Work at Yale

Here’s a brief overview of the different workforce segments involved in the current labor conflict, including a glossary of terms.

H.E.R.E. Local 35
Local 35 is the oldest union on campus. It represents over 1,100 service and maintenance workers: the physical plant, the custodial workers, the grounds crews, and the dining hall workers. The president is Bob Proto. 98% of Local 35 workers participated in last Spring’s week-long strike.

Founded in 1941, Local 35 has had a long and bitter history – 12 strikes in past 60 years – fighting for better jobs at Yale. Many of the members working today still remember the strikes during the 1970s, where workers were attacked and beaten by police while fighting for the wages and pensions they now enjoy.

African-Americans comprise 72% of the entry-level service and maintenance positions, but only 16% of the positions in the highest labor grade – and only 6% of management. Latinos are similarly concentrated in the lowest, worst-paid jobs at Yale, but additionally face a major problem of job access at the University. Although New Haven’s population is 21.4% Latino, they hold only about 3% of the positions in Local 35.

What they’ve won: The 40-hour / 5-day workweek (down from 48-hour / 6-day workweeks), wage increases, medical coverage, rights for “casuals” (workers intentionally hired by the University for less than 20 hours a week), and an end to split-shifts, where workers were sent home mid-day unpaid. Most of the “generous benefits” you will read about in mailings from the University exist because Local 35’s membership has fought bitterly against the University to preserve them over the past 60 years.

What they’re (still) fighting for: Despite the victories of this fall, subcontracting still poses a serious threat not only to the economic security of countless families employed by Yale, but also, since it drags down regional and industry wage/benefit standards, a threat to all working families in the area. In addition, the future of the union rests largely on the quality and security of un-unionized jobs at Yale. Local 35 will continue to support workers struggling to form unions all around campus, at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and in the city.

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H.E.R.E. Local 34
Local 34 is the largest union on campus. It represents over 2,800 clerical and technical workers (C&T’s) in over 350 buildings on campus. Local 34 members are research librarians and laboratory technicians, departmental registrars and administrative assistants, piano tutors, ID Center workers, animal handlers, clinicians, autopsy technicians, Master’s Aides, and over 100 other job titles. Local 34’s President is Laura Smith.

Women comprise over 80% of the union, and their struggle and difficult strike to forge their union in 1984 focused the national spotlight on New Haven for over 10 weeks. “On Strike for Respect” was a major rallying cry on the picket lines, and Local 35’s “blue-collar” membership surprised many by walking off their jobs in solidarity with the largely female, “pink-collar” Local 34 workers for the duration of the strike.

What they’ve won: Before the union, workers had no job security, extremely low salaries (especially for women), no retiree medical benefits, and minimal pensions. Also, without a grievance process, many C&T’s endured regular job discrimination. Through organizing they’ve won better job security, wage increases (greatly reducing pay inequities for women), better benefits, increases in the pension plan, and more.

What they’re (still) fighting for: Many Local 34 members work directly alongside un-unionized workers at Yale-New Haven Hospital, doing the exact same work. The same situation exists between Local 34 members in academic departments and labs and graduate teachers/researchers. Like Local 35, the future of the union rests largely on the quality and security of un-unionized jobs at Yale. Local 34 will continue to support workers struggling to form unions all around campus, at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and in the city.

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Graduate Employee and Student Organization (GESO)
GESO has been organizing for over 12 years to form a union for the 2,300 graduate teachers and researchers at Yale. Though graduate student unions have existed at public universities for over 30 years, GESO represented the first attempt to organize graduates at a private university. Since then, NYU graduates have won a recognized union and drives continue across the Ivy League. GESO’s chairwoman is Anita Seth.

Yale University has argued that graduate students are not employees, that research and teaching constitutes "training" rather than work, so they should not be allowed to form a union. However, the National Labor Relations Board and the IRS hold that graduate teachers serve as both students and employees - teaching courses, conducting lab research, grading, staffing office hours, and supervising senior essays in exchange for pay.

What they've won: In the past decade, the pressure created by GESO's organizing has moved the University to make major improvements in graduate education and compensation. That includes increased stipends and wages, health care coverage, career services support, teacher training, ESL training, and the formation of the Graduate Student Assembly and the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity (ODEO).

What they're fighting for: This fall GESO will launch an issue-based campaign, addressing language training for TA's, dependent health-care, racial and economic diversity, pay equity, summer funding, and casualization. As a result of summer research, reports on this topics are now available. View and download here.

At this point, the only demand GESO has placed on the University is to discuss a fair process by which organizing and unionization can occur on campus. GESO organizers were illegally arrested last year for passing out leaflets, and in February they filed 5 Unfair Labor Practice charges against the University for intimidation, still pending. Possible solutions could include a "neutrality agreement", where both sides agree not to coerce or intimidate students during an organizing drive, or a "card-count agreement", where the University agrees to recognize a union when a majority of graduate students sign membership cards.

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S.E.I.U. District 1199 – Yale-New Haven Hospital
District 1199 is a progressive union representing over 20,000 health care workers across New England. Currently, about 150 dietary workers at Yale-New Haven Hospital have a union contract, but they’re still fighting to win recognition for the other 1,850 workers there.

Hospital management under the leadership of YNHH CEO Joe Zaccagnino has waged a bitter and often illegal campaign against unionization efforts. Last fall the hospital illegally arrested 8 workers for distributing pro-union leaflets, and in response the New Haven Board of Aldermen stripped the hospital constables of their arrest powers. There have also been frequent reports of supervisors harassing and intimidating workers for wearing union pins or expressing pro-union sentiments on the job.

What they’ve won: The union campaign scored a major victory this summer when it revealed undisclosed millions in "free bed" funds intended to benefit low-income patients. Combined with the uncovering of abusive, aggressive debt-collection practices, the fallout resulted in landmark debt-collection legislation passed by the Connecticut General Assembly, the stoppage of home foreclosures, and outright debt forgiveness for many.

What they’re fighting for: Like GESO, hospital workers are struggling for a fair process to organize a union. Given the level of tension and intimidation, the workers feel that a card count - neutrality agreement is necessary precursor to any organizing drive. In particular, health care remains a major issue for hospital workers, since many are paid so little that they can't afford medical attention at the hospital in which they work.

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Glossary
Sometimes all the terms thrown around by the Union and the University
can get confusing. Here's a brief guide to some contentious issues:

Card-count, or card-check, neutrality (CCN) is an alternative process for union recognition to the NLRB election advocated by Yale and by YNNH. In an NLRB election, workers vote by secret-ballot for or against union representation. But, as Human Rights Watch reported in 2000, employers regularly use aggressive and often illegal methods to threaten or coerce employees. 91% of employers force workers to attend captive, closed-door meetings. 80% hire outside consultants to train administrators and supervisors in intimidation tactics. 31% illegally fire employees for supporting unions. Workers have endured many of these practices for years at Yale. That’s why GESO and District 1199 members have called for CCN as the best method to conduct organizing drives. Under card-check neutrality, both sides agree not to intimidate or coerce workers, and to begin good-faith negotiations only when a majority of workers has signed membership cards.

Binding arbitration is a common agreement between employers and employees who want an alternative to deadlocked negotiations or difficult strikes. Under binding arbitration, a mutually agreed-upon third-party considers both sides’ proposals and fashions a compromise which both sides agree to accept. Yale’s unions called for binding arbitration on mandatory contract issues – only Local 34 and Local 35’s contracts - last February and again this month in hopes of achieving a just contract and averting a strike. So far, Yale has refused.

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