Yale workers fight is everybody's fight

[Scott Marshall <Scott@xxxxxxxxxx>]

**Yale workers' fight is everybody's fight**

(Reprinted from the January 20, 1996 issue of the People's
Weekly World. Maybe reprinted or reposted with PWW credit.
For subscription information see below)

By Yale Workers Club, Communist Party USA

As Yale workers prepared for a strike vote Jan.19, they are
affected by and have a big stake in the outcome of broader
political and economic struggles.

The contract struggle of Yale workers can make a significant
contribution to a turning point for America's working class.
It teaches the need for unity and class struggle, and
deserves the widest support.

Corporate America's frenzy of downsizing, outsourcing and
cost cutting mean lower wages and the elimination of jobs.
As AT&T cuts 40,000 jobs, AT&T top executive Harry Schact
sits on Yale's governing board -- it is no surprise that the
university is trying to increase subcontracting, reduce
wages and cut working hours. In an economy where the
nation's largest employer is Manpower, Yale also employs
large numbers of casual workers with no benefits and no
security.

Capping 20 years of anti-union attacks from Washington, the
Gingrich-led Congress is escalating the assault on the
working class. In Connecticut, Republican Gov. John Rowland
leads the anti-people crusade with the nation's most
draconian new welfare laws. In this context, Yale's
"liberal" administration has joined the anti-union attacks,
including discipline against union stewards for talking to
other workers, and blacklisting, firing and threats of
suspension against graduate student teachers for union
activity.

But this year has also seen a turning point in the labor
movement. Three of the largest unions, machinists, auto
workers and steelworkers, are forming one united union. The
national AFL-CIO has a new leadership pledged to militant
action to reverse the decline not only of unions but the
conditions of all workers.

It is a year when the aerospace workers at Boeing, after
weeks on the picket line, rejected an inadequate contract
and soon won a major victory. The French workers
demonstrated to the world what the working class can do when
it is united.

The Connecticut State AFL-CIO is making common cause with
embattled welfare recipients. And as Yale negotiations enter
their final days, 30,000 New York City building maintenance
workers are on strike against the imposition of a two-tier
wage system similar to one which Yale is trying to impose.

Like its corporate brethren, whose treasuries are bursting
from record profits, Yale's coffers also continue to grow at
a record pace. Therefore, it is not surprising that Yale
workers are determined to win good contracts and are
displaying their highest level of organization and activity
since the last strike in 1984.

This contract struggle is breaking new ground in two
directions. Casual workers, who are among the most
exploited, and graduate student teachers, who have been
regarded as part of an intellectual elite, are both
involved. The three unions at Yale -- Local 35 (service and
maintenance workers), Local 34 (clerical and technical) and
GESO (graduate student teachers) -- are part of the same
international (Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees),
share the same office and have frequent joint meetings at
all levels, from staff and officers to stewards. This level
of unity has been essential to the unions' progress.

At Yale, there are over 1,000 casual and part-time workers
with no benefits and, in most cases, no union protection and
no job security. In addition, Yale wants to introduce a two-
tier system for wages and benefits. According to the union,
between wage and hour cuts, this would have new hires
working for as little as half the present pay. Union leaders
have charged that Yale maintains New Haven as a "cheap day-
labor pool."

The exploitation of casual and temporary workers has become
a major problem for the labor movement. The Yale unions have
developed an aggressive organizing campaign to bring casual
workers into the union along with demands that would bring
them benefits and job security and move toward converting
part time casual jobs to full time permanent jobs. Because
most casuals live in New Haven, the city would directly gain
by the improvements in pay and benefits resulting from the
unions' proposals. This is especially true of African
American and Latino workers in New Haven, whose only access
to Yale jobs has often been as casuals.

The alliance of union and community has played an important
part in past union victories here. This year, the stakes for
the entire city are even clearer. The struggle to keep the
state from throwing hundreds off the welfare roles (and into
the casual labor pool) will provide another opportunity for
the Yale unions to cement ties with New Haven neighborhoods
while advancing their own interests.

Despite differences in education and job descriptions,
graduate student teachers have much in common with casual
workers. Despite the fact that they do much of the
undergraduate teaching at Yale, graduate teachers have few
benefits, low pay, and work at the whim of Yale
administrators. When they graduate, many will face years of
casual academic work as substitute teachers or part-time
instructors in a shrinking job market.

In 1984, Yale clerical and technical workers became the
first at a top-ranked private university to win a union
(Local 34). GESO is seeking a similar breakthrough. Just as
Local 34 received national attention and helped spur
organizing of clerical workers nationwide, GESO can also set
an important example. It's not only that this would be a
first for a major private university. But GESO also shows
that it is possible to organize categories of workers (ie,
graduate student teachers) who usually are not regarded as
part of the labor movement, but who the changing economy
have made more important and more liable to unionization.

Any struggle pitting over 3,500 workers against a large and
wealthy institution is important to all American workers.
This one is especially important because by the nature of
Yale University, it will attract worldwide attention, and
because the unions, in their struggle, are addressing many
leading-edge issues of vital concern to all workers.

In this situation, as the Communist Party prepares for its
26th National Convention, Communist Party members at Yale
and throughout Connecticut should remember the words of the
Communist Manifesto, written 148 years ago: "In the national
struggles of the [working class] of the different countries,
[Communists] point out and bring to the front the interests
of the entire [working class] they always and everywhere
represent the interests of the movement as a whole."

In the fight under way at Yale, we are committed to do
everything we can to organize widespread support, which is
important to working class people everywhere, and to build
the unity that will result in a victory for Yale workers.

This will be an important step toward building a working-
class movement to stop the corporate offensive and reverse
the anti-worker, anti-people policies of state and national
government.

Because of its public presence, Yale is subject to influence
by popular opinion. Messages should be sent to Yale
President Richard Levin, FAX (203) 432-7105, voice 432-2550.
Copies to the union office, FAX (203) 776-6438, voice 624-
5161.
##30##


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