Union March Demands Yale ​“Neutrality”

The sky opened up as the rally rounded onto Prospect Street, drenching hundreds of union-boosting Yalies and their allies as they marched towards Grove.

The downpour did little to dampen their spirits — or their voices. Though it did temporarily change their chant as they called for a union to represent graduate student-teachers.

What was: ​“What do we want?” ​“A union!” ​“When do we want it?” ​“Now!” transformed into: ​“Rain, rain, go away! We want to talk to Salovey!”

That was the scene Thursday evening as hundreds of Yale graduate teachers, students, workers, and researchers joined with supporters for a street-closing march in support of UNITE HERE Local 33.

That’s the Yale graduate union that — through various names and leaders and rally after rally after rally over the past three decades — has been trying to win the backing of fellow grads and the official recognition of the university in order to improve pay, healthcare, working conditions, and other benefits for their members.

Thursday’s march from outside of Yale President Peter Salovey’s house on Hillhouse Avenue to Sachem Street to Prospect and down to a stage at the corner of Grove Street marked just the latest effort in a movement reborn after recent years saw a nationally watched hunger fast, a partially won election, and a quiet withdrawal of a union-recognition petition from a likely labor-hostile National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) under the Trump Administration.

With signs and megaphones and umbrellas in hand, the Local 33 advocates and their supporters from Yale’s other two politically powerful on-campus unions, Local 34’s clerical and technical workers union and Local 35’s blue-collar union, took to the streets for the second time so far this year to call on the university to remain ​“neutral” as Local 33 looks to hold another election among its grad students. They also called on the university to negotiate with Local 33 and sign a contract as it would any other workers at Yale.

“You are the academic labor movement!” UNITE HERE Secretary-Treasurer and nationally prominent New Haven-born labor organizer Gwen Mills told the cheering crowd. ​“You are a part of the entire U.S. labor movement!”

“We are calling on Yale to publicly commit to remaining neutral on this union election,” she continued.

In an email comment sent to the Independent Thursday night, Yale University spokesperson Karen Peart wrote: ​“Yale supports a free and robust debate over graduate student unionization among those who may be affected by it, including the graduate students who would make up its ranks as well as faculty and other students. Yale also supports the rights of employees to form unions. The university has worked closely with Locals 34 and 35 to reach favorable contracts, and over the years, we have built productive relationships with our union partners.” She also passed along this link to a frequently asked questions webpage on Yale’s site about graduate student organizing. (Click here to read an ​“annotated” version of that FAQ put together by the grad union.)

After the rain-soaked march from Salovey’s house on Hillhouse to the mobile stage at Grove, several hundred Local 33 backers stuck around to listen to a dozen speakers — from fellow Yale grads to local labor leaders and politicians — speak out in support of the grad union cause.

But not before the group engaged in a bit of dancing to speaker-blasted tunes like DJ Khaled’s ​“All I Do Is Win,” along with plenty more sing-song cheering.

“What do want?” ​“Neutrality!” ​“When do we want it?” ​“Now!” one chant went.

And another: ​“What’s disgusting?” ​“Union busting!” ​“What’s disgusting?” ​“Union busting!”

“Guess what? We know how to beat Yale!” Local 34 and Newhallville Democratic Co-Chair Barbara Vereen told the cheering crowd before her. ​“We’re going to organize with Local 33 and we will work. Grad workers are workers!”

Local 33 organizer and third-year immunobiology PhD researcher Sasha Tabachnikova told the crowd about her research into how the immune system responds to viral infections and vaccinations, and about how her work at Yale so far has already contributed to four different published studies.

“I believe our work is absolutely essential to expanding the field of immunobiology as well as understanding the global pandemic and its long-lasting effects,” she said. ​“It also helps solidify Yale’s reputation as a leader in these fields.” While others doing similar work to her and her fellow grad researchers have ​“financial security, comprehensive benefits, and medical coverage I can only dream of,” Tabachnikova said, ​“I’m living paycheck to paycheck and I’m constantly stressed that I might not be able to pay rent or the exorbitant fees for our dental insurance.”

She, like every speaker on Thursday, called on Yale to ​“recognize the ways in which a union will benefit its grad workers and let us decide for ourselves how we want to advocate for our needs.”

During his time at the mic, Local 35 President Bob Proto pointed in the direction of Hillhouse Avenue and said to Yale’s administration: ​“You cannot have a partnership anymore” with Local 35 without recognizing Local 33. ​“We are joined at the hip with Local 33,” he said.

He then turned to the grad union members and supporters before him, and offered them a new call and response chant.

“When I say, ​‘Get it!’ You say, ​‘In writing!’ Get it!”

“In writing!” the crowd called back.

“Get it!”

“In writing!”

Local 35 Chief Steward and Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers closed out the night’s rally by encouraging Local 33 to continue its long-fought push for a union.

“Anything worth having is worth fighting for,” she said. ​“We will not allow Yale to divide our campus.”

Click on the videos below to watch excerpts from Thursday’s rally.