No business as usual in Yale strike

[Scott Marshall <scott@xxxxxxxxxx>]

**No business as usual in strike at Yale University**

(Reprinted from the February 24, 1996 issue of the People's
Weekly World. May be reprinted or reposted with PWW credit.
For subscription information see below)

By Yale Workers Club of the Communist Party, USA

The 3,000 workers at Yale University are in a fight for the
life of their union, and for the future of the City of New
Haven. Entering the third week of strike, the unions are
holding firm to protect the basic right of job security and
a living wage with union representation, having declared
"business as UNusual."

Yale, the nation's third richest university with a record
high endowment of $4 billion, has launched an attack
designed to reduce Yale workers to the levels of the fast
food restaurants and casual non-union service and industrial
jobs which increasingly dominate the region.

The university proposals include cutting the incomes of new
dining hall workers in half; freedom for increased
subcontracting; major reductions in new retiree health
benefits, cutting the value of a typical pension almost in
half. Yale refuses to budge on union demands for benefits
and union representation for long-term casual workers, and
has yet to make any wage offer.

In response to the all-out assault by the university,
patterned after the corporate greed policies of today's
giant corporations whose representatives sit on the Yale
Corporation, the unions have boldly set out to fightback on
their own terms. They have devised a creative strike
strategy designed to enable the workers to last out Yale's
tactics. With the full mobilization and support of the
members, the labor movement and the New Haven community, the
workers at Yale can win.

Back in January, as the contract expiration approached,
Local 34 (clerical and technical workers) and Local 35
(service and maintenance workers), Federation of University
Employees, were faced with a deck stacked against them. In
the event that all 3,000 union members walked out, Yale was
busy making preparations to use its bloated ranks of
managers, along with contractors and temps, to keep the
University in operation.

With limited resources, in a depressed economy, the unions
knew that if Yale could make it through three months of
strike (as they have in the past), the students would be
gone for the summer and the workers would be left picketing
empty buildings.

So the unions decided to change the rules. Under a joint
strategy of mutual support, Local 34 went on strike Feb. 7.
Members of Local 35 are continuing to work, and at the same
time each member is asked to contribute $100 a week to the
strike fund for Local 34, and to join the picket lines
before and after work each day.

After four weeks, before Yale can terminate health benefits,
Local 34 will return to work - just as the students' spring
vacation is beginning. When the students return, Local 35
will walk out and Local 34 members will contribute $100 a
week to the strike fund. Local 35 will return in time for
the long summer vacation. In September, either or both may
strike again if no contract has yet been signed.

Through it all, working or striking, the unions will
confront Yale at every opportunity, including graduation
ceremonies, making it impossible to conduct business as
usual.

The union strategy enables the workers to conduct a long
struggle without impossible financial sacrifices. However,
it is a complicated strategy that demands maximum unity of
Yale workers and their supporters. It will require that the
energy and commitment from the picket lines be brought
inside to the offices and laboratories when the strike is
suspended.

As secretaries, lab aides, library workers and bookkeepers
picket in the snow, huddling around fire barrels and
chanting "Beep, Beep - Yale's Cheap," managerial and
professional workers from their offices bring coffee, cakes
and good wishes to the picket lines. At Yale's Peabody
Museum, managers collected $450 for the strike fund during
the first week, and created a button "I Support Striking
Workers at Yale" to spread to departments across campus. Two
hundred classes have been moved off campus by professors who
will not cross picket lines.

On radio talk shows, in the letters to the editor columns of
local papers, and in television interview programs, workers
and members of the community alike have expressed their
solidarity with the cause of Locals 34 and 35. But as in any
sharp class war, unity and solidarity, the key to victory,
cannot be taken for granted.

Yale has been actively working to divide the workers,
especially to drive a wedge between Local 34, which is 80
percent female, and Local 35, which has a higher proportion
of male and African American workers. The university sent a
flood of memos before the strike implying that the leaders
of Local 34 were looking to strike over issues that only
affect Local 35, and inviting workers to turn in their union
cards.

In addition, the university has missed no detail, however
small, in attempting to intimidate the workers. Before the
contract expired, Yale threatened health benefits could be
terminated for strikers after 30 days. They lined up
contractors and temp agencies to provide strikebreakers.
They even went to the extent of threatening a local bakery
with losing its contract with Yale if they followed through
on a promise to deliver day-old bread to the picket lines.

For workers who have family responsibilities, who may
already barely be making ends meet, and who see how hard any
job is to come by, it takes a lot of courage and commitment
to walk off the job. For Yale workers, in the face of a
university that is attempting to turn back the clock 25
years, there is no choice.

"I'll go out for the first day, anyway," said one clerical
worker who was afraid of losing her daycare arrangements and
her apartment without her regular paycheck. After the first
day on strike and a heart-to-heart talk with the union
hardship committee, she changed her mind. Instead of the
required four-hour picket shift, she stayed for six hours.
"Everything's going to be okay. I'm staying out for the
whole strike," she said. "This is important."

The union has organized constant activity, and a daily
information bulletin, to keep the momentum of the strike
high and growing. Downtown New Haven echoes with the
whistles and cheers of union picketers on every corner, as
the honking horns of motorists show support. Picketers pour
into the streets for rallies and parades, stage surprise
marches through Yale buildings, then disperse in small
groups to the 200 campus buildings. Busloads of strikers
descend on the corporate offices of trustees and alumni.

Of course, Yale is doing its best to sabotage the picket
line activities. On Valentine's Day, when the February winds
were coldest, the hearts of the Yale administration proved
colder still - they arranged to have the city fire
department douse the fire barrels the picketers use to keep
warm. Undaunted, the strikers carried out their "The Workers
Are the Heart of the Union" Valentine's Day Parade through
downtown New Haven, lodged their protest with the mayor, and
by next day the fire barrels were back in operation.

As New Haven's largest employer, what
workers at Yale win is an important part of setting the pace
for other workers, organized and unorganized. The university
has used its resources in an attempt to create confusion and
disunity within the city. Full-page newspaper ads blast the
workers for having wages and benefits that are "too high."

At the same time, the university is conducting a very active
public relations campaign to convince New Haven, a city that
is majority African American and Latino, how much it is
doing for the community through housing and development
programs. Of course, they don't mention that their contract
proposals will cost New Haven workers far more than it
donates through all its programs put together.

In the face of Yale's divisive tactics, and the unions'
creative and determined counter-offensive, support from all
sections of the university community as well as the broader
community, is critical.

Support from faculty, graduate teachers, students and Yale
workers outside the Local 34 and 35 bargaining units can be
the key. Support from the broader labor movement and the New
Haven community can bring strength to the strikers with
money, support on the picket lines, bumper stickers, letters
to the editor, and political pressure. And because of Yale's
prominence and the importance of the issues, support from
around the country, especially from unions, students and
faculty at other universities, can help isolate and pressure
the Yale administration. Not only can outside aid bring in
much needed funds and put more direct pressure on Yale, it
will also create an environment where members of Locals 34
and 35 will be able to keep on fighting for as long as it
takes to win a good contract.

During the 10-week 1984 strike for Local 34's first
contract, the firm solidarity of Local 35, widespread local
and national support, and creative tactics resulted in a
landmark labor victory during the bleak Reagan years. The
creative tactics of 1984 are being further developed and
extended in this year's struggle. Continuation of the
workers' unity, and continued development of support and
solidarity on all levels, can win today. The victory will be
a major contribution to the discussion in the labor movement
of how to confront corporate attacks in the 1990's.
Contributions and messages of support can be sent to
Federation of University Employees, 425 College St., New
Haven CT 06511 (203) 624-5161.
##30##
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