Life on the picket lines

Yale is nowhere near awake, but the early hour, 5:45 a.m., hasn't stopped almost 40 members of Local 35 from showing up for work. Of course, work now means a stint on the sidewalk carrying signs and repeating slogans, but it's work nonetheless.

The sun has turned Harkness Tower golden and managed to make even the YCC banners hanging from Durfee look somewhat noble. The strikers are chatting amongst themselves; one murmurs a resigned "one more Monday." A sympathetic honk from a passing car goes unnoticed. It's a beautiful morning-crisp, not quite chilly. And for five workers, it's another morning to try to understand why they're standing out on the cold sidewalk, waiting for yet another march across campus.

If Clarence Randolph looks tired, he has an excuse-he worked until 11:30 p.m. last night at his other job, then had to get up before 5 a.m. this morning to show up at the lines on time. And now that he's here, there's not much to do except talk sports.

"He's a New England fan," he says, pointing to a fellow striker wearing a Patriots jacket. "I hate New England. I hate the colors. I hate UConn-the women's team's good, but the men suck."

"Hey, if you don't like it, get the hell out!" the Patriots fan replies. The two men laugh, agree they both hate the Steelers, and get back to the job of keeping warm on this cold morning.

Randolph works at Yale on weekdays and has a second job at St. Raphael's Hospital every weekend and holiday. His work schedule means he doesn't get a Saturday to relax or a restful day off on Labor Day; he's at work every day, almost 365 days a year.

Still, he has no insurance, no pension plan, no benefits of any kind. Despite working 22-25 hours a week at Yale-which rises to 40 hours a week during the summer-and 16 hours or more each week at the hospital, he is below benefit-level for both jobs. Yale requires a worker to work 20 hours a week to receive benefits and, although he always works more than that, the hour of overtime he works every day doesn't count in the University's eyes.

"Two and a half more hours, I get benefits," Randolph explains. "Two and a half more hours. I work more than that every week." He says employees should, after a year of employment and doing well on evaluations, get the extra time they need to get benefits. "I think that's fair."

Now 35, he's trying to get another job, as a nurse's assistant, but he failed the certification test. "If you haven't taken a test in years, you need some practice, and I didn't have it," he says. But, for the moment, he likes his job at Yale, even without benefits. "I enjoy working here. It's a pretty nice job. Where else can you get sick days working 17.5 hours a week? It's a nice working environment. And my supervisor here doesn't have a big head, like at the Inside the car hospital."

But he's not optimistic about getting a contract anytime soon. "It doesn't look like they're going to bend. Hopefully things will work out."

As he speaks, a homeless man pushes a cart up to the street and waits for the light to change. "But I'm glad I'm not like that," Randolph says.

(See Life on the picket lines...)

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