On Aug. 12, the Connecticut-based labor/community organizing group New Haven Rising celebrated a written agreement with Yale University to provide 1,000 jobs to city residents, including 600 jobs in so-called neighborhoods of need – that is, the city’s black and Latinx neighborhoods – and pathways to a continuing pipeline of jobs through education and training.
Yale has already hired 300 people from the city’s communities of color in need of jobs. During their campaign, New Haven Rising allied themselves with Yale’s labor unions, Locals 34 and 35, and the university’s graduate teachers organized as Local 33, who are still fighting for their first contract.
New Haven Rising also had support on the city’s 30-member Board of Aldermen, where the Black and Hispanic Caucus had declared a jobs crisis in the city. Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Scott Marks, lead labor organizer with New Haven Rising, who summarized the five-year history of the struggle and what the campaign has accomplished.
SCOTT MARKS: The most exciting thing is the training and development of leaders — how to run a meeting, how to grow relationships and grow a committee. That was one of the greatest rewards, to see people move forward and be able to stay focused til we got to a set of goals. And the set of goals for us was to try to get 500 jobs in the neighborhoods of need.
We had a real series of knocking on doors and a big action, and basically Yale came to the conclusion that they were going to give the jobs, but not by zip code. And we did more work and we didn’t settle for not having the jobs go to where they were most needed. The end period of the agreement was April 2019, and we weren’t quite there yet. And all along the way we did area meetings where we brought the community together; we did it in different neighborhoods, the unions and neighborhood leaders would come together so we could keep reporting on the progress and come up with ideas to keep the campaign alive.
We wanted to be working with Local 33, the graduate teachers, that they be recognized as a union, and then regular contracts with Local 34 and 35 were coming up, and then we were working on the project with New Haven Rising, to deliver more jobs to the hardest hit neighborhoods.
That had been a project of Local 34 many years ago, they had a women’s training program, but this is really a move in the right direction. I take my hat off to Yale University. They worked really hard to come up with these pathways to actually get more people into jobs. That is a short version of a really long story.
BETWEEN THE LINES: Scott Marks, what exactly did Yale agree to?
SCOTT MARKS: Well, basically, Yale, working with the Yale unions, agreed there would be a number of ways. For example, a lot of people have a number of skills but they’re not quite there, there is Gateway (Community College) tuition that would be provided in this agreement, and a $1,000 stipend. There’ll be opportunities from Eli Whitney, the trade school for New Haven residents, to come on to Yale and get their hours, and a push on when they do development, to sort of make sure that we’re introducing more people into the trades and their apprenticeships.
There are multiple things with Local 34: the opportunity for the departments to get a boost on giving someone a shot to come into that department and Yale has ponied up some of the cost of that salary. That is a good way to get into Yale.
BETWEEN THE LINES: What’s next for New Having Rising?
SCOTT MARKS: Making sure that we’re actually getting the different slots for the different opportunities that exist in this agreement, getting people in and making sure that we’re continuing to work with Yale, that we stay on target to sort of have the benefit. The pathways are new ways for people to access jobs at Yale, and the hope is, over and above the 300 more opportunities should continue to go on. Continuing to be involved, work together, continue to build power, because these agreements are as good as the paper they exist on, but continue to make sure that we stay focused and Yale holding the community accountable and the community continue to hold Yale accountable.
For more information visit New Haven Rising at facebook.com/newhavenisrising.
