National Labor Relations Board

Yale and Local 33 Agree on Union Election Date and Voter Eligibility

December 9, 2022 admin

by Megan Vaz, Yale Daily News, Nov. 16, 2022

After weeks of negotiation between Yale and Local 33, the National Labor Relations Board has set official dates, terms and eligibility rules for the graduate and professional worker union election.

The election — the product of decades of Local 33 organizing on campus, including the collection of thousands of union authorization signatures over the past year — will occur on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1. Eligible voters, as deter-mined by the NLRB, will decide through a simple majority vote whether or not to form a collective bargaining unit with University recognition.

“I’m glad that the Yale administration is listening to the will of graduate workers and allowing us to proceed with our election with no delays,” Javier Porras Madero GRD ’26 wrote in a Local 33 press release. “I can’t wait to cast my vote to win a union for myself and my coworkers!”

University spokesperson Karen Peart affirmed to the News that the University is satisfied with the settled election terms. Peart also wrote that University Provost Scott Strobel “has encouraged graduate and professional school students to take an active role in weighing the issues involved in unionization,” including in a previous statement shared with the community.

Just three weeks ago, the union filed an official petition with the signed authorization of three-quarters of eligible voters. Four days later, the University announced it would hold a recognized election for the first time, as federal labor law requires employers to respond to petitions within two weeks.

After a few short weeks of election term negotiations, which included hearings over voter eligibility and an agreement to accept both manual and mail-in ballots, the University and Local 33 will now prepare for their first-ever union election.

Although Local 33 has spent the past three decades organizing for a union, the finalization of election terms this week marks the closest the group has ever come to official unionization.

Workers

Demand for Union Recognition at Zane’s Cycles

May 27, 2016 admin

(edited from press release – ed.)

On May 21 workers and community members gathered at Zane’s Cycles (330 East Main St., Branford) to protest what they claim to be owner Chris Zane’s exploitative practices.

In September 2015, workers at Zane’s Cycles facility voted overwhelmingly under federal labor law to bargain collectively for a workplace contract. The workers elected UFCW Local 919 to represent them in contract negotiations. Since then, Chris Zane has agreed to meet eight times to negotiate a contract with the workers. That’s eight negotiating sessions in 8 months.

Among the issues workers want to address, which Zane has refused to reasonably discuss, are:

Having a clean, sanitary break room (currently workers eat their lunch in the dirty, greasy work area where they assemble thousands of bikes for Zane)
Adequately heated and cooled working area (workers tell us it is often too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer… many have to wear coats while they work in the winter)
Paid sick days (workers lose money when they or a family member is sick)
Paid vacation days (after building thousands of bikes for Zane, workers can’t even count on a paid vacation after so much hard work)
Paid time off to mourn the death of a family member (Zane won’t even agree to pay a worker who has to go to a funeral for a family member!!)

Workers say they feel exploited. Because of the owner’s behavior, Zane’s Cycles has been charged with violating federal labor law. The charges are currently before the National Labor Relations Board. Workers and community members gathered to protest Chris Zane’s bad faith bargaining and his unfair labor practices.

Press Contact: Jorge Cabrera (203) 499-8694.