David Gershkoff ’06 was wearing his JEOPARDY! cap in the Branford Dining Hall Monday night when a worker stopped him to ask how to get tickets to the show’s campus taping next weekend. The question inspired Gershkoff, Branford’s Yale College Council representative, to propose a way for union workers to get tickets.

Based on Gershkoff’s suggestion, the YCC will distribute 100 JEOPARDY! tickets to employees in locals 34 and 35 –Yale’s clerical, technical, service and maintenance workers.

The tickets will be distributed next week, most likely on a first-come, first-serve basis, Gershkoff said.

Locals 34 and 35 ended a three-week strike last Friday, and employees who struck returned to work this week. Gershkoff said the YCC resolution to provide tickets to the taping passed unanimously.

“I think even the most ardent anti-union people still support the workers,” Gershkoff said. “It was a way to say we appreciate you being back. We’re happy to have a community again.”

Gershkoff said the unions were notified of the distribution Thursday. Gershkoff said he and fellow YCC representative Alan Kennedy-Shaffer ’06 will probably set up a centrally-located table and distribute the tickets until they run out.

“JEOPARDY!’s not just coming to Yale; it’s coming to New Haven,” Gershkoff said.

Kennedy-Shaffer proposed a statement commending the efforts of University President Richard Levin, John Wilhelm ’67, president of the parent union of locals 34 and 35, and New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. last Sunday, but the YCC rejected it.

Gershkoff said it failed because the statement didn’t accomplish anything.

“[Distributing these tickets] is something we can do,” Gershkoff said.

Yale President Richard Levin said the YCC’s overtures would help ease post-strike tensions and bring the University closer together.

“I think it’s a very nice gesture to help rebuild a good feeling in our community,” Levin said.

Union leaders could not be reached for comment Thursday night.

YCC President Elliott Mogul ’05 said the YCC is also marketing tickets for Darrell Hammond’s Sunday night performance to the community.

“We contacted locals 34 and 35, as well as other universities,” Mogul said. “We’re really trying to reach out to the committee, particularly after the labor struggles.”