2,000 Rally For Yale Contracts

by Laura Glesby

Two thousand people flooded the streets of Downtown and the Hill on Thursday evening to march, chant, and sing — calling on Yale to raise employees’ wages and increase funding for the city of New Haven.

The Yale union members and allies marched from the Green to Yale’s medical school, filling the road for the length of an entire city block. Neighbors stood on high-up balconies to record footage, while employees stepped out of local businesses to watch the crowd go by.

The protest was organized by New Haven Rising and the UNITE HERE local unions. It drew many hundreds of union members and throngs of allies, from local politicians to high school students.

Thursday’s outing took place as two of the university’s most politically influential unions, Locals 34 and 35, have begun negotiating new contracts. Their current respective labor agreements with Yale expire in January 2027.

On the New Haven Green, many hundreds of signs awaited protesters. The simple, stark lettering gestured to labor history, including the 1968 Memphis Santitation Workers’ iconic “I Am A Man” posters.

Every local union affiliated with UNITE HERE had an ongoing campaign to raise on Thursday evening.

Members of Local 217 who work in food service at Southern Connecticut State University voted Wednesday to authorize a strike as they negotiate for a better contract with their management company, Sodexo.

The recently-ratified graduate student union at Yale, Local 33, is also working to enlist post-doctoral researchers to join their union. Postdoc Bryan Mckiver announced on Thursday that “a majority of postdocs have signed union cards.”

Union spokesperson Ian Dunn did not directly answer questions about what the postdocs’ next steps are, though Local 33 President Adam Waters wrote in a statement, “We hope Yale will commit to neutrality during this process.”

According to Local 34 Organizing Director Barbara Vereen, postdocs would add 1,300 members to the union’s ranks.

Meanwhile, Yale’s most recent agreement to contribute $52 million to the city over six years is nearing its expiration date in 2026. The unions called on Thursday for the university to contribute more of its $41.4 billion endowment to the city, particularly in light of its sizable non-taxable property base in the city.

The focus of Thursday’s protest, however, was on Local 34, representing Yale’s clerical and technical workers, and Local 35, representing Yale’s maintenance and service workers.

Those two unions have five-year contracts expiring on Jan. 17, 2027, and they have already commenced negotiations with the university for subsequent contracts.

In an unsigned statement, Yale’s Office of Public Affairs and Communications wrote to the Independent, “The university began negotiations with Locals 34 and 35 this summer and look forward to a positive and productive process that results in a fair contract.”

The unions have rallied massive protests in the past, leveraging public support for stronger pay and contractual protections during previous contract negotiations.

This year, they face an unprecedented challenge as Yale faces a historic 8 percent endowment tax and substantial research funding cuts under the Trump administration.

Trump’s higher ed crackdown did not faze the protesters, as union leaders highlighted Yale’s endowment worth over $40 billion.

“What do we want? Contracts! When do we want it? Now!” the protesters chanted as they marched down College Street, escorted by a police bike. “No contract, no peace!”

When the crowd reached Cedar Street outside the Yale School of Medicine, they were greeted by a stage and a thorough sound system, which blasted Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5” as the protesters arrived.

Local 35 President Bob Proto.

Local 34 President Lisa Stevens.

A series of UNITE HERE speakers then took the mic to speak of the stress of inflation, the university’s stark wealth, and the urgency of better funding local public schools.

“What was once enough before is not enough anymore,” declared Lisa Stevens, president of Local 34. “Our work makes Yale work.”

Local 35 member and custodian Elidia Lezama described that with the pressure of inflation, “It has become harder and harder to afford the basic things we need to support our families. Many of my coworkers are back to working multiple jobs and struggling to get by.”

By 2026, hourly minimum wages for Local 34 members will range from $22.58 to $35.64. For Local 35 members, hourly wages currently range from $22.12 to $48.28 (excluding new hires).

Local 34 member and Medical School Account Assistant Tanya Ricks described “having to do more work with less people” under Yale’s soon-to-expire hiring freeze.

She pointed to language protecting union jobs from cuts spurred by “new technology” in Local 34’s previous contract. “We have to keep those protections in our new contract,” she said.

Metropolitan Business Academy student Brandon Daley noted how financial insecurity and the loss of immigrant protections has led to more anxiety among students, while the New Haven Public Schools system struggles to close budgetary gaps and retain staffing levels. “We deserve classrooms filled with opportunities, not with fear,” he said.

Among the sea of protesters, 14-year-old Luz and 15-year-old Dejonay were experiencing their first-ever protest.

They joined as part of a contingent of students from High School in the Community.

They found out about the event because “our school had flyers,” said Dejonay.

“We’ve been noticing a lot of stuff that is unjust,” said Luz. “Houses are going up. School has been challenging,” particularly due to an insufficient number of teachers.

Elsewhere in the crowd, a group of part-time retail workers at Yale’s Schwarzman Center marched together.

Cynthia Laudano described working two part-time jobs, at Yale and in military recruitment, in order to pay her bills. She’s currently pregnant, she said, and just purchased a home for the first time.

“I used to work 60 hours a week,” she said, before she recently lost the ability to work overtime at Yale. She receives only partial benefits as a part-time employee at Yale, with the added challenge of juggling multiple jobs from different employers.

She and her colleagues called on Yale to offer more full-time job opportunities to part-time workers.

“Almost everyone here works paycheck to paycheck,” said fellow Schwarzman Center worker Cesar Sanchez. “If the rich are getting richer, the middle class should be rich, and the poor should be middle class.”