Yale Union Speaks Out Against Faculty Intimidation

At a panel discussion last week, Yale students repeated accusations that their university's administration is hostile towards attempts by graduate students to unionize.

The panel, held at Tufts and sponsored by the Coalition for Social Justice and Non-Violence, included a member of Yale's Graduate Employee and Student Organization (GESO), a Yale undergraduate, and a member of the New Haven Local 34 Technical and Clerical Union.

Local 34, which represents some of Yale's service, clerical and maintenance workers, has called several strikes this year that have attracted national attention. The union is currently trying to renegotiate existing contract with the University for higher pay raises and larger pension benefits.

GESO is seeking recognition from the university, like its counterpart at Tufts, the Association of Student Employees at Tufts (ASET).

"[Yale's administration] have been making too many decisions based on money instead of education," Seth said. "What's at stake here is the way the University is going to look. The faculty is crossing the line due to the culture the administration creates."

After unionization was narrowly defeated in a referendum last April, GESO decided that it needed to educate graduate students about unionization.

"We need some sort of process to get students to organize and an environment in which we can do this, where faculty can't terrorize students," said member Justin Rubin.

After the defeat, the organization published a report, in which it accused Yale of conducting an anti-union campaign. "There is something distinctive about Yale in that it is historically anti-union," said GESO chair Anita Seth. "This environment has made the conversation between the groups much more tense."

The report, which was presented at a public forum at Yale in September, includes several accounts of perceived faculty intimidation. It also alleged that several students were forbidden to speak about the union in the presence of certain faculty, and that they were sometimes forced to choose between academics and participating in the organization.

"It seemed clear that especially students involved in the organizing effort feel that the [Yale] has provided a hostile climate," said Adolf Reed, one of the panel members.

GESO's report has irked some opponents to unionization at Yale. "The evidence in that report is a handful of allegations, mostly against a few sciences faculty," said James Terry, a member of At What Cost?, an anti-union group at the university. "It makes its arguments mostly through innuendo." Terry accuses GESO of attempting to demonize Yale and said the group is "not really interested in a good collegiate environment, but only in good PR points."

Others take issue with GESO's perception of student opinion on the issue. "They feel if I have a different opinion, it's because I haven't been sufficiently educated," art history student Claudia Brittenham told the Associated Press at the time of the referendum.

At Tufts, ASET put unionization to a vote of graduate students last April, but the National Labor Relations Board immediately impounded the votes to prevent them from influencing subsequent hearings on the legitimacy of graduate student unions here and elsewhere.

As at Yale, Tufts union organizers claim that their efforts have encountered opposition from the administration. "The word from the top is that the party line is 'no union,'" said Joseph Ramsey, a Tufts graduate student in English. "The administration is used to asking peoples' opinions when it wants them as opposed to having a collective voice at the table when a decision is made."

But Ramsey feels that Tufts faculty generally support unions. A small percentage opposes unionization, he said, because unions would mean that graduate students "are no longer dependent on the good graces of a particular individual."

As at Yale, an anti-union group has emerged here, by the name of Why Have a Union at Tufts?

"It is not a right to get paid to learn," said Kendal Wolf, a Fletcher student and a member of the group.

Wolf said that if students approached the administration with their grievances directly, they would be solved much more efficiently than if they wait for unionization.

Proponents of unionization often cite increasing dependence on graduate student teaching, which now constitutes 18 percent of all teaching in universities, according to a study published by the Coalition of Graduate Employee Unions.