Yale Security Officers Protest Contract Impasse

Yale police finally have a contract. Yale’s security officers took to the streets to demand the same.

The officers, members of the Yale University Security Officers Association (YUSOA) union, leafletted on campus streets Tuesday afternoon to call attention to the fact that their contract expired January. Talks on a new four-year contract have broken down.

The leafletting coincided with the annual visit to campus of accepted applicants and their parents, during which time Yale officials woo them to choose the university over other schools. (Yale’s police union held a similar leafletting event last year to call attention to its then-sytmied contract talks, which eventually reached a deal that the union ratified in October.)

Yale hires 124 security officers, who are often first responders to reports of crimes. Unlike cops, they do not carry guns or have arrest powers.

The union says the university has increased the security officers’ duties in recent years.

Local President Bobby Corso and attorney Andrew Matthews said key sticking points in negotiations include:

• A union request to institute a pay scale to make pay and raises more uniform. They cited the case of two officers who began work at the same time eight years ago; one now makes $20.60 an hour, $2.61 more per hour than the other, having accumulated $40,000 more in pay than the other over the years. They said 39 officers with under five years on the job are earning less than $17.04 an hour.

• A union request for a minimum staffing requirement similar to that enjoyed by the police union and the university’s UNITE HERE Local 35.

• A union request for retroactive pay raises to cover the time since the current contract expired Jan. 19. (The contract has been extended through April 30.)

They also noted that the union has no say in pension and health care givebacks, because the security officers’ benefits are tied to those negotiated by Locals 34 and 35 (which represent pink- and white-collar workers and blue-collar workers, respectively). Because of givebacks agreed to by those unions, Corso, said he will now see his $7,200 annual health premium double by the end of the next contract.

The university and the union held 22 negotiating sessions until talks broke down on march 25, according to Matthews. He and Corso said they are ​“optimistic” about planned federal mediation set to begin April 23.

Yale’s Side

Yale spokesman Thomas Conroy, too, noted the upcoming mediation in saying Yale ​“looks forward to further productive negotiations.”

“Despite wages at the top of the market for security guards, the University’s proposals during these negotiations include significant pay increases for YUSOA members,” Conroy wrote in an email message.

“The University has not demanded healthcare or retirement give-backs of YUSOA. The benefits paid to YUSOA security and communications officers have been in place since 2017, have not been reduced in the University’s proposals, and match those of more than 4,500 other unionized staff at Yale. These benefits include access to free healthcare for most officers as well as a pension and many other Yale benefits.”