Are grad students “privileged”? And what happens when a $25 billion-endowed corporation gets to turn the tables on a labor shakedown and shakedown a union and an entire city in return?
WNHH radio’s “Friday Pundits” — journalists and radio hosts Markeshia Ricks, Babz Rawls-Ivy, Joe Ugly and Michelle Turner —explored those questions in the latest episdoe of “Dateline New Haven.”
They were reacting to two big stories this week, the brinksmanship at City Hall over how to close a possible $5.6 million last-minute hole in the city budget for the just-ended fiscal year; and a federal labor ruling recognizing the rights of graduate-student teachers to unionize.
“They literally created a problem to solve the problem,” Joe Ugly observed about Yale and its UNITE HERE locals. “They’re making up stuff.”
Rawls-Ivy said she sees “a level of privilege” in graduate students’ efforts. “That doesn’t mean they don’t have rights. They have legitimate concerns. [But] it is a little different from custodians.”
“I’m always cautious of who’s saying who’s privileged and who’s not,” responded Joe Ugly.
Click on or download the above sound file to hear the whole episode, which also touched on City Hall’s argument with the fire union over modernization plans and the departure from New Haven of Rev. Eldren Morrison.
