10,000 Demonstrate for Strikers at Yale

NEW HAVEN - Ten thousand Yale strikers and labor supporters from across the Northeast shut down the center of the city Saturday, shouting, chanting, waving banners and blocking major intersections.

The presidents of five powerful unions, along with more than a hundred rank-and-file members, were arrested at the close of the four-hour demonstration.

Throngs of strikers and supporters moved en masse through downtown streets, putting motor vehicle and human traffic at a standstill. Drivers leaned on their horns, some in support, some infuriated.

Hundreds of demonstrators converged at the intersection of York and Elm streets - in the heart of the Yale campus - locked arms and sat down on the pavement. Police, anticipating the civil disobedience, swooped in and made peaceful arrests.

"Anything for the workers!" AFL-CIO national President John Sweeney called out as he was led away wearing plastic handcuffs.

What Sweeney called a "historic event" began at about noon on the Green, followed by a march through the Yale-New Haven Hospital and medical school complex. The procession stretched across six full blocks.

Sweeney; John Wilhelm, president of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union; Bruce Raynor, president of UNITE; Douglas McCarron, president of United Brotherhood of Carpenters; and Andy Stern, president of SEIU, were arrested alongside 147 other demonstrators.

Seven buses took the arrestees to a gymnasium at police headquarters for processing.

Yale spokesman Thomas Conroy said the demonstrators did not have the strikers’ best interest at heart.

He said the main issue for labor across the country is organizing and Saturday’s demonstration was a reflection of that.

He said the rally showed "the greater concern to them (the Yale unions) is organizing the workers at Yale-New Haven Hospital, rather than the quality of the contract they are going to get from Yale."

Wilhelm responded, "Yale would be better served in coming to a reasonable agreement on pensions and other issues, than continue to try to divert attention from its shameful pensions and by talking about something that is not on a subject of bargaining."

Conroy said, "it’s much more significant to us that more of our unionized employees are working, than striking." About half of the 4,000 unionized workers at Yale are on the picket line.

Sweeney and Wilhelm said the New Haven demonstration was the launch of a broader campaign that will target Yale University trustees where they live and work, as well as other university campuses.

Wilhelm said union members will stage protests, even at country clubs where trustees register memberships.

"Yale trustees: You cannot run. You cannot hide. Wherever you are in the next month we will be with you. Every hour, of every day - until we win," Stern said.

"None of these strategies has any effect on what Yale proposes at the bargaining table," Conroy said.

Yale clerical, technical and maintenance workers walked off their jobs Aug. 27, as did hospital workers in Local 1199.

They were bolstered Saturday by the high spirits and bright banners of carpenters, laborers, food service workers, the needle trades, steelworkers, Teamsters and other trade union locals who arrived early in the morning from New Jersey, New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Las Vegas.

Sam Cook and Gerri Ford, members of HERE Local 634 in Philadelphia, came by bus with 33 others from their local as a show of solidarity, they said.

"No matter what part of the country we live in, we all have the same issues," Ford said.

Politicians on hand were New Haven Board of Aldermen President Jorge Perez, D-5, state Rep. Toni Walker, D-New Haven, and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn. Also present was Jimmy Griffin, president of the NAACP’s state conference.

Laura Smith, president of Local 34, said Yale is just "the first step" in a concerted fight by organized labor "for a decent standard of living and a good future for ourselves and our families."

Undergraduates and graduate student teachers from Harvard and Columbia universities held up signs, as did Graduate Employees and Students Organizing, which has been trying to form a union at Yale for more than a decade.

"They thought they were taking on 4,000 workers. They have taken on the whole American labor movement," Raynor said.

The Rev. Scott Marks, master of ceremonies for the rally, brought to the stage jazz bands and a gospel choir from New Growth church that had the crowd clapping, singing and dancing.

"We want a contract. We want a contract. Hey, Hey, Hey. Right now," they sang.

Thirteen Hispanic workers hired by the university after the strike began, joined the picket lines Friday and took the stage with union leaders at the rally.

Some of the 13 are undocumented workers, and Conroy said Yale’s subcontractor hired to perform cleaning services during the strike said it will fire any of the workers found to have lied about their legal status.

"The issue is not the documentation status," said Wilhelm. "While denying Latino workers good union jobs and benefits, Yale has been quick to use them as strikebreakers."

"Employers like Yale are happy to exploit them (illegals) and quick to hide behind the law when they are caught red-handed," Wilhelm said.

New Haven Police Chief Francisco Ortiz Jr., who marched in front of the masses using a shoulder-mounted radio to direct 100 city officers, estimated that more than 10,000 people participated.

New Haven police were visible on the Green, along sidewalks and at every intersection, while constables stood near the hospital entrance and Yale police stood on watch at campus locations.

Wilhelm said there was a breakthrough last week on the issue of job security during meetings in Mayor John DeStefano Jr.’s office. But the two sides are far apart on salary raises and pension benefit increases.

"We made a little bit of progress. A little bit of progress is a good thing, but it’s not enough," Wilhelm said.

He said the parties will meet again Monday.

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