Ellie Park, Multimedia Managing Editor

The Yale Police Department’s union of officers and detectives unanimously voted Thursday to authorize a strike after over two years of contract negotiations with the University. 

The decision was supported by all 51 members of the Yale Police Benevolent Association, according to a Friday morning union press release. Officer Mike Hall, the union’s president, told the News that he planned the strike authorization vote after University negotiators conveyed on May 20 that they would not schedule additional negotiation sessions with the YPBA. Yale halted negotiations after an April 24 bargaining session, citing the YPBA’s refusal to withdraw proposals the University considers “unacceptable,” according to the University’s labor relations director Joe Sarno.

The YPBA is currently working under a contract extension that preserves the terms of its previous agreement, including a “no strike” clause, Sarno wrote to the News. Under that provision, the union is prohibited from striking while the extension remains in effect. To initiate a work stoppage, the YPBA must give Yale 30 days written notice to cancel the agreement. 

“At this point, it is really up to Yale,” Hall told the News on Friday when asked about the likelihood of a work stoppage. “What we saw with the unanimous vote yesterday is that they have militarized our union. All Yale needs to do is get back to the table.”

The University issued its “Last, Best and Final Offer” in November 2024, which the union rejected. According to Hall, Yale declined to respond to a counterproposal submitted a month later. Hall said the parties have only sat for three bargaining sessions since then, with no significant progress made. 

The union’s demands still on the table include tax-exempt, long-term disability benefits for officers injured in the line of duty, a protection it argues is standard in municipal departments but missing from Yale’s November offer. The YPBA has also proposed enhanced due process protections for internal investigations — including a six-month statute of limitations on civilian complaints submitted to the department — and revisions to the University’s proposed drug testing policy, as well as greater wage adjustments to keep up with inflation. 

Joe Sarno, the University’s labor relations director, does not anticipate a strike “in the near term” because the union is working under the contract extension.

“That said, our hope is that the YPBA allows its members to vote to ratify the University’s Nov. 7 offer,” Sarno wrote. 

Sarno told the News the University is prepared for a strike. 

“We have contingency plans in place that are consistent with the university’s priority of maintaining a safe and secure environment through enhanced campus safety protocols and partnerships,” he wrote. 

The YPBA’s last contract expired in June 2023.