Protest Shed Dismantled

Now that students have left town, and right before alumni arrive on campus for reunions, Yale Thursday morning dismantled a protest shed that had served as a visible symbol of criticism of the university’s labor policy.

Supporters of UNITE HERE Local 33 — the new union representing some graduate student teachers — stealthily erected 25-foot-tall wooden arched ​“bow shed”-style structure four weeks ago while other members distracted cops’ attention elsewhere. (Click here to read about that.) The shed housed eight members who went on a hunger fast to protest Yale’s refusal to begin negotiations with Local 33 on a first contract. (Yale said it wants to wait for the National Labor Relations Board to rule on a second challenge to an election the union won.)

The bow-shaped shed was erected directly in front of the Yale president’s office on Beinecke Plaza. It became a gathering point for union supporters. Yale officials warned members that they had no legal right to put the shed on the property. But the university held off giving Local 33 a public relations victory — which would make the university look intolerant of opposing viewpoints — by dismantling the structure. Local 33 supporters slept in the shed to make it harder for Yale to send a crew in to take down the shed. (A similar protest shanty, erected to protest Yale’s investments in the then-apartheid government of South Africa, was removed on Beinecke Plaza in the 1980s when no one was inside.)

Then, on Monday, Local 33 ended the protest fast, as the last students prepared to leave campus after graduation.

And Thursday morning, when the campus had grown quiet (but one day before alumni swarm campus for reunions), Yale stepped in and took down the shed.

The operation began around 4:45 a.m. Yale spokesman Tom Conroy said the people inside the tent were ordered to gather their belongings and leave. No one was arrested. Conroy said the plaza was closed off during the removal, but since it was so early, pedestrian traffic was not affected.

Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Lynn Cooley reported on the removal at the end of an email message sent to faculty Thursday.

“For more than a month, a shelter erected by graduate student demonstrators has been in place on Beinecke Plaza,” Cooley wrote. ​“Protestors erected the structure without warning or permission and ignored repeated reminders that its continued presence violated university policies. This past Monday, the protestors declared the end to their hunger/fasting strike, but made it clear that they had no intention of relocating the shelter. Earlier today, Yale removed the shelter from Beinecke Plaza. The shelter, together with picnic tables, an Astroturf patio, couches, bookcases, house plants, and electrical lighting, will be stored until the owners reclaim these items. At the time of its removal, it was occupied by three Yale graduate students and two additional individuals unaffiliated with the university.”

Local 33 released a statement quoting two of the grduate student teachers who were sleeping inside the structure when police arrived to order them out. ​“I woke up at 4:45am to the sound of a Yale police officer ordering us to vacate the structure,” Sarah Arveson, a graduate teacher in Geology and Geophysics, was quoted stating. Jeffrey Niedermaier, a graduate teacher in East Asian Languages and Literatures, was quoted saying: ​“The contractors took a chainsaw to the structure and sliced it up like bread, then blew away the sawdust. The University will need much more than chainsaws and leaf-blowers to erase the rights of its graduate teachers.”

Later Thursday morning, a Yale security vehicle blocked the Wall Street intersection where the shed-builders had originally pulled up their trucks …

… while a security guard kept watch over any potential new outbreaks of unauthorized protest speech.

UNITE HERE Thursday afternoon released the above video of the takedown.

Yale has twice appealed to the NLRB — which will soon have new appointees from President Donald Trump — to overturn a decision that allowed unionizing elections for Local 33 to take place in only nine out of more than 50 academic departments; UNITE HERE won eight of those elections. Yale argues that all graduate students should be considered one bargaining unit (the way all blue-collar workers are, in UNITE HERE Local 35, and clerical and technical workers in Local 34). Local 33 argues that each department’s graduate student teachers have unique concerns meriting separate representation.
Yale argues that it already provides generous terms for graduate students, who study tuition-free and receive annual stipends of $30,000 a year or more along with health insurance. The union argues that graduate student teachers need more of a say over working conditions, latter-year stipends, and sexual harassment policy, which Yale claims it rigorously enforces.