NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -- Labor unions at Yale University are taking an Ivy League-style approach to contract negotiations, supplementing the usual placard-waving and slogan-shouting with efforts to apply pressure on a more intellectual level.þþThey tried to get a union-backed minister onto the Yale board of trustees. They sponsored an academic paper on Yale founders who owned slaves, in an effort to embarrass the school.þþAnd on Thursday, one union held a traditional rally in front of the office of university President Richard Levin, but with a twist: Workers wore masks with two superimposed images of Levin's smiling visage, to imply Levin is ``two-faced'' in contract talks.þþLabor unions think Yale's struggle is especially important because its role in the world. Four of the last six U.S. presidents are Yale alumni.þþ``This is a unique campaign, because this is a unique place. It's a different atmosphere than when you have a strike at manufacturing plant,'' said Deborah Chernoff, who is trying to organize workers at Yale-New Haven Hospital under the Service Employees International Union.þþContracts for about 4,000 clerical and technical employees in Local 34 and Local 35 of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees union expired in January. The workers have been working under the terms of the expired contract while talks continue.þþMeanwhile, the unions are targeting the university in the court of public opinion. They launched a Web site called ``Yale Insider'' that spreads gossip and bad news about university, and they've worked with a pro-union think tank called the Connecticut Center for a New Economy, which has issued reports that are critical of Yale.þþThe unions also enlisted the power of the pulpit, getting local ministers to stage weekly hunger strikes and prayer meetings.þþThe university responded Thursday with a full-page newspaper advertisement publicizing wage increases and benefits offered to clerical workers.þþLevin said the offer is ``very competitive,'' especially considering today's struggling economy. He also said Locals 34 and 35 are improperly trying to link their deals with organizing drives among graduate students and at the hospital.þþ``They're more interested, I think, in their organizing efforts than they are in getting a contract for their 4,000 workers,'' Levin said. ``I think Yale workers deserve a raise, and it's about time they come to the table and negotiate for one.''þþStrife and strikes have been commonplace at Yale since unions first organized there 60 years ago, with workers walking the picket lines 11 times. But as Yale celebrated its 300th anniversary in September 2001, Levin extended an olive branch.þþ``We are eager to work with Locals 34 and 35 to find a whole new way to structure our relationship, relying on day-to-day collaboration rather than periodic confrontation,'' he said.þþStill, relations soured.þþThe university claims the unions dragged out contract talks all summer to wait for thousands of activist-minded students to return to campus for pro-union demonstrations. The unions claimed that Yale negotiators were too busy vacationing in Europe.þþYale has proposed a six-year contract that would raise wages for Local 34 members by 4 percent each year and for Local 35 members by 3 percent each year. Additional raises have been offered to certain employees.þþThe unions have asked for a four-year contract. Local 34 workers want across-the-board annual pay raises of 9 percent, while Local 35 workers want raises of 6 percent.þþThe average yearly wage for full-time workers in both unions is more than $30,000 a year, according to Yale. The university says workers get $13,000 worth of benefits annually.þþWhile talks were going on, the unions tried to get the Rev. David Lee, a pro-labor minister at one of New Haven's largest black churches, elected to Yale's board of trustees, called the Yale Corporation.þþLee used money donated by unions to send campaign advertisements to alumni. That unprecedented move prompted some alumni to send mailings backing Lee's opponent in the election, artist Maya Lin. Lin, designer of the Vietnam Memorial, won the election.þþA few weeks after classes started in September, the unions organized a mass protest, where about 700 workers, faculty, community leaders and students were arrested for blocking a city street.þþThe smaller demonstration Thursday was designed to keep up the pressure.þþLiz Sader, an administrative assistant who has worked for Yale since 1973, sported a two-faced Levin mask.þþ``He says one thing in public and another thing at the bargaining table,'' Sader said.þþ
Source: NY Times
