Yale Bulletin and Calendar

August 29, 2003|Volume 32, Number 1|Two-Week Issue

A Message to the Yale Community

The following letter from President Richard C. Levin about negotiations with Locals 34 & 35 was mailed to members of the University community on Aug. 21.

To the Faculty, Staff and Students of Yale University:

As the academic year begins, I write to provide an update on the University's efforts to conclude negotiations with its two largest unions, Locals 34 and 35 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union, the representatives of more than 4,000 clerical, technical, service and maintenance employees. I apologize in advance for the length of this letter, but I wanted to give a full account of the current state of negotiations.

In the last week, the University has improved its offer in several areas identified by the unions as major concerns: wages, pensions, Local 34 job security and a bonus at the time contracts are signed. The unions' leaders nonetheless filed notice of their intention to ask members to strike on Wednesday, Aug. 27. We will pursue every reasonable opportunity for a settlement prior to that date.

Before turning to the specifics of our new proposals, I want to set the context for the benefit of the more than 3,000 new students and several hundred new members of the faculty and staff who are joining us this fall. Since becoming President ten years ago, I have hoped that we might forge a new partnership with our unionized employees, whose work is so essential in supporting our aspirations to excellence in education and scholarship. As early as March 2001, long before the January 2002 expiration of our labor contracts, I began conversations with union leaders in the hope that we could achieve new contracts expeditiously, and that we might devote the years ahead to building a stronger, more cooperative relationship with the thousands of workers who make daily contributions to the University's well-being.

Between February and May 2002, we made some early progress in more than 50 meetings facilitated by a respected labor consultant, RAI, using the techniques of "interest-based bargaining." This approach led to tentative agreements on several critical, non-economic issues. In early June 2002, hoping and believing that contracts were in sight, the University made its initial economic offer, stating very clearly that we were departing from custom and putting on the table at the beginning an offer that was close to the best we were prepared to make. As an incentive to expedite the process, we also offered to make any negotiated salary increases fully retroactive if contracts were signed by June 30, 2002.

By mid-summer 2002 it was clear that the unions had chosen another course. Much of their activity during the academic year 2002-03 linked contracts for Locals 34 and 35 to the leaders' efforts to organize new unions -- one representing graduate students at Yale and another representing clerical and technical workers at Yale-New Haven Hospital, an independent entity not controlled by the University. There was little progress at the bargaining table. Then, in May 2003, after a five-day strike in March, members of the group seeking to represent graduate students (GESO) held an unofficial election to gauge the degree of student support. The majority of students voting opposed electing GESO to represent them.

At this point we became hopeful that the unions might be interested in resuming serious negotiations to achieve a contract for their own members, unlinked to other organizing efforts. In June, a small group of University officials and union leaders met to explore a possible framework for reaching an agreement, but the unions' demands concerning pensions and Local 34 wages remained unrealistically high, far in excess of other labor contracts in the region. There were no further discussions until formal negotiations resumed last week.

I summarize below Yale's offer as it stands today, organizing the discussion to correspond to the five issues the unions have identified as the major remaining concerns: salaries, pensions, training and advancement, Local 34 job security, and retroactivity.

Salaries. The University has offered across-the-board increases of 4% per year in Local 34, with a 5% increase in the second year of the contract (the current year). In Local 35, we have offered 3% per year, with a 3.5% increase in the current year. With inflation currently below 2% per year, these across-the-board increases compare favorably with those offered by other employers in the region.

Many employees, however, will receive raises well in excess of the across-the-board increases. First, those Local 34 employees who are not at the maximum of their pay rates also will receive "step" increases averaging 1.8% per year. Second, the University has proposed structural changes that eliminate the lowest pay rates in both bargaining units. This means that workers at the minimum salary within their grade in Local 34 would see an immediate increase of 20.7% if contracts were signed now. Those at the maximum of each grade would see an immediate increase of 9.2%. The average immediate increase, across all workers in Local 34, would be 14.3%. In Local 35, recently hired employees would receive immediate increases of as much as 33%, while others would see their base wages rise by at least 6.6%. The average immediate increase would be 9.3%. Over a six-year contract, the average increases would be 44% in Local 34 and 23% in Local 35.

Pensions. Unlike faculty, whose contributory pension accounts fluctuate with the stock market, unionized staff members have a "defined benefit" pension plan, wholly funded by the University. This assures them a guaranteed annual pension that is linked to their highest salary in the five years prior to retirement. All staff members also receive Social Security, because Yale and each individual make contributions every pay period. After Yale's increased offer last week, an employee retiring with 30 years of service at age 65 or older will have after-tax retirement income, from the defined benefit plan and Social Security, between 83% and 93% of his or her final after-tax salary.

Altogether, Yale's offer represents a 16% to 20% increase in the multiplier used to calculate the defined benefit pension. When combined with the salary increases we have offered, this means that an employee retiring the day after new contracts take effect would receive a Yale pension that is 23% to 31% larger than it would have been the day before new contracts take effect.

In addition, Yale is offering to keep in place the supplemental voluntary retirement program that it introduced in 1996. In this plan, the University matches the contributions of individuals dollar-for-dollar up to 4% of salary. Employees participating in this plan for 30 years could expect, conservatively, to see an additional after-tax retirement income equal to 15% of final after-tax salary from Yale's contributions alone.

Training and advancement. The University has agreed, effective July 2004, to give employees represented by Local 34 four days of paid time off each year for University sponsored skill-based training. This is intended not only to help staff in their current jobs but also to help them become better qualified for promotions. In addition, we have offered to increase the tuition assistance to employees enrolled in outside courses from $2,500 to $3,500 per year.

Job Security. The clerical and technical work force represented by Local 34 has increased by 350 since 1996, when the last contract was signed. Since that contract expired in January 2002, the work force has grown by 146 employees.

Local 34 employees with six or more years of service who are laid off are now eligible to participate for 12 months in the Interim Employment Pool, whereby they take temporary assignments, and, in return, they continue to earn the full salary and benefits associated with their original job. They also receive priority consideration for permanent job openings during this period. In the last week, we offered to extend the period during which full salary and benefits are continued from 12 to 15 months. Employees with one to five years of service receive similar benefits for 6 months. We know of no other employer in the region that offers comparable periods of pay continuation.

Retroactivity. In the spring of 2002 the University offered to make salary increases fully retroactive if negotiations were completed by June 30, 2002. We also indicated at the time that if the deadline passed, we would not subsequently offer full retroactivity. Instead, we are offering an immediate bonus of $1,500 when contracts are signed to all workers who were employed when the previous contracts expired in January 2002. More recently hired workers would receive $500.

This offer is consistent with the agreement reached between Yale and the unions in 1996, when all employees received a $500 signing bonus 11 months after the expiration of contracts. We did not offer full retroactivity in 1996 for the same reason that it would be imprudent to do so now: to suggest that there are no consequences to extending contract negotiations far longer than necessary would only encourage protracted bargaining when the next contracts expire.

It is also important to remember that, at a time when employers throughout the nation are seeking givebacks, the University has offered to continue its entire package of benefits, including:

* free health care for employees and their families at the Yale Health Plan,

* free or heavily subsidized retiree health coverage,

* 35 to 52 paid days off annually,

* up to $46,400 per child in college tuition assistance,

* and $25,000 toward the purchase of a home in New Haven neighborhoods near campus.

Although Yale's offer compares very favorably to recent labor settlements throughout the region and the nation, our unionized workers are now being asked to go on strike in the coming weeks. We will continue to seek every opportunity for a reasonable settlement. Our employees deserve their long-awaited raises and the substantial benefits and protections that accompany them.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

A Message to the Yale Community

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