Graduate teaching assistants at Yale University will begin a five-day strike today, following repeated refusals by university administrators to allow them to form a labor union.

The Graduate Employees and Students Organization (GESO), which represents teaching assistants in the social sciences and humanities, announced that it would strike this week if administrators did not agree to hold a vote regarding their demand to be recognized as a labor union for purposes of collective bargaining.

GESO's March 31 deadline passed last week with no university response, and the self-styled teaching assistants' union announced a strike for this week.

GESO spokesperson Eve Weinbaum predicted that between 350 and 400 TAs will strike.

The Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) enrolls about 1,000 social sciences and humanities students, of which around 400 are teaching assistants, according to Weinbaum, a fifth-year political science student.

"Seventy percent of classes taught by graduate students will be shut down," Weinbaum predicted.

In defiance of Yale President Richard C. Levin, GESO will hold an unofficial "election" of its own on April 6, according to Gordon Lafer, spokesperson for the Federation of University Employees.

The Federation includes Locals 34 and 35--the two recognized unions atYale--which comprise clerical, technical,maintenance, custodial, groundskeeping and dininghall workers. The Federation seeks to add GESO asa third recognized labor union.

The unofficial "election" will be conducted bythe New Haven, Conn. office of the League of WomenVoters and supervised by Rev. Jerry Streets, theYale University chaplain, according to Lafer.

"While it is not legally binding, it is hopedthat a pro-union vote, together with the week-longstrike, will persuade administrators to honor therequest of its teaching staff and negotiate acontract in good faith," a Federation statementreads.

That appears unlikely, given President Levin'sand other Yale administrators' adamant refusals toconsider the groups' demands.

"The National Labor Relations Board has ruledon a number of cases that graduate students arenot employees for the purposes of collectivebargaining that they are students," Associate VicePresident for Administration Peter D. Vallone saidin a interview last night.

"They're not being denied anything," addedVallone, who is Yale's chief labor negotiator."They talk like they have a right to collectivebargaining. They don't."

Weinbaum said TAs receive inadequate pay andbenefits. The standard yearly pay for a TA is$9,360, $2,000 less than Yale's official estimateof the cost of living in New Haven, according toWeinbaum, TAs may be fired at any time and mustpay for their own health care, she added.

"At Yale you can't support yourself byteaching," Weinbaum said. "A lot of TAs getoutside jobs. It means you can't spend the timeand energy on the teaching."

But Vallone refuted GESO's figures. Yale's costof living estimate describes the needs of typicalfull-time employees who support families, he said,and do not apply to graduate students.

"That's absolutely ridiculous," he said. "Sincewhen does any student have a right to demand thecost of maintaining a family? The vast majority ofgraduate students get free tuition. They getstipends."

Weinbaum said the issue is larger than just payand benefits, however.

"It's not about asking for more money and anyof the specific issues," she said. "It's reallyjust a question of, should we have a democraticvote and the right to decide how we representourselves?"

And while GESO claims that 53 percent of classtime is led by TAs and not full faculty members,administrators say faculty members, administratorssay faculty are Yale's primary instructors.

"The faculty are the ones that are responsible,in the end, that classes are being taught,"Vallone said.

Vallone downplayed the possibility that thestrike will seriously affect the school'sfunctioning.

"We have expectations that many graduatestudents will realize their responsibilities andobligations and fulfill them," Vallone said.

No decision has been made on what action, ifany, the university will take against striking TAswho do not show up for their classes, Vallonesaid.

Labor strikes and job actions are notunprecedented at Yale.

In 1983, clerical workers formed the firstwhite-collar union in the Ivy League after goingon strike. The Harvard Union of Clerical andTechnical Workers (HUCTW) was formed shortlyafter.

GESO went on a three-day strike during thewinter of 1992, successfully pressuring theadministration to grant a 28-percent pay raise,form a teacher-training program and make someconcessions on grievance procedures.

But the TAs had to wait a semester for the payincrease, and the administration is nowconsidering cutting a third of the trainingprogram's budget.

Because of the setbacks, Weinbaum said, GESOdecided it had to be recognized as union to get "awritten and binding agreement" on pay and benefitissues.

Disagreement in GSAS

GESO does not have unanimous support among YaleGSAS students.

Two groups--Graduates Against GESO (GAG) andGraduates Against Unionization (GAU)--havepostered the Yale campus, opposing the strike.

"Philosophically we don't see ourselves as Yaleemployees," said Jim D. McCambridge, a member ofboth GAG and GAU. "We see ourselves as studentsand student-teachers. The money we receive forteaching sections or grading papers is notrecompense. It's not a salary. It's a fellowship."

"The paradigm of management and labor isinappropriate and brings a host of problems withit. The first is the politicization and divisionbetween graduate students and undergrads, facultyadvisers and the administration," McCambridgeadded.

GAG and GAU have attracted fewer than 40members, according to McCambridge, a sixth-yearstudent of applied physics.

But Weinbaum dismissed McCambridge'scomplaints.

"[The anti-GESO groups] represent an extremelysmall minority of people--maybe three," she said."They should come participate in this election.They should come vote.