Yale's Unions See Better Relations

Less than a decade ago at Yale, bitter rifts between administrators and the Local 34, the clerical and technical workers' union, erupted into a crisis.

In the 1983-84 academic year, during the Union's infancy, bitter and contentious negotiations between labor and the university broke down and resulted in a 10-week strike. Local 35, the maintenance, police and dining hall workers' union, joined the clerical workers in a sympathetic strike that almost paralyzed the university.

Since then, Local 34, which negotiates a new contract every four years, has gained much more leverage--and achieved much more success. This February, the union won a favorable contract after four months of negotiations with the university.

"We won almost every point of the fight over 34 raises. We retained the structure and obtained good raises as well... the average raise is about 5 percent," the union reported this February.

Yale officials said they, too were pleased with the contract and the negotiating process. "It was the second negotiation in a row without a lengthy and difficult strike," said Yale spokesperson Martha Matzke. "It was a pleasing year of labor peace."

Matzke attributed the negotiations' success to the evolution of a more cooperative labor-management relationship.

"The university and employees have learned to work together more collegially," Matzke said. "The unions have developed a more professional negotiating style... and management has added people to the staff who understand labor mediation."

Perhaps even more promising for the improvement of communication between the two groups is the establishment of a "joint labor and management problem solving group" during the recent negotiations, Matzke said.

Events at Yale and Harvard indicate a nationwide trend: at universities, management no longer unilaterally controls employment on campus.

"The employment situation is more of a bilateral relationship," said Joel M. Douglas, an expert on university labor unions at the Baruch College of the City University of New York.

And with the greater influence that clerical and technical workers' unions have gained on university campuses, Douglas predicts that these unions will remain and continue to flourish.