SEIU District 1199 President Dennis Rivera said the strike would have national impact.

“You are a great inspiration to people across the country,” he said.

SEIU President Andrew L. Stern repeatedly admonished Yale to “practice what you teach.”

“Call Yale what it really is: a hypocrite,” he said. “Yale is the worst—it’s the bottom of the class when it comes to labor relations.”

Stern said that if Yale wants to be a world leader, it needs to start leading by example at home.

“It’s time to end the dual standard,” he said. “It’s time to crawl out of the cellar of class warfare.”

New Haven mayor John DeStefano Jr., also spoke at the rally, telling workers to “Keep truckin’!”

National politicians have also taken an interest in the fray.

Senators Joseph I. Lieberman, D-Conn., and Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., issued a joint letter in January supporting the organizing efforts of GESO and hospital workers, according to the Yale Daily News.

Lieberman issued a letter to the Yale community saying that he had urged Yale President Richard C. Levin last week to negotiate in good faith with labor and community leaders. Dodd has also reiterated his support for the cause.

Ivy Solidarity

Local 34 President Smith said Yale’s union workers aspire to the conditions that Harvard employees enjoy.

“The salary minimum at Harvard is our salary maximum here,” she said.

She specifically cited benefits packages and provisions for attending classes as areas where Yale workers hoped to gain similar contracts to their Harvard counterparts.

A Boston contingent, including a Harvard janitor and two Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) members—siblings Daniel DiMaggio ’04 and Sara T. DiMaggio ’06—went down to New Haven yesterday to join the strikers.