Paul Bass Photo
Union supporters at a Nov. 30 contract rally.
It appears 2017 is starting out as a year of labor peace in New Haven, as Yale University and its unions reached a tentative deal on a new five-year contract.
The city’s largest employer reached the deal with its blue and pink collar unions, UNITE HERE Locals 34 and 35.
If ratified, it will set wages and benefits for some 5,000 workers: 3,600 office and research employees represented by Local 34, and another approximately 1,400 dining hall workers, custodians and other blue-collar employees covered by Local 35.
Officials said they will not release details of the pact until their memberships have a chance to vote on it.
Local 34 members will have a chance to do that at a mass meeting scheduled for next Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.at the Shubert theater.
Local 35 members are scheduled to meet at the same time at Battell Chapel two blocks up College Street.
Union officials are beginning Thursday to meet with members in individual departments to discuss the deal’s terms.
Yale and its unions have a long history of conflict, leading to seven strikes in a 34-year period ending in 2003. Tensions about this pending contract contributed to an atmosphere of labor strife in New Haven last year, spilling over into fights at the state legislature and over development projects at the Board of Alders. The academic year started with warnings of a coming showdown.
Local 35 painter Eddie Streater, who has worked at Yale since 1969, at the rally.
But by the end of 2016, the relationship had clearly improved, with both sides expressing confidence that they could reach a deal before the current Local 34/35 contract expires on Jan. 20.
Key issues in the negotiations included salary levels; job security, including a union quest to prevent 986 clinical jobs at Yale’s medical school from being converted into non-union Yale-New Haven Hospital jobs; and a Yale request for a two-tier health insurance plan with new employees starting out with lower benefits.
The contract for university’s 65 cops expired last June 30. Officers have worked on a month-to-month contract extension since then while their union, the Yale Police Benevolent Association, negotiates with the university on a new contract. “We’re still in negotiations,” union President Rich Simons said Friday, declining further comment.
(Update:) On Friday UNITE HERE issued a release confirming the tentative deal and including the following quotations:
Local 35 President Bob Proto: “Once again, working hard and listening to each other has led to a very good agreement.”
Local 34 President Laurie Kennington: “After months of discussion and work on both sides, we’re very excited to present this tentative agreement to our members for their consideration and to continue to build on our partnership with the university.”
Yale Vice President for Human Resources and Administration Mike Peel: “We are extremely grateful to all of the university and union leaders who worked so hard and so creatively over the past 12 months to reach the tentative new labor agreements. If these new contracts are approved by union members, they will mark the third set of contracts in a row achieved without labor conflict, an important departure from Yale’s turbulent labor history.”
Hey Paul. Nice to see Yale and its workers have a tentative deal on a contract. In the end, Yale always gives its workers great raises, great health care benefits and great pension and time off benefits. In the end, they don't want the bad press across the country that they treated their employees bad. It wouldn't fly with a liberal institution. On the other hand, how are negotiations going with city workers and its locals? Talk is the city is offering nothing. No raises, health care going through the roof, gutting contracts that were gutted last time around. City locals always cave, unlike Yale locals. Can Yale union leadership please fill city union leadership how to obtain a good contract without always caving in?? The only perk city employees have is unlimited overtime because of incompetent management. You wonder why the city is always shifting money to 911, police, and fire? It's not rocket science. Do your homework NHI.