Yale Alumni United
GESO's tactics are an embarassment to themselves and to Yale. For this reason alone you should refuse to support them.
1. GESO is notorious for harassing graduate students
GESO is known for visiting private residences in groups in the early morning hours on Sundays to harass and intimidate graduate students. Their targets include foreign students who are unfamiliar with American labor law and are intimidated by a crowd of GESO supporters gathered outside their door. They even "brazenly... violated a 'no-contact list."
GESO is also notorious for disturbing research and creating safety hazards by brazenly strolling into science labs while work is ongoing. and refusing to leave until the unfortunate groggy grad student has agreed to "join" GESO. GESO organizers are not beyond peer pressure and attempting to publicly humilate those who disagree.
2. GESO side-steps fair and accepted procedures to impose their own rigged vote
In the 2003 "election" GESO refused to follow universally recognized NLRB voting standards and instead chose to implement their own rules. The NLRB has a standard set of procedures designed for fairness to both parties and a neutral vote-count. Yale even offered to help run a vote using standard NLRB procedures.
Instead, GESO set their own rules and brought in the League of Women Voters to run the election according to GESO rules. They gave less than a week of notice to the community, in the hopes of preventing the opposition from having time to mobilize. Their
When it became clear that GESO was losing they chose not to count 80 ballots that GESO declared inelligible according to their own criteria. Now nobody will ever know how much more decisively graduate students rejected unionization.
3. GESO stifles dissent through SLAPS and other underhanded means
When GESO doesn't get their way they use the courts and strategic lawsuits against public participation to try to stifle dissent. When Prof. Grindley instructed GESO organizers to leave his active biochemistry lab (for creating a safety hazard as well as a distraction) GESO organizers threatened to file a complaint with the NLRB. When they realized that they would be laughed out of a real court they instead put on a show trial in their own kanagaroo court.
4. GESO ignores the will of the majority but clings to the ruse of "democracy"
When concerned graduate students attempt to have their voices heard GESO makes sure to silence a "town hall" to everyone but loyal GESO members.
GESO Chairwoman Anita Seth promised that the April 2003 ballot "will clearly show the support that GESO has on this campus", but since then they have ignored the results of their own vote.
5. GESO actively works to slander Yale and ran a public smear campaign to gain leverage in negotiations
In 2001 a study was released that purported to be a balanced look at Yale's past involvement with slavery. What wasn't mentioned was that it was fully funded by Locals 34 and 35 and partially written by a full-time Local 34 employee. The other co-authors were active GESO organizers who sought to use the article as leverage.
The report has since been discredited as grossly inaccurate and politically motivated. For example, the report claimed that Yale college president Timothy Dwight was a slave owner when in fact "Dwight was probably New England's most passionate and outspoken opponent of slavery,"according to one biographer. The report even made the comical mistake of claiming that abolitionist John Trumbull had no street named after him in New Haven, despite the fact that Trumbull St. (yes, named after John) runs through the heart of Yale's campus.
GESO and the local unions continue to promote and distribute the report as fact. They have steadfastly refused to post corrections or comments.
6. GESO hides where their real interests lie and tries to pander to unrelated interests on campus
GESO's real loyalty is to the AFL-CIO and Locals 34 and 35. That's where the money comes from and how longtime union boss Bob Proto pulls the strings to make GESO do his bidding. They talk about ends that are unrelated to collective bargaining and use these red herrings as a distraction while they seek to bring more of the Yale workforce into the grips of the AFL-CIO.
NEW: Discuss GESO and Yale Unions in the online forum
The Facts || The Wrong Way to Good Ends || Dirty Means || Dirty Money || Dangerous Results
NEW: What Others Have Said || NEW: What You Can Do
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
THIS SITE IS IN NO WAY AFFILIATED WITH, SPONSORED BY, OR APPROVED BY YALE UNIVERSITY.
Opinions represented in this site are entirely those of a group of alumni of Yale University who are concerned about certain issues. Opinions do not reflect official Yale policy. Official Yale information may be found at http://www.yale.edu/opa
This site recieves no support or assistance from Yale University, the Yale Corporation, or Yale College.