HUCTW Supports Yale Employees

BOSTON--Almost 100 union members, labor activists and students--many affiliated with Harvard--braved cool, windy weather last night to rally in support of striking dining hall workers at Yale University.

The rally, outside Boston's Old City Hall, was organized by the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW), in association with Massachusetts Jobs With Justice, a loose coalition of 44 unions and labor organizations.

At the rally, the crowd marched around in a circle in front of the Old City Hall while chanting slogans and holding up signs.

Crowd members then listened to speeches from Mike Santarcangelo, a member of the striking Local 35 union in New Haven, Donene Williams, president of HUCTW and Heather Gonzalez, chief organizer for Jobs With Justice.

Before the speeches began, the crowd gathered in the courtyard in front of the Old City Hall, two blocks away from the Park Street T stop, chanting "Hey hey, ho ho, union busting's got to go!" and carrying signs reading, "Treat Yale workers right" and "Hey Yale, educate by example!"

"We will not lose the fight because we will not buckle under to Yale University," said Santarcangelo. "They are afraid of us.... They confront us. They're trying to demoralize us," he said of the Yale administration.

Santarcangelo told the crowd that Yale's employees do not plan to back down anytime soon, and will continue striking until the Yale administration gives in. He added that Locals 34 and 35 at Yale are planning to alternate strikes in support of one another.

Williams followed with a speech expressing HUCTW's support for the New Haven strikers.

"Whatever you want us to do, we're ready," Williams said to the rally.

Williams also made a strong pitch for financial assistance for the Yale workers, adding that beyond any moral support "the other thing we can do is give them our money."

At the end of the rally, Williams said that $367 in cash had been collected from the crowd.

Jobs with Justice organizer Heather Gonzalez also emphasized the importance of the labor situation at Yale for members of HUCTW.

"Now it's at Yale, but it's coming here too," Gonzalez warned.