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Union members at Yale have elected two new leaders to fill vacant positions at UNITE HERE Local 34, as part of a changing of the guard at one of the city’s most influential labor organizations.
The union, founded in 1984, represents over 3,400 clerical and technical workers at Yale University.
Longtime president Laura Smith stepped down from her post Aug. 1. Union members last Wednesday voted in a replacement, Laurie Kennington.
Kennington (pictured) “has been a member of the union since 2001, when she joined the staff as an organizer in the Medical School after graduating from Yale College,” according to a union press release.
Ken Suzuki (pictured), a founding member of the union, was voted in as secretary-treasurer.
The new officers were unanimously endorsed by the union executive board in late June. They were approved by the general union membership at a meeting last Wednesday, according to union spokesman Evan Cobb.
At a press event, the new president and secretary-treasurer “announced their commitment to continue the work of fostering a partnership with Yale University called Best Practices which led to the peaceful, early settlement of the union’s current collective bargaining agreement in 2009,” the release read. “They also pledged to work to boost member participation in the union and to strengthen the union at the departmental level.”
Along with Smith, longtime Local 34 Chief Steward Cathy Meyerson stepped down. Secretary-Treasurer Duane Mellor stepped down, too. Smith’s team helped the union grow by a quarter over the past 16 years at a time when labor unions in generally have been shrinking.
