NYU graduate students go on strike

A group of New York University graduate school students called a strike on Nov. 9, marked by picketing in front of Bobst Library in Washington Square and other academic buildings across campus, in an attempt to force the university to negotiate a new contract that would acknowledge their union. With some classes moved off campus and others canceled, there is still no end in sight for the strike.

The university has refused to negotiate a new contract with the Graduate Student Organizing Committee (GSOC), which is affiliated with United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2110. The union's contract had expired on Aug. 31.

The university proposed a revised contract to the GSOC on Aug. 2 after weeks of discussions, said Josh Taylor, an NYU spokesman. The graduate students were given 48 hours to respond to the contract, which they rejected.

"Basically, all we want now is an opportunity to negotiate a contract," said Susan Valentine, a teaching assistant in the history department and a member of the GSOC organizing committee. "What the university offered in August was not a contract. It had no mechanism for enforcement. The purpose of contract is that if one party doesn't do what it's supposed to do, the other party can address it. This contract did not allow for that."

The university, however, has shown no intention of entering into discussion. "The time for those discussions was last spring and last summer," Taylor said. "The administration is now focused on listening to graduate students about other ways of working with them than recognizing a union."

The debate has its roots in similar strikes that occurred at Yale and Columbia last year. Graduate students there sought to be recognized as employees of the university who have rights to health care and other benefits associated with unions.

NYU first recognized the graduate student union in 2002, under a contract with which the students were pleased.

"The previous contract meant an increase in stipends that, on average, were a little over forty percent," Valentine said. "Before the contract, graduate workers were paid very little for teaching. They had to pay for health insurance out of their own pocket. People got paid all different amounts for doing [the] same work. Under contract, we got health coverage as part of [the] package. Everyone's status was regularized."

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled in 2004, however, that private universities are not obliged to observe the collective bargaining of graduate students, reversing its 2001 decision.

After the 2004 NLRB ruling, "we had to decide what we wanted to do," Taylor said. "We went back and offered a contract that would have allowed them to keep a union as a financial bargaining tool, but wouldn't allow any grievances. But they rejected it."

NYU recognized the union in the previous contract under the condition that the union would not protest academic decisions.

"Part of the deal under the first contract was that union leadership could not bring grievances against the university with regard to academic decisions," Taylor said. "But it did repeatedly, in violation of the agreement."

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NYU has also stated recently that it is against recognizing the union because graduate students are not hired or recruited as workers, but are students accepted to the university.

As a result of the strike — for which the GSOC has not set a time frame — some classes have been moved off campus. In the meantime, the university says it will do its best to ensure that learning continues.

"I cannot promise you there will be no disruption, but the University's top priority will be to maintain your academic progress, keep disturbances to a minimum, and give you the educational experience you should expect," David McLaughlin, a university provost, said in an email to undergraduate students.

For the most part, undergraduate students at NYU seem to understand and support the graduate students' efforts even though the strikes have interrupted their semester, according to several NYU students.

"I think that grad students definitely do have the right to unionize to protest their unfair treatment," said Julie Su, a freshman in the Stern Business School. "The strikes don't have much of an effect on classes besides that recitations [NYU's equivalent of precepts] are canceled and papers and tests aren't graded. None of my classes have been disrupted, but I'm lucky. Some people's classes are terminated until the strikes end."

Other students expressed their opposition to the strike.

"The graduate students should not deserve to be paid more if they are willing to sacrifice the education of students in the classes they are neglecting to teach," said Adam Abada, a student in the Tisch School of the Arts. "I have friends who don't have the majority of their classes because of the strikes, and those classes are taught primarily by graduate TAs. I think this is unfair."

According to Valentine, a group started by undergraduate students last spring called Grad-Undergrad Solidarity (GUS) has been working to educate their peers about the strikes.

A majority of the NYU faculty is in support of the union and is working to educate the community, according to students and faculty members. A faculty group called Faculty Democracy is hosting a town hall meeting today to support the strikers.

"The decision to decertify the union was made by the administration with very little consultation with the faculty," said Martin Harries, an associate professor of English. "Certainly there are members of the faculty who do not support unionization. It seems to me, however, that in departments where graduate students play a large role in teaching, faculty support is very strong."

To show his support, Harries has moved his two seminars to off-campus locations.

"A few of my students are members of GSOC, and I would not have asked them or any other student to cross a picket line," he said.

GSOC has also received support from graduate students at Yale, Columbia and schools in the CUNY system, among others, according to Valentine.

However, there has been very little response among graduate students at Princeton, according to Shin-Yi Lin, chair of the Graduate Student Government. "I think they generally feel that the Graduate Student Government is generally able to address their concerns," Lin said. "There has been no word of wishes to unionize on this campus."