September 9, 2003—Virginia Henry has worked as a custodian at Yale University’s Peabody Museum of Natural History for 19 years. Yet her pension benefits are so low she fears she may never be able to afford retirement. “Now I worry that when I’m 65 years old, I’ll have to find another job,” she says.
Henry, a member of Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Local 35, joined thousands of other Yale University workers seeking fair wages, job security and pension benefits that will support their families and community. Thousands of union members and leaders from throughout the Northeast, including AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney, plan to rally at the campus in support of the workers in a massive Sept. 13 mobilization.
After the university refused to bargain seriously or agree to binding arbitration, the 4,000 clerical workers, food service workers, maintenance employees, researchers and registrars at the elite New Haven, Conn., campus went on strike Aug. 27. They are members of HERE locals 34 and 35 and the New England Health Care Employees Union, SEIU District 1199.
“We’re almost guaranteed a retirement into poverty,” says Laura Smith, an office assistant at the university’s development and alumni affairs office and president of HERE Local 34. Union leaders say a 20-year worker retiring last year receives roughly $620 a month—at the same time the university boasts an $11 billion endowment, with undergraduate students paying nearly $40,000 a year to attend Yale.
Yale and its teaching hospital are the largest employers in New Haven, now employing up to one-quarter of New Haven-area workers—making it clear that “raising the standard at Yale raises the standard for the entire community,” says Smith.
“We want better working conditions for the people who will be working here in the future,” says Larry Graham, a dietary worker at Yale–New Haven Hospital. Graham, a member of SEIU District 1199, also is helping other hospital workers try to form a union despite management’s active opposition to their efforts. “This is about freedom of speech,” Graham says. “We’re going to keep fighting until we see a change.”
“This is an issue of basic values and fairness,” says Sweeney, “and it’s an issue for all working people.”
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