“As we have said in the past, we do not countenance any illegal or coercive behavior by our faculty. The charges presented by GESO are replete with mischaracterizations of events, and we believe they are entirely without merit,” said Yale spokesperson, Helaine Klasky, Yale’s Director of Public Affairs.
Since 2000, GESO has filed charges alleging unfair labor practices involving eleven Yale faculty members. The first case was dismissed and a subsequent appeal by GESO was also rejected. Charges against three faculty members have subsequently been dropped. The allegations relating to the seven other faculty members are currently pending.
It appears from the names of the faculty members identified by GESO that many of the matters raised at the hearing are currently before the NLRB, where GESO has chosen to lodge them.
There should be no pretense that this highly partisan panel is neutral. It is particularly inappropriate for Mr. Feinstein to serve as chair, because his doing so undermines the exclusive role of the very NLRB office that he previously held in investigating and prosecuting unfair labor practice allegations. Also, since Mr. Feinstein advocated on behalf of GESO’s charges against Yale University when he was General Counsel of the NLRB, he cannot be said to be impartial. We do not believe that the hearings will be conducted in a fair manner, nor do we believe that they will deal with the serious issue presented, which is that members of Yale’s academic community, both students and faculty, should all be free to discuss graduate student unionization issues - or to refrain from doing so - without harassment or intimidation by any person or organization.
The “hearing” that GESO has orchestrated today is simply a show trial without the most fundamental elements of fairness or due process. It is yet another example of GESO’s efforts to seek recognition by Yale without following the established legal procedures and despite the decisive rejection of GESO by Yale’s graduate students last spring in an election that GESO itself organized.
