December 6, 2022
After 3 Decades, Yale Graduate Workers Are Finally Unionizing
By Lisa Herforth-Hebbert
It’s been 34 years since grad students at Yale University first tried to organize. Now, these workers are on the cusp of forming a labor union.
By Yash Roy
For Clare Fentress and other graduate student workers at Yale University, unionization would help secure livable wages, better health care, and independent grievance systems. But most importantly, forming a union will cement the recognition—long denied to thousands of graduate workers in the United States—that they, too, are workers who deserve labor rights and protections.
Fentress, a student at the Yale School of Architecture, and 4,000 of her peers at Yale came one step closer to this goal last week after casting their ballots in a union election. Because grad workers also have the opportunity to vote by mail, the full results will not be known until January 9, but Local 33-UNITE HERE is widely expected to prevail—a historic victory after over 30 years of organizing.
“This semester, thousands of grad workers signed union cards and said ‘union yes’ because they want to win pay that keeps up with the rising cost of living, better access to mental health, dental, and specialist health care; protections for international student workers; and real recourse in situations of abuse, discrimination, or harassment,” said Ridge Liu, co-president of Local 33.
