Grad Students, ​“Grad” Hotel Workers On The March

Graduate student teachers marched alongside hotel workers on closed-off downtown streets in support of two new unionization drives: a revived 30-year-old campaign at Yale, and one at the Graduate New Haven (née Duncan) hotel.

Over 500 Yale student workers and supporters relaunched the drive to win recognition here for what’s now called UNITE HERE Local 33. That was the official reason for the march — but it ended up occurring on the same day that workers at the now-christened New Haven Graduate hotel on Chapel Street took a step toward filing for a unionization election. So they joined the event too.

The two campaigns reflect two labor trends sweeping the country: Renewed successes in efforts to win union recognition for graduate students who teach classes. And a new wave of successes in service industries (including Starbucks coffee shops and Amazon warehouses). A combination of changing labor-management dynamics and a Democratic-appointed National Labor Relations Board has fueled the labor surgence.

Speakers at Wednesday’s rally said the graduate students seek a union so the university will acknowledge their work as essential, pay salaries that meet the cost of living, provide better health and dental services, and create a grievance procedure to address workplace complaints.

Yale has successfully beaten back the graduate student drive since its first incarnation in 1992 as the Graduate Employee Student Organization (GESO). That effort first took the name of the Graduate Employees and Students Organization (GESO). In 2016, it rebranded as Local 33, linking the graduate student teacher effort with the larger union that represents Yale’s blue-collar workers and office and research workers. After a spate of high-profile public actions and demonstrations in 2016 and 2017 — including a nationally watched hunger fast and a partially won election — Local 33 quietly withdrew a union-recognition petition from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in February 2018, fearing a labor-hostile decision from that board under the Trump Administration. 

“Yale supports open and robust discussion on the topic of graduate student unionization, with respect for everyone’s viewpoint,” Yale spokesperson Karen Peart said in response to Wednesday’s rally and revived effort.

Last week, the Board of Alders unanimously voted in support of a resolution approving street closures and backing related special event permits to allow the group to host the rally. Local 33 Co-Presidents Paul Seltzer and Ridge Liu wrote in an April 4 letter to Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers in support of the street-closing resolution that the rally would be ​“the first public action in our campaign” to win a graduate teacher union.

Local 33 organizer Abigail Fields, who emceed the event, announced that they would deliver the message to Yale with over a dozen binders including the student signatures and the intended union’s terms. With the help of fellow organizers, Fields handed these binders over to Pilar Montalvo, assistant vice president in the Office of the Secretary and Vice President for University Life.

The group then marched from the intersection to the President’s House on Hillhouse Avenue for a second set of speeches. Along the march, supporters chanted: ​“Yale had better change their tune; there’s a union coming soon!” And: ​“Labors and classrooms don’t divide the workers standing side by side. Unequal raises won’t divide the workers standing side by side.”

They carried a wide variety of picket signs, some handmade and others distributed by the union. The group had brought over 30 three-foot cubes that were plastered with multicolored papers which read, ​“I want _____ & a union!” with the blanks filled in by supporters. Many wore orange T‑shirts or vests . Some brought their children or dogs.

Spirits were high from start to finish. During speeches, the crowd loudly cheered or booed in accordance with each expressed sentiment. In between, upbeat music played over the loudspeaker (like Beyoncé’s ​“Run the World”).

“We’re here today with our allies … to demand that Yale follow the federal law and recognize graduate workers as workers,” said Local 33 organizer Fields.

“We are in the middle of an exciting new wave of graduate worker organizing in this country. A decade ago, there were zero graduate unions with contracts at private universities. Today, there are nine, there are dozens of campaigns like this one,” said Seltzer, who is a graduate teacher in the history department in addition to his role as co-president of Local 33.

Earlier this month, graduate students at MIT voted to form a union by a 2‑to‑1 margin.Over 1,000 graduate student workers at Indiana University’s Bloomington campus extended went on strike for almost two weeks this month.

The unionization efforts were joined by their partner organizations: UNITE HERE Local 217, Local 34, Local 35, Yale Unions Retirees Association, Students Union Now, and New Haven Rising.

Also in support of the cause was a brand-new unionization effort by workers at the Graduate (which reopened in 2019 as an upscaled version of the former Duncan) hotel on Chapel Street. Earlier Wednesday morning, workers at that hotel presented cards to file for a National Labor Relations Board election. The effort was supported with cards signed by 80 percent of their coworkers.

Jackie Sims, who has been a front-desk employee at the Graduate since it opened in 2019, said, ​“We are proud to be a part of the current wave of union organizing and glad to be standing along our brothers and sisters, the graduate workers at Yale.”

Cecelia Harold, a graduate researcher in the Yale Department of Genetics, told the crowd why she joined the unionization effort: ​“I grew up in a strong working class family. I’ve had relatives who were in unions previously, and I know the difference that a union job can make and not being one medical disaster from complete financial ruin.”

Harold said she was previously a member of 1199 SEIU, a medical workers union at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, where she worked as a lab manager.

“The main difference between there and here is that I don’t have a contract, and I don’t have protections for my work.” Harold said she manages radioactivity, and without the same lab safety standards as stipulated at Einstein, there is a higher likelihood of someone getting hurt.

Harold said she and her coworkers had hundreds of conversations to rally support for the union. Daniel Judt, a graduate student worker in the History department, said that the efforts grew exponentially as inspired supporters became organizers themselves.

Buğra Şahin, a Ph.D. candidate in the Fortner Lab, told a story about his troubles with the dental plan provided by Yale when he required a procedure. He said he had put off the procedure for a long time, knowing it would be a major expense. Ultimately, he paid $500 for the Yale dental insurance, which only allowed him $1,000 worth of coverage. This coverage left him to pay $2,500 out of pocket, which he said depleted his savings. Now, Şahin said he is living paycheck to paycheck.

Hill Alder Ron Hurt told the crowd, ​“Let’s bring the wave of graduate unionization to our city. We will all be more powerful when Local 33 wins, and you shall win.”

President of the Board of Alders Tyisha Walker-Myers enthusiastically repeated the chants of the crowd: ​“Local 33!”

Fields recognized other New Haven alders who turned out for the event: Adam Marchand, Charles Decker, Steve Winter, Majority Leader Richard Furlow, Sal DeCola, Alex Guzhnay, Sal Punzo, Ellen Cupo, Eli Sabin, Deputy Majority Leader Evelyn Rodriguez, Evette Hamilton, as well as Hamden Councilman Justin Farmer, and former Alders Al Paolillo, Dolores Colon, and Jill Marks. Also in attendance were Laurie Kennington, former president of Local 34, and Karen DuBois-Walton, candidate for state treasurer.