The Yale campus is abuzz with the looming threat of a possible strike by the Graduate Employees and Students Organization.
The group, similar to Penn's Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania, is considering a teaching-assistant strike in the hope of forcing University officials to award them union status.
Rumors of a GESO strike comes on the heels of a GET-UP strike at Penn last March, where members held a two-day "recognition strike."
"The Yale administration has made it clear that nothing short of a strike will bring them to the [bargaining] table," Sayumi Takahashi, co-chair of GET-UP said. "If it is necessary for them to strike. We stand in solidarity with them."
Although there is no definite decision to strike, the action would not be out of character. GESO held a strike in March 2003 for five days and joined another local strike the following September.
This all followed a major strike in 1995, when several teaching assistants affiliated with the group withheld grades from students in order to gain more publicity for the organization.
"Yale has seen a lot of strikes, and if a strike is necessary, since people are used to it, it will not polarize anyone's opinions any further," Takahashi said.
Most recently, the group held a membership meeting in mid-December at which a majority vote was obtained in favor of unionization. However, the National Labor Relations Board -- the government agency that oversees the country's labor unions -- ruled this summer that graduate students do not have the right to unionize.
Yale administrators believe that any possible GESO strike will not have a major impact on unionization efforts.
"I think it will do what past strikes have done, which is to alienate faculty and students," Yale President Richard Levin told the Yale Daily News.
Also, any possible strike cannot ensure effectiveness for the GESO cause.
"A strike can be either effective or ineffective," GET-UP co-chairman Joe Drury said. "It depends how well they organize, how many people they have, how long it lasts, etc."
However, Drury believes that a strike at Yale will have some impact.
"I have been there. It is a very strong and well-organized group, and their leadership is excellent," Drury said.
However, the goals of the Yale group are different from those of GET-UP.
"Last year, we weren't expecting the administration to come to the table," Takahashi said. "Yale has a very different goal -- they are striking to get a contract."
No matter the outcome, many Yale students believe a possible strike will have an effect on the University community as a whole.
There would definitely be a shortage of TAs," Yale sophomore Elizabeth Debevoise said. "TAs are indispensible to a lot of the big classes."
