NEW HAVEN, March 3 — Thousands of janitors, secretaries, dining hall workers and graduate teaching assistants went on strike today against Yale University, shutting its dining halls and forcing the cancellation of many classes.þþIt was one of the broadest walkouts ever on a university campus, and the eighth at Yale since 1968, reinforcing Yale's reputation as having by far the worst record of labor tension of any university in the nation.þþDefying bitter cold and stinging gusts of wind, the strikers crowded Yale's sidewalks and picketed in front of its austere stone buildings this morning, holding signs and chanting slogans accusing Yale of being anti-union. At a demonstration tonight, more than 2,000 strikers, students and New Haven residents rallied at Woolsey Hall, where they heard the Rev. Jesse Jackson call on Yale to be more generous.þþNoting that Yale has an $11 billion endowment, Mr. Jackson said, ÿIt's too rich for the workers to be so poor.ÿ He spoke from the back of a flatbed truck as the crowd cheered and clanged cowbells.þþThe strike is highly unusual because four different union locals have walked out at the same time — one representing Yale's 2,900 clerical workers, one representing its 1,200 cleaning, dining hall and maintenance workers, one representing more than 1,000 graduate teaching and research assistants, and one representing 150 food workers at Yale-New Haven Hospital.þþThe strike is scheduled to last five days, organizers said. There were two four-week walkouts in 1996, a 10-week strike in 1984 when Yale's clerical workers first unionized, a 14-week strike in 1977, a 10-week strike in 1974, a 6-week strike in 1971 and a 5-day strike in 1968.þþÿIt's a sad commentary that Yale has the worst labor relations so far as I know of any employer in America other than Major League Baseball,ÿ said John Wilhelm, a Yale graduate who is president of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union, the parent of three of the four union locals on strike.þþProfessors, students, strikers and administrators gave various theories to explain Yale's extraordinary string of strikes, including longstanding distrust between Yale's administration and the unions, militant labor leadership, a long line of university administrators who looked down on the workers and bitter town-gown relations that have taught workers to resent Yale, the biggest employer in town.þþÿI think that historically Yale has not been the most supportive employer,ÿ said Yale's president, Richard C. Levin. ÿWe can do better, and we have done better in the last decade.ÿþþYale officials said the unions fomented the strike by tying the contract talks to their organizing efforts. University officials insisted that they had made a generous offer to Yale's two main unions — the clerical workers and the technical and service workers — and they say those unions are holding out to pressure Yale to make it easier for two other groups of workers to unionize. Those two unions want Yale to agree to a streamlined unionization procedure for more than 1,800 hospital workers and 1,000 graduate students in the Graduate Employees and Students Organization. þþÿA decision was made on the part of the union leadership and negotiating team that they didn't want to agree to a contract until they have further advanced their organizing efforts,ÿ Dr. Levin said.þþBut Laura Smith, president of the clerical workers' union, denied this, saying the main obstacles to a settlement were what she called Yale's inadequate offers on wages and pensions. ÿYale's offer would leave us below the market and below peer institutions like Harvard, and even local schools like Southern Connecticut State,ÿ she said. þþYale officials acknowledged that more than 95 percent of the technical and service workers walked out today, but they said only 55 percent of clerical workers went on strike. Union officials disputed the estimate, however, saying two-thirds of the clerical workers walked out. þþBoth sides said it was hard to estimate what percentage of teaching assistants refused to teach their classes because most of their classes are scheduled for late in the week.þþYale officials are resisting demands to grant union recognition to graduate teaching and research assistants, viewing them as students, who are not entitled to unionize under federal law, rather than employees, who have the right to unionize.þþIn a case involving New York University, the National Labor Relations Board ruled 28 months ago that graduate teaching students at private universities are employees, but the board is reconsidering that in cases involving Columbia and Brown.þþYale has offered the clerical workers a raise of more than 4 percent a year over six years, and the technical and service workers more than 3 percent a year. The clerical union is seeking raises of 8.5 percent a year and the technical union wants 5.5 percent a year. Yale said its clerical workers earned $33,717 last year on average and its technical and service workers $30,342.þþDr. Levin said the strike had little effect on the school's operations. The dining halls were closed, some dormitory bathrooms were uncleaned and some building repairs were suspended. For students, the biggest effect was that several hundred teaching assistants were expected to cancel the class sections they taught.þþFor many strikers, the main issue is pensions. ÿOur pensions are really poor,ÿ said Alexis Flint, an administrative assistant at Yale for nearly 24 years. ÿOur pensions would lead me into poverty when I retire. If I retire after 30 years, my pension would be just $750 a month.ÿ þþYale said that it had offered to raise pensions 11 to 18 percent a year and that with Social Security many workers who retire after 30 years would have retirement income exceeding 80 percent of their take-home pay.þþUndergraduates have met the strike with a range of reactions: sympathy, indifference, solidarity, antagonism and curiosity as well as relief that that they may be able to begin spring break early because of canceled class sections. Union officials said they might renew the strike after spring break, which is scheduled for next week.þþAlicia Washington, a sophomore history major from Dallas, said professors, eager to honor the picket lines, had moved four of her classes off campus, with two being held in a nearby New Haven movie theater. She backed the strike, saying, ÿI think the workers deserve a livable wage so they don't have to go out and find a second job, so they'll have enough to provide for their families.ÿþþLike many other students, Matthew Craig, a sophomore political science major from Philadelphia, said the strike was having less impact than he anticipated. ÿI'm personally against the strikes,ÿ he said. ÿI feel the proposals the university is offering are worthwhile. I think the unions are holding out to help the graduate students.ÿþþMuch of dispute centers on the unions' demand to persuade the university and Yale-New Haven Hospital to allow the graduate students and hospital workers to unionize by signing authorization cards, rather than through a traditional election. Yale officials and hospital officials are insisting on an election, partly because they are confident that most graduate students and the hospital workers would vote to reject a union.þþRebecca Honig, a senior English major from New York City, said she was torn about the walkout: ÿI support the Yale workers, but I'm a little more ambivalent about the graduate students. I support their right to strike, but I support my right to go to classes because I paid for them.ÿþþ
Source: NY Times
