Barbara Vereen, staff director of UNITE HERE Local 34| Renee Deminne / People’s World
NEW HAVEN—A new report from UNITE HERE Local 34, the union representing nearly 4,000 clerical and technical workers at Yale University, documents how the university’s AI rollout is quietly shrinking its workforce—not through mass layoffs, but through what the union calls “passive automation.”
The report, “Artificial University: The Effects of AI on a Clerical and Technical Labor Union,” combines survey data, membership metrics, and firsthand accounts from workers whose jobs have been fundamentally altered since Yale released its AI platform, Clarity, in late 2024.
The timing of the report lands in the middle of contract negotiations between Yale and its clerical and technical workers, with a demonstration held on Oct. 14 with the slogan “We Can’t Keep Up.”
Thousands flooded the streets of New Haven for the rally. Workers from Yale UNITE HERE Locals 33, 34, and 35 marched alongside allies such as UNITE HERE Local 217 and New Haven Rising. They demanded that Yale President Maurie McInnis settle a fair contract with the workers here.
The rally was also attended by UNITE HERE President Gwen Mills, who emphasized that when there is a fight, all 300,000 members throughout the U.S. and Canada will be ready to jump in.
Yale could do the right thing by its workers and community, but refuses. A UNITE HERE Local 34 member testified on the rally stage that although the Yale administration claims that using AI is not mandatory, she is constantly pressured to use the AI platform, Clarity, in order to cope with understaffing. She is now doing the work that used to belong to 3 workers as Yale does not fill positions held by those who have left the university.
A local high school student testified that his mother, a UNITE HERE Local 35 member, was often forced to work late due to understaffing and would return home to her family tired from being on her feet all day. He said that although his mother is at work breaking her body each day, the money still isn’t enough to make ends meet.
Barbara Vereen, staff director at UNITE HERE Local 34, emphasized that the union’s three locals would not be divided and would stand as one union. Together, Locals 33, 34, and 35 have around 9,000 members. She stated, “We want three contracts, because we’re one union and they’re one Yale.” UNITE HERE Local 35 president, Bob Proto, shouted out the support of the New Haven community organization New Haven Rising, students, and political allies in the fight.
In August 2024, Yale committed $150 million over five years to AI, funding everything from graphics processing units to Clarity, a platform that wraps ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini in a Yale-specific interface, along with funding for AI-focused faculty and research support.
The following year, the university launched a campus-wide campaign encouraging AI use, including “Prompt-A-Thons” where IT staff were trained to use AI for tasks like drafting communications plans, preparing budget proposals, and analyzing faculty feedback.
But according to the union, Yale never gave the union the 90 days’ notice required under the2022 Memorandum of Agreement on Technological Changebefore introducing technology that could substantially alter members’ work. The union has since filed a grievance that may go to arbitration.
Yale maintains that AI use is “voluntary,” but the workers here disagree. They documented repeated pressure from managers to adopt AI, mandatory training sessions, and job postings that now list AI fluency as a requirement for job listings in the existing bargaining unit.
The departments most affected, which include administrative assistants, clinical receptionists, research assistants, are among the largest in the bargaining unit. Nearly 80% of Local 34’s members are women, and in New Haven, office and administrative support is the second-largest job for women workers.
Tamera Sternberger, a program coordinator in Yale Development, used to spend weeks drafting, editing, and revising donor solicitation campaigns as part of her work. Since the Clarity rollout, she said that her work is now done almost entirely by AI
“I now rarely do any writing or editing, which was at least half of the work that I would do at my job,” Sternberger said. Instead, she spends her days on event logistics: moving equipment, setting up rooms, and other tasks AI can’t do. The creative portions of her job, she said, have been “automated away.”
The report asserted that AI will not replace jobs one-to-one. Instead, management will make do with fewer workers, declining to rehire as people either retire or quit, in order to maximize revenue. But for the workers, it means more work with less help and increased exploitation.
The union’s membership climbed for years, hitting 4,112 in April 2025. Then it dropped sharply. Yale imposed a hiring freeze in June 2025 and a retirement incentive the following April, all while refusing the union’s demand for a minimum staffing floor.
UNITE HERE Local 34 is demanding what it calls a “responsible transition,” which includes training on new technology, wage raises tied to productivity gains, and a hard commitment that staffing won’t shrink under current levels. Concretely, that means guaranteeing 3,933 clerical and technical positions for the next five years.
Yale has the resources, and its endowment is at $42 billion, the union maintains. As Vereen toldPeople’s World, “This fight will be won in the streets by the workers.”
Yale also has the resources to be a good neighbor to its New Haven home, where community members are mobilizing to fight the affordability crisis.
Director of New Haven Rising, Rev. Scott Marks, spoke about his family who came to Connecticut from the South as sharecroppers looking for dignity, freedom, and a decent quality of life. Yale increasingly seems like the plantation owners who took everything and paid nothing.
“Yale teaches equality,” said Marks, “but when it comes to protecting working-class New Haven, they fall silent.”
It will be the working class that forces Yale to stand by its supposed values, take on Trump and the ruling class’s attacks on higher education, and give workers the respect and dignity they deserve.
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CONTRIBUTOR
Renee Deminne is a UNITE HERE member in New Haven, Conn., and is originally from Southern Maryland. She volunteers at the New Haven Peoples Center as its cultural director and has a background in area studies.
Cameron Harrison is a trade union activist and organizer for the CPUSA Labor Commission. He writes from Detroit, Michigan.
