Yale sophomore Kevin K. Abels, a member of the Undergraduate Organizing Committee—an undergraduate group that supports workers—said that the choice to cross picket lines is “a really personal decision.”
He noted that some classes will be moved to off-campus buildings, and that there will be certain time windows during which students would be able to enter buildings without crossing picket lines.
“I think it makes it more difficult for students to be apathetic and ignorant of what’s going on,” Abels said of the planned strike. “These things have shown themselves to work. I think it’s unfortunate that this is really the only way that results are achieved.”
Emma S. MacKinnon ’05, a member of Harvard’s Progressive Student Labor Movement, said the events at Yale parallel those at Harvard.
“I think a lot of the demands coming out of the unions at Yale are similar to the demands coming out at Harvard,” said MacKinnon, who is also a Crimson editor. “There is a growing push to improve labor conditions at universities. Yale could become a real battleground for this.”
—Staff writer Alexander J. Blenkinsopp can be reached at blenkins@fas.harvard.edu.