"We have women and minorities here who are kept down and subsequently underpaid" because of the job classification system, Dickess said.

But Wellington said that Yale has "provided an analysis for the community of our affirmative action policy which we feel discredits [the discrimination] charge." However, university officials have said that they agree that the classification system should be reformed.

The unions' economic proposals, which have been on the table for several weeks, call for 7 percent across-the-board salary increases for each of the next three years, university-subsidized daycare for employees' children, paid maternity leave, increased monitoring of health and safety issues, and improvement of mental and dental insurance, Fortes said.

If Yale were to accept the unions' proposal, the university's labor expenditures would increase by 91 percent over the next three years, Wellington said.

But union officials said that the university's numbers are inflated. "To place a cost item on [union economic proposals] is very misleading and not accurate," Dickess said.

"There are areas of agreement. They happen to be in an area that could be called window-dressing," Dickess said.

Both sides have agreed to insert a clause into the contract prohibiting discrimination against employees on the basis of race, religion, or sexual orientation, Fortes said.