To: Yale President Peter Salovey
Yale: Negotiate with your Graduate Teachers
Graduate teachers at Yale voted to form a union. They want a seat at the table and immediate action on widespread sexual harassment and racism on campus. Instead of negotiating, Yale is trying to buy time until Trump appointees can roll back their rights. We call on Yale President Salovey to come to the negotiating table.
Why is this important?
Eight members of Local 33-UNITE HERE, the union for graduate teachers at Yale, are fasting to protest the university’s refusal to bargain with us.
Here’s why:
We voted to unionize in February. But Yale has refused to negotiate. Instead the university has engaged in months of legal delay, attempting to buy time until Donald Trump can seat new appointees to the National Labor Relations Board who will void our votes and roll back our rights.
We’ve done all this for a simple reason. We want a voice and a seat at the table. Our members, like many young workers in this economy, have to deal with intense economic insecurity. We face punishing competition in a declining career track. Women experience an epidemic of sexual harassment in academia. People of color are systemically marginalized. We want change, and we’ve been told to wait for too long.
Our fast and fight back will keep going until we’re heard.