Maia Nehme, Contributing Photographer

Yale students and community members greeted guests at the Graduate New Haven hotel with chants urging them to “boycott the Graduate!” during a Saturday protest against labor abuse. 

Unidad Latina en Acción, a New Haven advocacy group for immigrant workers, and student social justice group Mecha de Yale jointly led Saturday’s rally. The protest kicked off ULA and Mecha’s boycott against the Graduate and five New Haven restaurants — Mezcal, Te Amo Tequila, Barracuda, 80 Proof and the McDonald’s on 280 Kimberly Ave. — for alleged discrimination against and exploitation of immigrant workers.

The protest was sparked by allegations of ethnic discrimination by Graduate management against a female worker, manifesting in a disproportionate workload and verbal attacks. 

Norma Rivera, a New Havener who grew up in Mexico, began working at the Graduate in 2020. She later resigned in December 2023 following months of troubling working conditions, according to ULA community organizer Jenny Cornejo. 

Rivera said she was given more rooms to clean than other employees and that she experienced verbal abuse and discrimination — including threats to report her to immigration authorities — from her managers. After resigning from the hotel, Rivera sought professional mental health counseling, she told the News.

“If you were to walk into the Graduate to study on a Tuesday night, you wouldn’t be able to avoid the sign on the door that states in big words, right here: ‘We welcome all races, all religions, all countries of origin, etc., etc.’ — and that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Luciano Romero ’25, Mecha community action chair, said at the protest, reading out an unpublished opinion column the group submitted to the News. “It is our responsibility to hold the Graduate to their own words and demand justice for Norma and all those affected by their exploitative and predatory practices.”

Representatives from the Graduate did not immediately respond to the News’ request for comment.

In early April, ULA delivered a letter to the Graduate asking to meet with the hotel manager and representatives of AJ Capital Partners, the real estate company that launched Graduate Hotels, to discuss Rivera’s case. At the meeting, the hotel representatives denied that Rivera had faced discrimination — despite another employee stating they had witnessed this behavior — according to Romero. They did not respond to ULA’s requests for another meeting, he said. 

ULA community organizing director John Jairo Lugo said Connecticut’s Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, which enforces civil and human rights laws, recently agreed to take on Rivera’s case. 

In Rivera’s ideal resolution of her case, the Graduate would be required to implement anti-discrimination training, fire the managers that discriminated against her and provide her with compensation for the psychological toll she experienced while working at the hotel. 

“It was one of the worst jobs I’ve done,” Rivera told the News in Spanish. “The management didn’t listen to us — they just left us there with the same problems … My stress reached a point where it gave me migraines because I could not bear the job.”

Saturday’s rally drew about 30 protestors, largely consisting of Mecha members and other Yale students. As Lugo and Mecha leaders guided protestors through chants, guests slipped in and out of the hotel entrance. When actors and Yale parents Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner walked past the protest, Affleck raised his fist in solidarity with the protestors.

Mecha leaders decided to hold the protest during Family Weekend in hopes of drawing attention from Yale families staying at the Graduate, according to Lugo.

“The idea is to raise awareness in the Yale community that they can be agents of change when they decide to support businesses or not support businesses that exploit workers,” Lugo said in Spanish.

About 45 minutes into the rally, the protestors headed to Te Amo Tequila with cries of “We’ll be back!” towards the Graduate entrance. ULA and Mecha alleged that the owner of Te Amo Tequila, 80 Proof and Barracuda verbally abused, humiliated, overworked and intimidated immigrant workers. 

Sonia Salazar, the restaurant’s owner, denied the allegations. Salazar said ULA sent her a letter in the spring with the complaints from a former 80 Proof employee, which were ultimately dismissed by the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities. Another former employee from 80 Proof later submitted similar complaints; their case is still pending. 

Neither employee filed complaints while they were employed at the restaurant, according to Salazar. If the employees exceed 40 hours of work in a given week, Salazar said, they were compensated with overtime pay, so she was “perplexed” by their allegation that they were overworked.

When Salazar spoke with ULA, she said it felt like “extortion” because the organizers focused solely on how much compensation she could dole out to the former employee. ULA and Mecha said Salazar never met with organizers after an initial phone call.

“I am saddened that these organizations are so quick to knock down someone in their own community without so much as hearing what I have to say,” Salazar, who is originally from Colombia, wrote to the News. 

Protestors repeatedly chanted “te odio, tequila,” a spoof on the restaurant’s name that translates to “I hate you, tequila,” outside the Te Amo Tequila entrance. Salazar said one of the protestors threatened her and her family during the rally. Cornejo later denied the alleged threat occurred. 

Restaurant staff asked protestors to leave, with one employee chanting “Get a job!” as the protestors retreated up Temple Street.

The Graduate New Haven hotel is located at 1151 Chapel St.

Correction, Sept. 30: This story has been updated with the correct name of Mecha de Yale and that ULA and Mecha organizers said Salazar never met with organizers to discuss employee complaints.