Ariela Lopez, Contributing Photographer

More than 30 Yale police union members and allies rallied on the steps of the Schwarzman Center on Tuesday to hand out leaflets urging visiting admitted students to support the union in its ongoing contract negotiations with the University.

The leaflets, distributed to passersby at the corner of College Street and Grove Street, include a list of 11 news articles published in the past year about reports of crime near Yale’s campus. On the opposite page, Mike Hall, president of the Yale Police Benevolent Association, or YPBA, wrote a personal letter to prospective students visiting for Bulldog Days and their parents. The letter urges students and parents to contact the Yale administration and push them to support a fair contract for “the people protecting you” — the Yale Police Department’s unionized officers and detectives. 

Since the YPBA began negotiating its next contract in 2023, it has taken advantage of high-volume campus events like Bulldog Days and move-in days in August to garner public support for its stances in the collective bargaining process. That process is nearing its end; the University presented its “last, best and final offer” in November, and Hall told the News that only a few issues now separate the two parties from an agreement.

“We’re coming towards the end of the contract,” Hall said. “It’s been over two years now. Yale is really putting our back against the wall. Yale knows what the issues are. We need some movement on those issues so we could hopefully bring this thing to a resolution.”

In his letter in the leaflets, Hall also claimed that recruiting and retaining officers at the Yale Police Department has been made more difficult by the delay in achieving an updated contract. 

However, Duane Lovello, the director of Yale Public Safety, which oversees the Yale Police Department, disagreed with Hall’s assessment of the impact of the prolonged negotiations. 

“Retention and recruitment are not challenges for the Yale Police Department,” Lovello wrote to the News. “The department continues to attract highly qualified candidates, and the department remains near its fully authorized complement of 93 sworn officers.”

At Tuesday’s rally, union members ate pizza from Yorkside and passed around YPBA-branded T-shirts. Hall told the News that he was pleased by the turnout, and that he had stationed other union members on different parts of campus to hand out the leaflets. Members of other Yale unions also stood by, supporting the YPBA members. Jeremy Walker, a member of Local 35, which represents the University’s service and maintenance staff, said he had shown up to support the police, acknowledging that the union “always had a hard time” getting a contract in a short time span.

The union also commissioned a billboard truck to drive around campus on Monday and Tuesday. The truck, whose three billboards flashed bright blue and yellow slogans, was parked outside the Schwarzman Center during the rally.

Messaging on the billboards and pamphlets was notably less specific than in prior union actions. On move-in day and on Bulldog Days in April 2024, one of the slides on the billboard truck advertised how many gunshots had been detected by ShotSpotter, an audio sensor system used by law enforcement agencies throughout New Haven. A different slide on the truck used for Bulldog Days last year claimed that Yale only offered the union members a 1.75 percent wage increase, and compared that figure to the University’s over $40 billion endowment. 

By contrast, the truck circling campus this week was devoid of statistics, and its billboards focused on the contract negotiation process itself. The truck’s alternating signs read “Yale disrespects police,” “Yale doesn’t negotiate. Yale dictates” and “Yale is a union buster employer.”

Asked about the last accusation, Hall pointed to emails sent from University Labor Relations Director Joe Sarno to YPBA members, in which Sarno pitched union members on the University’s last, best and final offer, which the University drafted in November. Hall claimed that Sarno had emailed the union with a summary of the offer to “divide” union membership and weaken support for continued negotiations to secure a preferred agreement.

“Joe [Sarno] is trying to sell it as though the contract, the offer that Yale’s offering now, is a fantastic offer and we should just settle,” Hall said.

Asked about the union’s claims, Sarno responded that the University is “proud” of its relationships with the bargaining units representing University employees. 

“We hope to build a similar relationship with the YPBA,” Sarno wrote to the News on Tuesday. “Consistent with the law, the University has communicated directly with YBPA members to ensure that they understand our perspective on important issues discussed at the table.”

The offer that Sarno presented to the union membership in those emails includes information about base wages and increases. According to that offer, which the News reviewed, union members’ base wages would increase 17.35 percent over the five-year course of the contract. The contract would cover the span of time from July 2023 to June 2028, and thus, wage increases would apply retroactively.

The University’s offer would also require union members to undergo a comprehensive drug testing program, a proposal that the union has rejected. Meanwhile, the union has advocated for a long-term disability benefits plan exempt from federal income taxes, which the University has vetoed.  

Glenn Wittig, a Yale Police officer and union member of 18 years, told the News at the rally that his priorities for a new contract are “wages that can reflect and counteract” inflation. Hall cited wages and the long-term disability benefits plan as two of the significant key issues remaining.

Hall said that union representatives are slated to meet with the University this Thursday, their first meeting since February. Sarno told the News that the parties did not make any progress toward a contract agreement in the February meeting.

The union’s last contract expired in June 2023, though negotiations for a subsequent agreement had begun in February 2023 — 28 months ago. 

The YPBA ratified its last contract after 28 months of negotiations with the University.