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Emerging from a summer full of controversy and contention, Mayor Toni Harp called for more “civility” and cooperation in New Haven’s civic arena in the season ahead.
On her latest appearance on WNHH radio’s “Mayor Monday” program, Harp discussed a breakthrough that occurred last week in the battles over development and city finances between Yale and leading members of the Board of Alders who work for the university’s UNITE HERE union locals. The two sides were negotiating on two tracks in a dispute that endangered millions of dollars in city revenues: delays in approving a Yale parking plan that was holding up construction of a new bio lab and student center; and a threat by Yale to delay paying $5.6 million of its annual voluntary contribution until past the time that it could be recorded in the just completed fiscal year’s books.
Harp convened a meeting of the two sides in City Hall last week. A compromise was reportedly reached, paving the way for the projects and the payments to proceed on schedule.
“I thought it was really important that we all sit down and talk together. I have no doubt that the president of the Board [of Alders], Tyisha Walker [a paid staff employee of UNITE HERE], who had started negotiations with Yale, would have been able to complete it. But honestly I had my controller and my budget director breathing down my neck. And I thought, ‘Maybe I should do something.’ So we all came together and worked it out,” Harp said.
“I’m hoping that this never happen again,” a relieved Harp remarked of the past month’s brinksmanship.
Asked by a caller about whether Yale’s annual total of $8.3 million in voluntary contributions to the city is enough, Harp praised Yale’s support for the New Haven Promise college scholarship program and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. “They do a lot of things and we call on them to do a lot of things besides the voluntary payment,” she said. “They are a major factor in New Haven. We’ve got to get along with them.We’ve got to get along with the unions as well. We’ve got to find a way to build consensus around the way this city operates.”
Meanwhile, Harp expressed hope that Yale and UNITE HERE can come to terms on new labor contracts set to expire at year’s end.
Publicly, UNITE HERE has been prepping students the public for a possible strike, which would shatter 13 years of labor peace at New Haven’s largest employer after decades of repeated walkouts. The two sides are divided over pay scales, casualization of labor (creating new part-time and/or non-union positions), assumption of unionized Yale medical practices by Yale-New Haven Hospital, and just-boosted efforts to unionize graduate student employees.
“I hope I’m not looking at this like Pollyanna looks at life. But my understanding is that they’re very close,” Harp said.
Harp said the two sides started negotiating early and have made lots of progress. She also predicted that a National Labor Relations Board ruling last week in favor of graduate student employee organizing could help the two sides reach agreement on how to proceed with the issue.
“That is something that is going to have to be grappled with. Over the years I’ve heard Yale said if the NLRB basically sees [graduate student employees] as workers — which is different than the university sees them —then they recognize that a union can be formed. My sense is they have been negotiating around what neutrality will look like” in an organizing campaign. … They’re trying to come up with language to define what that neutrality means.”
Play Nice, Please
Harp also expressed hope that with a new school year beginning, the Board of Education can tame its name-calling and harsh tone.
“Civility does mean something. We live in a democracy. We’re not going to shoot each other,” Harp said. She said one of the board’s two student members had the right idea in an WNHH interview last week when she called for the adults on the board to act more like adults.
“Even if you think that you are morally obligated to make a point —particularly if you are well educated — there are ways of making that point that is not insulting to others or demeaning.”
Harp said she is about to extend an offer to a prospective new fire chief. She did not have an update on plans to resolve the controversy over the actions of the police chief, who remains out on sick pay.
Click on or download the above sound file to hear the full episode of WNHH radio’s “Mayor Monday,” including discussion of the departure from town of Rev. Eldren Morrison and this past week’s jazz and and tennis events in town.
Today’s episode was made possible with the support of Gateway Community College and Berchem, Moses & Devlin, P.C.
Peace? I'm sure all those parents who were were dropping off their kids on move-in day were extremely grateful to be lobbied by UNITE given that they'll already be writing $66,000 checks per year for their childrens education.