The nearly 2,000 clerical, dining-hall, and maintenance workers who had been on strike at Yale University since the start of the semester were back at work last week after their two unions voted overwhelmingly to approve new eight-year contracts.
Along with annual wage increases of 3 to 5 percent, the contracts will nearly double the amount of employees’ pension benefits.
The new agreements, which cover about 4,100 employees, put an end to a strike that had disrupted both the campus and surrounding New Haven, Conn.
In mid-September, more than 5,000 strikers and supporters closed down the center of the city in a four-hour demonstration, in which about 100 people were arrested.
During the strike, Yale had recruited managers and outside workers to keep a central dining hall open for freshmen. But the university was forced to close all 12 of the dining halls that serve upperclassmen in their residential colleges. Many classes were disrupted as well, or were held off the campus. Union supporters had also begun to picket outside the offices of some Yale trustees in other cities.
For clerical workers, the new contract provides for annual raises of 4 percent for 2002, 5 percent for 2003, 4 percent for 2004 and for 2005, and 5 percent in each of the final four years of the contract. Dining-hall and maintenance workers will receive annual increases of 3 percent for 2002, 3.5 percent for 2003, 3 percent for 2004 and for 2005, and 4 percent in each of the final four years.
Average annual salaries for clerical workers are now about $33,000; the average for dining-hall and maintenance workers is about $30,000.
The new pay rates go into effect immediately and are retroactive to January 2002, when the old contracts expired. But employees won’t receive the full benefit of those retroactive raises. As part of the deal, the unions agreed to accept only two-thirds of the increased pay for the retroactive period.
The agreements also provide for increases in pension benefits ranging from 82 to 99 percent. On average, pension payouts will increase by 94 percent by the end of contract. Raising the pension benefits was one of the key issues for union leaders, said Deborah Chernoff, a spokeswoman for a coalition of unions at Yale.
She said union leaders were also pleased that the contract for clerical workers deals with some of the union’s “glass ceiling” concerns. The new contract creates a fifth pay grade, which will create opportunities to promote employees who learn new skills, such as running sophisticated computer programs. “People who work here have a real future,” she said.
In a statement, Yale’s president, Richard C. Levin, said he hoped the longer term of the agreements -- the earlier contracts were for six years -- would give the unions and the institution “time to build a stronger, more cooperative relationship.” Yale has a history of troubled relations with its graduate-student organization and staff unions.
The new contracts, which will be in force through January 2010, cover Locals 34 and 45 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union.
http://chronicle.com Section: Money & Management Volume 50, Issue 6, Page A27
