Fasts End As Grads, Protesters Fill Streets

While Yale students were handed degrees Monday, graduate student teachers two blocks away were handed cups of ginger and butternut soup to end, at least for now, a nationally watched protest fast.

Two separated seas of gowns — one orange, one black — replaced cars on New Haven’s streets, as Yale’s graduation collided with a march and rally to mark the end of the protest fast as well as a continuing labor dispute over graduate student teachers.

The New Haven police assigned about 200 cops to join Yale police in bringing order to the potential chaos on closed-off streets from York Street to Church Street, according to Assistant Chief Otoniel Reyes. Public works, traffic and parking crews, and the fire department all pitched in too.

Yale conferred degrees to 3,618 graduate and undergraduate students at the annual commencement. The students wore black caps and gowns as they paraded down Elm and various side streets, then gathered on Old Campus courtyard.

Meanwhile, up to 1,000 supporters of UNITE HERE Local 33, the new union representing graduate student teachers in eight academic departments, swarmed other streets. They poured in from at least six states to support Local 33’s call for Yale to negotiate a first contract rather than pursue repeated appeals of the new union’s election before the National Labor Relations Board.

Taking turns when health problems loomed, eight Local 33 members have been fasting in succession to bring attention to their quest for contract negotiations. They accuse Yale of delaying negotiations through repeated appeals in the hopes that new NLRB members appointed by President Donald Trump will adopt a more anti-union stance. (Yale officials argue that instead of fasting the union should focus on the NLRB process to work out the disagreement.)

Cops choreographed the two swarms of gowned protesters so they wouldn’t interfere with each other. UNITE HERE organizers coordinated with police and put out the call to supporters not to interfere with the graduation, according to police spokesman Officer David Hartman. But police were aware of other groups posting a call on the web for arrests, so they were prepared for potential unplanned activity. It all ended up going smoothly, with no arrests.

Lodging A Protest

As graduating students dressed in their caps and gowns and met with family and friends around 7:50 a.m. Monday, some union supporters gathered at New Haven’s Elks Lodge on Dixwell Avenue and at College and Elm Streets, outside of UNITE HERE’s downtown offices. As marchers poured in, picking up orange protest swag from UNITE HERE organizers, they greeted each other in the grassy lot by the Elks Lodge, then began to assemble in rows of eight that would march down Dixwell Avenue.

Walking to the front with a large banner, Yale graduate student Charles Decker (one of the eight initial fasters; pictured above) spoke of how organizers ensured the protests would not disrupt Yale’s graduation.

“So many of our classmates and students are graduating today,” said Decker. ​“My wife is graduating today, so if we were disruptive, I think there’d be some trouble at home. It’s a great day of celebration and we want it to be that. But we also want to remind Yale that if they think we’re going away, we’re not.”

Chanting ​“What do we want?/ Contracts!/ When do we want them?/ Now!,” ​“We’re certified!/ Negotiate!,” and ​“We are the union/ The mighty mighty union,” marchers made their way down Dixwell, filling the avenue with orange.

One of the marchers, Idelier Pettigrew, who spent last year campaigning for Hillary Clinton, is a member of Construction and General Laborers Union ​“We’re all a union, all together, in this strong, vibrant community,” she said. ​“We respect Yale and we’re grateful for them in the community, but we also need to be recognized.”

Marcher Mirjaam Parada (pictured) came in from Providence, where she works at the Omni Hotel and belongs to UNITE HERE Local 26. She said she participated in a protest fast herself, three years ago. She said the fast helped workers win higher wages and better hours.

Marchers included members of the national and state chapters of the AFL-CIO, Make the Road Connecticut and New York, United Auto Workers, Teamsters Local 443, Jobs with Justice, Letter Carriers Union, United Steel Workers, Young Workers Group, the Working Families Party, CT Citizens Action, and the Democratic National Convention.

The marchers also included graduate students from Duke, Columbia, and Princeton. One of them, Heba Gowayed of Princeton, said she knows graduate students who are living in professors’ attics and working odd jobs on top of their teaching loads to make ends meet. As an advocate for refugee rights in New Haven, she called for collective bargaining rights.

“If we don’t have a way to represent ourselves, we’re going to be left out of the discussion,” she said.

Groups of orange-clad marchers merged at York and Broadway. There, top Downtown cop Sgt. Sean Maher and Officer Anthony Ryken directed several officers at a blockade separating the marchers from Elm Street, where a formal procession of graduating students and professors was scheduled for 10 a.m.

“Union power in the ivory tower!” protesters chanted. ““I believe/I believe that/ I believe that we will win!”

As marchers turned from Broadway onto York, a few students and parents looked on, some pulling out their phones to snap a picture or start a video of the event. One parent, Tanya Metrano, had travelled to New Haven to watch her son Anthony received his PhD degree in chemistry. Standing at the curb, she rolled her eyes and raised her arms.

“My son thinks everyone should have freedom of speech. But on graduation? This is ridiculous,” Metrano said. ​“Really? They don’t get the right to graduate?” 

Students do get the right to graduate, maintained New Haven State Rep. Robyn Porter as she held a position with state Comptroller (and gubernatorial hopeful) Kevin Lembo and State Reps. Toni Walker and Matt Lesser toward the front of the line. But graduate students should also get the right to bargain collectively, she argued. ​“I’m disappointed in Yale,” she said.

Souped Up

As protesters reached Temple and Wall Street, a few peeled off, taking off their orange shirts and caps to reveal doctoral robes beneath. The protesters cheered them on, clapping with congratulations. Then they turned onto Elm, where Yale’s formal procession was about to begin.

As drums and tubas sounded from across Elm Street, close to Sterling Library, protesters broke into ​“We shall not be moved,” singing as the first faces of the procession flooded Elm Street, and headed down College towards Phelps Gate.

As students and professors rounded the bend at Elm and College, some cheered on the protesters. Several parents who had lined the street followed suit, throwing their fists in the air. And in return, Local 33 members and supporters took a break from singing, and broke into applause.

”Wooooo!” yelled Local 33 Co-Chair Robin Canavan, cupping her hands around her mouth to carry the sound. ​“Woooo! Congratulations!”

As the procession ended, marchers headed toward their final destination: a large white tent on Church Street in front of City Hall, decorated with a large orange and white archway of balloons at the entrance.

Members of UNITE HERE poured steamy, orange cups of butternut squash and ginger soup from ball jars, handing them to the fasters with plastic spoons on the stage.

The fast was ​“a profoundly spiritual tool to reclaim the university’s moral high ground,” said Father Clete Kiley, founder of a group called Priest-Labor Initiative, who consulted with the fasters.

“We have a history of fighting with Yale since 1941,” UNITE HERE Local 35 and Central Labor Council President Bob Proto declared at the rally, ​“and we’re not going away.”