The Strike).

The victories for Locals 34 and 35 were resounding victories for justice and working people throughout the University, the city, and the nation. However, they were only one piece of a larger social movement at Yale and in New Haven. 150 dietary workers at the Hospital remained without a contract until April. 1,800 other Hospital workers and 2,300 graduate employees are still attempting to organize in an environment of intimidaton and a heavy anti-union effort by the Administration. Locals 34 and 35's looking forward to a new era of cooperation and partnership was tempered by the University's decision in March 2004 to lay off 76 employees, many of them Local 34 members, without conferring with any employees or Union leadership. And many aspects of a new "Social Contract" between Yale and New Haven remained yet to be realized.

. . .and the Continuing Fight
The 2003-04 school year saw an enlargement of the victories of September and continuing fights on many fronts. On Sep. 29th, workers, students, clergy, community members, and elected officials welcomed the Boston bus of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride to New Haven; on Oct. 4th, hundreds of New Haveners, including 75 undergraduates, attended the culmination of the Freedom Ride in Flushing Meadows Park, NY.

November saw the elections of aldermanic candidates throughout the city who were committed to standing up for the rights of working people, including, as representatives of many undergrads, Ben Healey '04 in Ward 1 and Rev. Drew King in Ward 22. In March, Alyssa Rosenberg '06 and community resident Sheneane Ragin were elected Ward Co-Chairs of Ward 22, providing the opportunity for a new equal partnership between the University and the city in the Dixwell neighborhood.

The fight for justice at the Hospital continued, with the Wall Street Journal reporting on YNHH's scandalous debt-collection procedures. On Dec. 3rd, 15 UOC members met with Hospital officials about debt-collection practices and organizing rights.

Meanwhile, the community mobilized against the demutualization of New Haven Savings Bank (NHSB), New Haven's only community-owned bank. Hundreds of community members (and students) turned out to a public hearing on Dec. 4th, and a second hearing in January, to protest NHSB's discriminatory lending and the extraordinary profits the conversion offered a few Bank officers (many of whom are also Board members and officers at the Hospital). Although the conversion was not roadblocked (and the Bank officers profited significantly), as a result of the outcry at community and state levels, the Connecticut Legislature passed standard-setting legislation regulating bank conversions. As well, a broad coalition was united against an institution failing to serve the community, especially low- and moderate-income people and people of color.

On Dec. 9th, the Yale Corporation voted to extend the Yale Homebuyer Program to Fair Haven and parts of West Rock, ending an instance of urban redlining and taking a necessary step, along with creating a job-access committee as a result of the strike settlement, toward desegregating Yale's workforce and empowering Latina/os within the city. The Homebuyer win came out of a two-year fight involving many folks; for more information about the UOC's involvement, see here.

GESO adopted an issue-based platform in the fall, focusing on issues affecting graduate employees and, in many cases, undergrads and the larger community – racial and economic diversity; teaching-related issues, such as TA training; international student issues; dependent healthcare; women's issues; family-support services, such as affordable childcare; funding issues, such as TA pay equity; and career-path and casualization-related issues (for more information, read "Community in Crisis, vol. 2: In Our Classrooms, On Our Streets," the UOC's pamphlet that discusses these issues in detail, or read the GESO platform itself).

On Dec. 10th, 103 women – including 14 undergrads – were arrested in an act of civil disobedience, publicly standing up for the empowerment and support of women in the Academy and at Yale through dependent healthcare, affordable childcare, mentoring, and fair tenure practice. In the spring, graduate students and undergrads came together to fight for a diverse faculty, joining Chemistry Lecturer Connie Allen, beloved teacher and mentor and one of the few black women science faculty at Yale, in her fight for her job.

The movement for Yale to pay a fair share tax contribution to New Haven intensified throughout the spring at a local and state level. In February and March, several local state legislators supported a bill to reconsider Yale's "superexempt" tax status (unlike other non-profits, being exempt from paying taxes on profit-making properties in addition to non-profit properties). On Apr. 15th, the UOC and fifteen other undergraduate organizations came together to form the New Haven Student Fair Share Coalition, calling on the University to make up the losses incurred to the city on account of Yale's tax superexemption and the underfunded state Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) program.

As well, this spring, a diverse range of organizations on campus and in the community joined the fight against the hedge fund Farallon, calling on Yale to have dialogue with concerned stakeholders about the unethical Farallon investments in which Yale has a stake. Calling for dialogue and increased disclosure, students and community members attempted to deliver a letter to Chief Investment Officer David Swensen on Feb. 10th, only to find the Investment Office put in "secure mode" and security personnel not allowing the letter to be delivered. On Mar. 3rd, street theatre in front of the Investment Office called attention to Farallon and Yale's Baca Ranch investment, an environmentally disastrous water-marketing scheme in Colorado. Concerned students spoke with Swensen, perhaps establishing a precedent for future dialogue, at the annual meeting of the Advisory Committee for Investor Resonsibility on Apr. 2nd. On Apr. 16th, members of the Yale-New Haven community joined individuals at 70 campuses across the country in a Day of Action against Farallon. Members of the tongue-in-cheek group YaleSHAME (StakeHolders for Aggressive Management of the Endowment) "rallied" and "pillaged," demanding that Farallon's profit-over-people investment strategies be employed right on Yale's campus.

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What Now?
A report back from the commission established in July to reassess Yale's tax status is expected soon. On May 15th, the Connecticut Center for a New Economy held a conference elucidating an enlarged vision of the Social Contract. The fights tied up with this Social Contract – fights for a fair share contribution, for justice at the Hospital, for job access and organizing rights for Yale's workers – and related issues in the Academy, such as Dr. Allen's fight for her job and the larger struggle for the empowerment of women and people of color, and the struggle against the trends of casualization, will continue over the summer and throughout next year.

As the 2004-05 school year approaches, janitors, secretaries, scientists, clergy, dining hall workers, elected officials, cooks, patient-care associates, researchers, radiology techs, and (yes) undergraduates are poised to drastically reshape the way our University works, for the better.

It should be an exciting year. We'd love to have you with us!

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