Garrett Curtis, Staff Photographer

“I feel the fight in front of us,” Rev. Scott Marks said to a crowd of at least a thousand union members, residents and city officials — in a speech punctuated by waves of deafening standing ovations.

On Tuesday night, leaders of New Haven Rising and UNITE HERE unions reflected on a year of successes and setbacks. They called on New Haven and Yale to support citizens during a period of uncertainty and economic hardships. Hundreds of attendees filled the pews of Trinity Temple on Dixwell Avenue, with lines of people spilling out the doors.

The Solidarity Summit was led by New Haven Rising, a community organization that advocates for racial, economic and social justice, and UNITE HERE unions, including Yale’s Locals 33, 34 and 35 and Local 217, as well as Students Unite Now.

Marks, New Haven Rising director, opened the event with a rousing call for solidarity and strength in the face of federal political upheavals. The crowd booed as speakers listed President Donald Trump’s recent directives in office — such as an attempt to freeze federal funds and the deletion of important datasets accused of promoting D.E.I. — and criticized his embrace of the “billionaire class.”

“The truth is that we’re heading about as far away as we can from Dr. [Martin Luther] King’s vision,” Marks said. “We are here, headed towards a place of resentment, hopelessness, a place that becomes cruel and violent, a place where the wealthy buy their way to power, a place where we become more divided, a place where we grow tired from just getting by.”

Peppered throughout a dozen speeches, speakers updated attendees on union progress in New Haven and drew attention to issues such as a lack of affordable housing, wealth inequality and fears of immigration crackdowns.

The summit’s mood oscillated between celebration and somberness. 

Omni workers with Local 217 recalled their triumph of settling a contract with the hotel last September after hard-fought negotiations. Adam Waters of Local 33 celebrated how after facing 30 years of “union busting and retaliation from the University,” the union achieved a landmark contract in December 2023 that raised wages and enhanced healthcare provisions for graduate workers. New leaders, Lisa Stevens, Local 34’s president, and Gwen Mills, president of the international UNITE HERE organization, both expressed excitement for their new roles. 

The celebration was extended to city officials as well. Marks and several speakers thanked the UNITE HERE-affiliated alders who walked the picket line with them and appeared at the summit. Mills praised the recent bravery of state representatives, particularly Rep. Rosa DeLauro, amidst federal policy uncertainties. 

“The Connecticut Democratic Party should lead the whole freaking world,” Mills said.

But speakers at the summit were also bracing for a tumultuous year. Jennifer Chona, a Democratic Town Committee co-chair, recalled when her family immigrated to New Haven, whom she believes to be the first Colombian family in the city. Now, she said, immigrant families fear even going outside and bringing their children to school. Last month, dozens of anti-immigration flyers were littered across the East Rock neighborhood.

Mareika Phillips, a key leader for New Haven Rising, shared how, as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, she and her loved ones have been used as “a tool for hate and division.”

“When we are tricked into blaming differences in race, religion, immigration status, romantic orientation or gender for our woes, they have a freer hand to focus on how to overwork us, raise prices and keep us down,” Phillips said. 

Many speakers also called on Yale to increase its financial and developmental contribution to the city. 

Marks emphasized Yale’s “debts” to New Haven, saying that the institution profited from slavery and blocked the first American Black college from finding a home in New Haven. Representatives of Locals 33, 34 and 35 all criticized Yale’s tax-exempt status, the University’s insufficient contributions to local education and the inequitable benefits of their biotech investment. There’s a biotech boom happening in the city, but “it’s a boom for whom?” Marks questioned.

“We know that Yale University is hoarding money, and they want us to think that they are poor,” Tyisha Walker-Myers, chief Local 35 steward and President of the Board of Alders, said to the crowd, “They want us to think that our jobs are not worth the money that they pay us, and we know that’s just not true.”

Phillips stressed that “we have a big year ahead of us.” 

Local 33 President Adam Waters believes that elected officials and employers like Yale must now decide: to stand “on the side of poor and working people, … on the side of justice” or to take the side of “corporations, billionaires and right-wing authoritarians who want to dismantle democracy.”

State Senator Martin Looney and Mayor Justin Elicker were present at the event but did not speak on stage. After the speeches, though, attendees could go downstairs and eat dinner while meeting their elected officials.

In the past, the summit has been called “Unity in Action” and was held specifically in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. This year, after deliberations, it was rebranded as the “Solidarity Summit.” 

“Whatever affects one affects all of us indirectly,” Marks said, recalling an iconic line from King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” 

Ellen Cupo, Ward 8 alder and member of Local 34, spoke of the transformative power of unionizing to the News after the event. After finding out she had a brain tumor last year, she was grateful for not only the healthcare support her union’s negotiations had won in the past but also for the support of her “union family.”

Marks ended the event by asking attendees to help fight to pass SB 8, a state bill that would enhance protections for workers while striking. 

“The elected leaders stood with us on the picket lines. Now is our chance to stand with the elected leaders and create legislation that’s going to help us build more unions,” he said.

“Now look around. Let’s see who’s in the room and who’s ready to organize,” Marks said, “We ain’t going nowhere.”

The oldest union present was Local 35, which has been organizing since 1941. 

Correction, Feb. 6: The article has been updated to remove a quote that was said off the record.