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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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