Yale students support strikers

By Andy McInerney, Workers World, 25 April 1996

The staff at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., know the meaning of solidarity. When clerical and technical workers in Hotel Employees Local 34 went on strike in February, Local 35--representing groundskeepers, cafeteria workers and other service workers [helped them] with donations. Now Local 34's back to work, supporting the striking members of Local 35.

The union members are giving students a lesson in solidarity. One group has shown itself more than ready to learn--the Student Labor Action Coalition. SLAC staged a sit-in at the office of Yale President Richard Levin on April 8 to support the strike.

Administrators called in the cops, and 31 students were arrested.

The students had arranged a meeting with Levin to discuss their concerns about the strike, and to deliver a letter of support for the unions from the Black Student Alliance at Yale. When the president canceled the meeting, the group refused to leave. The arrested students are scheduled to appear in court on April 19.

The basic issue in the strike is management's attempt to gut job security by hiring non-union contractors for jobs covered by the union contract.