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New
Haven Register
Friday 19 September, 2003
YALE STRIKE OVER
Unions
gain wage, pension increases in new 8-year pact
Mary
E. O'Leary, Register Topics Editor
09/19/2003
NEW
HAVEN - Promising cooperation over confrontation, Yale and
its unions announced a tentative contract Thursday that nearly doubles
pensions and boosts salaries over the life of an eight-year pact.
Yale's
clerical, technical and maintenance workers, caught up in one of the
most divisive strikes in its long history of bad labor relations, are
expected to head back to work next week after they ratify the pact today.
The proposed contract provides wage increases of 4 percent to 5 percent
each year for Local 34 and 3 percent to 4 percent each year for Local
35; two-thirds of retroactive wages lost in the last 19 months, with
a minimum of $1,500; an additional grade level for Local 34 and 18 months
in a transitional pool for laid off workers.
On
the tough pension issue, there is a tiered solution that phases in increases
so that by 2010 the payout is close to double the $621 monthly average
that was given to 20-year retirees in 2002.
The
pact, which will end a 23-day walkout and followed 18 fruitless months
of negotiations, was approved by the union's negotiating committee Thursday.
In the end, the details of the agreement were worked out in a dozen
one-on-one sessions between Yale President Richard C. Levin and John
Wilhelm, president of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International
Union, in conjunction with Mayor John DeStefano Jr., who acted as mediator.
The three sealed the deal early Thursday, according to Wilhelm, after
31⁄2 weeks of trying.
The
length of the pact, which is retroactive to 2002, is expected to give
the parties a chance to work on a new relationship. "We will have
eight years to work together to build a stronger, more cooperative relationship
and we look forward to that opportunity," Levin said.
Both
Wilhelm and Levin saved special praise for DeStefano. The mayor "has
served both sides well as he labored to bring us together, trying to
help us find a common ground," said Levin.
Cheers
from a large group of Yale students greeted the major players in negotiations
as they announced the pact in a late-evening press conference at City
Hall.
Levin
praised the workers at Yale who he said all "contribute in their
important ways to the advancement" of the university's important
educational mission. Wilhelm said they came close to avoiding this ninth
strike altogether when DeStefano called them together on the eve of
the strike on Aug. 26 and they met in Levin's office.
"The real victory here belongs to neither party, but rather to
the fact that although we missed on Aug. 26, we have managed to find
common ground after 31⁄2 weeks, instead of the many more weeks"
it took in the past, he said.
Wilhelm
praised Levin and said it was "extraordinary for the chief executive
officer of an institution of the size and importance of Yale" to
take it upon himself to "figure out how to solve" these issues.
However,
the union leader and DeStefano did not forget the 140 dietary workers
at Yale-New Haven Hospital who are still on strike. Wilhelm pledged
to help them, while the mayor hoped the hospital would follow Yale's
lead in settling with its workers.
Wilhelm
hoped that the next time the union and Yale come together for a contract,
"we hope we can do it right."
"The fact that we have not figured out how to do this without this
level of conflict is a bad thing for this entire community," he
added.
He
and DeStefano said there will continue to be differences between the
university and its unions. "We have to learn how to agree when
we can and how to disagree in a way that makes sense for the community,"
the union leader said.
Laura
Smith, president of Local 34, said the parties were on the cusp of a
new "model of labor relations - a real partnership on this campus
and I think we can't miss that opportunity this time."
Bob
Proto, president of Local 35, agreed and said the "real hard work
is in front of us." The breakdown of talks over the previous year
and one-half turned into a classic bloodbath between the parties who
have seen eight previous job actions going back to 1965.
Numerous
rallies and press conferences brought national civil rights activists,
labor leaders and politicians to the campus, who used Yale as a backdrop
to the talk about the bigger issue of pension and salary pressures on
middle-class Americans.
This
10th round of negotiations over almost four decades started on a high
note when Levin, as part of the university's tercentennial celebration,
offered an olive branch to the unions and suggested they pursue a new
relationship.
Wilhelm
had also sought out Levin and then a Yale trustee, Kurt Schmoke, to
work on establishing a new way of dealing with each other. The upshot
was the hiring of John Stepp of Restructuring Associates Inc. who, after
interviewing more than 100 members of the Yale community, found they
had a "highly adversarial and dysfunctional relationship, non-productive
at its best, but often destructive, and ultimately, demoralizing for
both union and management."
Progress
was made on tackling many of the non-economic issues until a misunderstanding
in May 2002 over Stepp's departure sent the talks into disarray with
a one-week walkout in March 2003 and the most recent strike.
"Where
we went off course is much less important than how we get back to working
with each other," said Bruce Alexander, Yale vice president for
finance and administration. "This relationship is important to
the whole community and we are going to do everything possible to change
the dynamic of it. The revitalization of New Haven was harder and look
at how far we have come by working together in terms of the progress
of our city. We can do this," Alexander said.
About
2,000 of the 4,000 workers represented by the union participated in
the walkout, with almost all of the 1,100 maintenance workers off the
job, with one-half to two-thirds of the clerical workers continuing
to work.
TIMELINE
Feb.
12: Roughly 500 union workers march through the East Rock neighborhood
to the doorstep of Yale University President Richard C. Levin's home.
They renew demands for a better labor contract setting the stage for
the strike.
Aug.
27: Thousands of Yale workers walk off the job over pensions, wages
and job security, marking the ninth strike in nearly 40 years. The Rev.
Jesse Jackson, the civil rights activist, joins throngs of pickets from
the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union Locals 34 and 35
as the fall semester begins. Mayor John DeStefano Jr. and Sen. Joseph
Lieberman, a leading Democratic presidential candidate, meet with strikers
at Battel Chapel.
Aug.
29: Eighty-three people are arrested in several planned acts of civil
disobedience as 3,000 march on Old Campus. The march coincides with
the arrival of freshmen and their parents on campus. Also, Democratic
presidential candidate Howard Dean, a Yale graduate, meets with 700
strikers at Bieneke Plaza and pledges support to the strike effort.
Aug.
30: Fearing disruptive protests, Yale cancels its convocation, the traditional
freshman assembly and address by Levin.
Sept.
1: Jackson and 30 others are arrested after blocking traffic during
a Labor Day march downtown.
Sept.
3: Several professors relocate classes off campus so students will not
need to cross picket lines of striking workers.
Sept.
4: Striking workers move their drums, chants and placards to the president's
residence on Hillhouse Ave. to protest the non-union opening of Sprague
Hall after a two-year renovation.
Sept.
10: Twenty-five members of Congress, most of them members of the Hispanic
caucus, sign a letter criticizing Yale for hiring mostly Hispanic non-union
replacement workers.
Sept.
13: About 10,000 Yale strike supporters shut down the city center in
a rally where 152 are arrested.
Sept.
16: The city of New Haven seeks to bill Yale for about $100,000 in police
overtime costs related to the strike. Sept 17: Levin and John Wilhelm,
president of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International
Union, report progress on a range of smaller issues, but the pension
plans remain a major sticking point.
Sept
18: Yale and union leaders reach an agreement, signaling an end to the
23-day strike. A contract ratification vote is scheduled.
Mary
E. O'Leary can be reached at moleary@nhregister.com, and 789-5731.
©New Haven Register
2003
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