written<\/p>\nfavorably about organized labor<\/a>; but I was carefully neutral as<\/p>\n
a student leader. I think that the University’s negotiators deliberately<\/p>\n
ignored me (not that I minded).<\/p>\n
I remember that at about 2 am, the two sides took a long break. I<\/p>\n
went home for a nap and asked a union guy to call me when they were<\/p>\n
ready to start again. He called several hours later, and I asked to<\/p>\n
be excused because I was too sleepy to get back out of bed. I’m embarrassed<\/p>\n
that he made the call for no purpose.<\/p>\n
Both sides complained about the cost of labor lawyers and their billing<\/p>\n
practices. I also remember the union identifying slackness and idleness<\/p>\n
in certain specific departments on campus that were staffed by their<\/p>\n
own members. They blamed management for poor oversight, but their<\/p>\n
motive was to save Yale money—so that the University wouldn’t<\/p>\n
"outsource" union jobs as another way to reduce costs. This<\/p>\n
is an example of collective-bargaining serving both sides.<\/p>\n
I’m not sure why Yale has a uniquely <\/em>bad strike record.<\/p>\nPart of the reason may be that the Yale unions are extremely well<\/p>\n
run, strategic, motivated, and deeply supported by the community.<\/p>\n
Even though they are in a position to demand higher-than-average wages,<\/p>\n
Yale resists paying much above the mean. The bargaining power of Yale<\/p>\n
employees is unusual, for only 13 percent of private-sector workers<\/p>\n
are unionized, and some of those face such intense competition from<\/p>\n
non-union shops that they have to make concessions constantly. In<\/p>\n
my view, the Yale locals are right to exploit their unusual power<\/p>\n
(which they created themselves, and which other workers should also<\/p>\n
enjoy). Yale should face reality and pay considerably higher-than-average<\/p>\n
wages. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s Labor Day; the clerical and technical workers of Yale are on strike; and I’m remembering Yale’s labor negotiations in 1988. The two sides were working around the clock to finish a contract. I was president of the student government, and the union asked me and a bunch of other neutral representatives to observe—to make […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4277\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}