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Local 35
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YNHH’S WIDESPREAD VIOLATIONS DESTROY CHANCE FOR FAIR ELECTION

Local 35 Members Back YNHH Workers

Above: Members of Local 35 at union rally in support of workers seeking a union at Yale New Haven Hospital

In January when the neutral arbitrator ordered YNHH to disclose documents pertaining to violations of our fair election agreement, we knew we would find proof that the violations were not “isolated incidents” as the hospital has been claiming. What we found out was that managers throughout the hospital were trained in tactics to destroy the majority support for a union once the workers filed for an election.

More and more employees have come forward to testify about YNHH managers threatening workers, holding one on one anti-union meetings, and, spreading false information about the union that managers knew was untrue.

The YNHH administration continues to deny that they did anything wrong. They insist on holding an election, when their unlawful conduct destroyed the chance of a fair election in the first place. In the meantime, the arbitrator will be ruling on further YNHH violations and deciding on a remedy.

A majority of workers at YNHH have signed cards demonstrating their support for a union many times over and as recently as November of this year. Local 35 members have worked hard to back the workers at YNHH, talking to friends, family, and neighbors who work at the hospital and attending meetings and rallies in support of workers there. We will continue to stand by these workers to ensure that they are able to exercise their fundamental right to have a union.

The Crew: Dan Bromell, Sonny Lee Powell, Joe Beckford, and Randolph Harrison

YALE WORKS BECAUSE WE DO: MEET THE YALE RECYCLING CREW

With a combined 125 years on the job at Yale, the four Local 35 members staffing the sanitation division of the Grounds Maintenance department have seen it all. Sonny Lee Powell, Dan Bromell, Randolph Harrison, and Joe Beckford have been working in trash and recycling since the late 1980s and are the last remaining workers there. In early 2006, Yale began subcontracting its trash removal services to a private firm, limiting their responsibilities to campus recycling. After their many years of dedicated service, they hope to see this work restored to the hands of capable Local 35 members, who understand the needs of the working Yale community.

By any measure, they have done some of the toughest jobs on campus. Each member of the crew has endless horror stories, and the job has often carried with it unimaginable demands. In wintertime, they have hauled around heavy steel containers across snow-filled corridors, and in the summer, waded through mountains of stinking trash. Until the early 1990s, the university did not have special services to remove biologically or chemically hazardous materials, and Mr. Powell and his team recall routinely having to pick up bags of dangerous lab refuse, animal remains, and even body parts. Sometimes, they would get stopped at the dump for unknowingly carrying radioactive materials.

“I remember summer days, when I’d be clearing the back of the truck, and you couldn’t stand the stench,” says Mr. Powell. “I’d be standing in a foot of sludge and maggots, waiving off the bees, and to clean out my truck I’d have to throw this slop over my shoulder, getting all drenched in filth. Many times, my own supervisor wouldn’t even come near the truck because the smell was so bad, and I wasn’t allowed to come into my home those days, unless I fully removed my boots and my socks.”

Over the years, they have had many struggles with the university to get fair compensation—overtime pay, salary increases, and upgrades—for the difficult and dangerous work they have done for the university.

“These men have worked so hard for so many years, which makes the university’s decision to subcontract this work out to a private firm all the more painful and unnecessary,” says Bob Proto, the President of Local 35.

Despite it all, this crew goes above and beyond the call of duty. Even though Yale’s trash is now handled by outside contracts, that hasn’t stopped Mr. Powell, for instance, from helping a fellow Local 35 member working at Durfees to move away huge dumpsters, so that she can take out the trash.

Says Mr. Powell, “I try to look out for the kids here and for the workers, because I would want them to do the same for my people.”

Says Local 35 Executive Vice President Mark Wilson, “Men like Sonny, Joe, Dan, and Randolph have helped pave the way for our union—for people like me and the guys that come behind us. It’s not like the university woke up one day and said, I love you all. It’s because Sonny Powell and his crew waded with maggots in the truck—and stood up for what they deserved from this university—that we have what we have today.”

Most importantly, on or off the job, they look out for one another. When one member of the team gets sick, they all work that much harder to ease the load. While Mr. Powell was recovering from a serious illness, Dan Bromell even frequented his home to help him and his family around the house.

Says Mr. Harrison. “I learned a lot from all of the guys here, they’re fun to work with, we try not to argue, and I’m proud to work with them everyday.”