NEW HAVEN, Conn, May 7-Yale President A. Whitney Griswold today refused to give in to demands of 500 striking maintenance employees.

"I do not see how the union's demands can possibly be met," Griswold said.

The strike began today as Roy Case, union president, demanded a ten cent an hour wage increase, restriction on student employment, double pay for Sunday work, and a union shop.

"I understand the position of our employees now on strike," Griswold said, "and am sympathetic with their desires for improvement... but (Yale has) strained its resources to the limit in achieving our present salaries... and at the same time neglected essential needs, both for education and for maintenance that can be no longer deferred."

Case refused to send the strikers back to work, claiming "there is a matter of human dignity involved aside from economic issues."

He stated that "the university will understand that it is dealing with human beings and not with statistics or budgets; that we are workers who want to work under improved conditions with decent wages and genuine job security."

According to Case, students have organized three committees to aid the strikers. The university denied any knowledge of student action on the issue.

supreme Court Justice Tom Clark crossed a union picket line thrown around the Law School tonight as he entered to judge a Moot Court trial.

Although the strike has practically eliminated Yale's sanitary, electrical, and custodial services, the union has kept a skeleton crew at the university medical centers.