Episode 7: Feet to the Fire-Yale Union Organizers Know How

Yale University Local 34 union organizers, both retired & current workers talk about 40 years of success that has changed the lives of the workforce at Yale and are building an economic justice movement in New Haven. Host Marie Nahikian & co-hose P.J. Ryan interview original leaders Steve Fortes, Cheryl Bergman and Aldo Cupo. Host Marie Nahikian & co-host P.J. Ryan talk with these original leaders about how they won the first victory for Local 34 in 1985, talk about how you have to know your history, never stop organizing and keep Yale's feet to the fire.

Show Notes

At Yale University, clerical & technical workers organized Local 34 with help from the blue-collar workers in UNITE-Local 35. With strikes in 1984  and 2003, the Yale "non-academic" work force in 2020 is guaranteed working wages, health care and strong retirement benefits. While labor movement lost strength all over the U.S. since the 1980's, after over 40 years, the UNITE Local 34 and Local 35 members have organized an economic justice movement in New Haven, demanding jobs for neighborhood residents and electing Alderman to the City Government and 30+ year long marriages forged during the early organizing years had children who are now union organizers at Yale. 

What is The Usable Past with Marie Nahikian?

Veteran community organizer Marie Nahikian hosts The Usable Past, where activists share their stories of past and present organizing for better housing, food, banks, jobs, environmental and social justice. A Brooklyn resident, Marie most recently worked with U.S. Housing & Urban Development under President Obama and has participated in building 5,000 affordable homes in Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and New York. Marie has been a neighborhood, civil rights, housing and labor organizer, a community journalist, and in 1977 was a founder of WPFW-FM Pacifica radio in Washington, DC.