# So Yale grad students go on a hunger strike, well sort of...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-yale-grad-students-go-on-a-hunger-strike-well-sort-of/785646>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [May 1, 2017, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-yale-grad-students-go-on-a-hunger-strike-well-sort-of/785646 "2017-05-01T16:45:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-yale-grad-students-go-on-a-hunger-strike-well-sort-of/785646/1 "2017-05-01T16:45:38Z")

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> **[Campus Reform the #1 Source for College News](https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9113)**
>
> Campus Reform the #1 Source for College News

Grad students at Yale are attempting to unionize and are demanding a union contract from the University. Yale isn’t doing so because of the numbers:

> **[Yale University statement on graduate student unionization](https://news.yale.edu/2017/04/27/yale-university-statement-graduate-student-unionization)**
>
> During the past year, Local 33 of UNITE HERE, which is seeking to unionize students in several departments of the Graduate School, has held a number of protests and demonstrations on campus. Yale has fully respected those peaceful gatherings and the...

> [@](#):
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> Although there are 2,600 doctoral students in the Graduate School, only 228 students cast eligible votes in the nine academic departments in which elections were held. The low vote count (under 9%) was due to Local 33’s “micro-unit strategy” of holding nine separate union elections, and preventing students in the rest of the school’s departments from having a say on the question of unionization. The Graduate Student Assembly — the student government elected by all graduate students — had passed resolutions prior to the elections opposing both Local 33 and its exclusionary micro-unit approach.

So a small group of students affiliated with the proposed union, have initiated a hunger strike…sort of.

> [@](#):
>
> Yale University graduate students are holding a tag-team hunger strike to demand a union contract, with plans to send in fresh strikers to replace members who become too hungry.

Well I guess it’s symbolically a hunger strike.  
¯\_(ツ)\_/¯

Many critics have said that the “symbolic hunger strike” demeans the actions of people engaging in real hunger strikes.

In response, the Yale Young Republicans hosted a BBQ dinner next to the site of the grad student’s protest.

According to Yale, the students already receive: $30,000 per year stipend, 100% free health care, and 100% free tuition.

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**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2017, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-yale-grad-students-go-on-a-hunger-strike-well-sort-of/785646/2 "2017-05-01T17:52:25Z")

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[Existing thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=825117).