For the past four days, Yale University has been torn by protests from about 5,000 members of local union workers and graduate students who have been picketing because of stalled negotiations on contract and pension benefits and lack of university recognition.
The strike is the result of more than a year of unsuccessful contract negotiation between Yale and the local Service Employees International Union.
Adding to the worker protests are the Graduate Employees and Students Organization, which has sought official recognition by the university for nearly 14 years.
This week's series of protests marks the eighth work stoppage in 35 years.
In comparison, Princeton has not had a work stoppage for about 20 years, said SEIU Local 174 treasurer Richard Wilder.
The Princeton community employs about 600 unionized members. By far the largest union is the SEIU, which has about 360 members working in building services, dining services, maintenance, grounds-keeping, mailroom and custodial services.
Yale strikes
Yale's unions are seeking raises of between six and ten percent over four years, while Yale has offered only between three and four percent raises.
Yale spokesperson Tom Conroy said the strike aims to attract attention to the movement, not to disrupt university operations.
Union members are expected to return to work next week when students are away on spring break, however, union leaders have threatened to strike again when students return on March 24.
To aid the protester's movement this week, a number of high profile figures have converged on Yale.
Rev. Jesse Jackson led a march Monday from New Haven's Wooster Square to College Street. At the end of the march Jackson spoke of the need for a "social contract" between Yale and the New Haven community.
Tuesday's activities were highlighted by an address by national SEIU president Andrew Stern, while AFL-CIO president John Sweeney and Princeton professor Cornel West GS '80 spoke Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
Local union leaders said Princeton's low record of worker strikes does not mean that workers are perfectly content with their conditions.
Wilder said SEIU has considered joining forces with the student-led Workers' Rights Organizing Committee and library workers to have a larger bargaining presence.
Nevertheless, Wilder recognizes that there are some splits within the University's worker community that make protesting difficult.
"If you could get faculty, the graduate school, clerical workers, to unionize together with the SEIU and library we would have a large bargaining tool, but the University makes it sweet for clerical workers," Wilder said. "Getting them to organize has been a long challenge."
COLA
The WROC and local unions are continually pushing for increased benefits to keep up with necessary cost-of-living adjustments, said Tommy Parker, president of SEIU local 175 and a member of WROC.
"The cost of living and rate that we'll keep up with is pathetic," Wilder said. "The University has that money, but being here on the East Coast and with the highest taxes and insurances, the University feels that they are doing their best to keep us adequate with the surroundings."
The University, on the other hand, says it tries to accommodate the needs of workers.
Some of the most recent points of contention have been the hourly wage of the lowest paid workers, casual labor and outsourcing, said Vice President for Public Affairs Robert Durkee '69.
"I think we have always valued very highly the people who work here," Durkee said. "We know the people who work here take great pride that they work in the union. There is a long history here of respecting that. As a University we have tried certainly for as long as I know to make sure that lines of communication are open."
To avoid strikes in recent years, Durkee also pointed to an effective Office of Human Resources and a "good working relationship" between union and University leadership.
Most recently, SEIU members have complained of problems arising from the snow day. Wilder said critical employees who were snowed-in and could not come to work were charged a vacation day, despite Gov. James McGreevey's state of emergency declaration.
He speculates that these University employees will have to go through the "grievance arbitration process" to get their vacation day back.
Overtime
Wilder said the lack of proper overtime payment for snow days continues to be an issue for union members.
In their contracts, employees are guaranteed double pay, but repeatedly have only been paid a-time-and-a-half on snow days, Wilder said. Eventually, he said, these employees are reimbursed in future paychecks, but the process requires the union to file a grievance.
The Fraternal Order of Police, Federation of Police, Security and Corrections Officers, International Union of Operating Engineers and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees – a division of the AFL-CIO – are also represented on campus.
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