Yale Daily News

Touche, Niko. Way to put scare societies in their proper place, embarrassed.

In my time as a member of Yale's union, I was told I was "making others look bad" (I was working too fast) and eventually paid to sit in an office, read the paper (USA Today, ugh!), and deliver the news to my supervisor at the first break.

A friend of mine, working as a casual, was fired (I forget the actual term) because her computer-work "could be done by a union employee." Of course...it couldn't, and the position went unfilled (and the work, undone).

Then there is GESO: their aggressive tactics were right out of some Communist guide (including the buddy system and harangues of attrition). Confrontations when I was just trying to get a cup of coffee. Lectures about how Yale was cheating me (what? By paying me $10K and waiving tuition? Cheat me some more, please!).

And when the unions struck and "scabs" were brought in for custodial duty? The hospital was the cleanest it had ever, ever been! All the doctors (secretly, so that unionista wouldn't hear) whispered among themselves how they wished the strike would go on and on indefinitely... The replacement staff were hard-working, conscientious, polite--the OPPOSITE of what we were used to.

Yes: working for and with the unions sure taught ME a lesson, one I keep with me still: BUST 'EM!

Written lightly and fluidly. I'm almost a fan of this article. Thankfully, not ANOTHER whiny one.

Hear, hear!

Thanks for the article, it's great and I agree 100%.

so true. great article. i thought yalies hated the exclusivity of princeton's eating clubs, but hey, we're no better. well written.

Niko I love, love, love your writing. You are truly a talented young man. I am happy thta someone close to me considers you a friend.

Great article Niko! But now that the pre-tap list has leaked to Ivygate and JuicyCampus we're all wondering if you'll accept..? Is it possible to do both?

Has Yale really changed so much in 35 years that people really give a damn about whether they or someone else is in a senior society? Reverse snobbery usually is a reaction to real snobbery. Is there a snobbery about senior societies now? Is membership seen as prestigious? It wasn't 35 years ago, but now I wonder.

Oh, btw, Niko, tell us how abolishing secret ballots in worker elections on unionization is such a democratic and wonderful thing. Unite Here is pushing this, which they call "card check neutrality". Give us a report on that when next you write, won't you?

"But the best thing about the union, and all of the other groups I’ve joined, is that none of them share a conception of community in which friendships are defined by their sheer exclusivity. When I meet new people in these groups, I can hang out with them and my old friends as well."

This paragraph is a real laugher. Just make sure your old friends are pro-union and make sure your Unite friends don't know you hang out with any non-union new friends (assuming you don't define your friends by any exclusivity criterion, like only union folk).

http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/22062