The graduate students at New York University are on strike and have been for some considerable time now. One of them happens to be a good friend of mine, and has written articles about it here and here.
The GSOC-UAW at NYU won recognition as the first union for graduate employees at a private university, as a part of UAW Local 2110. Being a private school, unions and such matters at NYU came under the authority of the National Labor Relations Board, and it wasn't until 2002 that this board actually ruled that graduate students were in fact employees and thus that NYU was required to deal with any union that had won an election and been recognised, as GSOC-UAW was in April of 2001. Last year, however, the NLRB did an about-face and declared that private universities could simply ignore unions if it took their fancy. It should not surprise you to learn that the members of the board are appointed by the President, who is no friend of unions, workers, academics, students, the poor, Iraqis, people who look vaguely like terrorists, dissenters, small animals, sunshine, liberty, habeas corpus, or happiness. Basically, NYU decided to shut out the union to do away with collective bargaining on the grounds that the union's grievances were attempting to undermine the academic management rights of their faculty. Hundreds of the faculty do not agree, making the grievances issue look like a smokescreen for busting the union for economic reasons. Graduates don't agree either: the grievances the administration is so cheesed about appear to have come over attempts to reclassify some graduate student jobs so they could pay them less. Inside Higher Ed has some articles here and here with more on the conflict. The union, naturally, didn't like this much, and grad students have been out on strike since early November.
Which is perfectly understandable. After one goes to all the trouble of getting a union in the first place, one is not inclined to roll over and let anyone take it away without some form of struggle.
What is completely inexcusable is NYU President John Sexton's reaction. He threatened to cut off the stipend of any student who did not return to work by December 5 for one semester, and for a full year for anyone who didn't return by the start of next term. In case this caused "economic hardship", he offered the students who would lose their stipends loans on their request. Woo. This is a big fat dribbly cock-slap in the face of every student. Stripping a graduate student of his stipend means taking away his livelihood, his ability to pay rent, his freedom to eat. That is not cricket. Workers have a right to strike, and employers cannot punish them by witholding pay afterwards. That is exactly what Sexton is attempting to do. After pressure from a student government group, the deadline has been pushed back to December 9, but that is no more acceptable. The GSOC is determined to continue striking, and who can blame them? Sexton's promising them pay raises and health coverage and a grievances process if they cave in and give up on the union, but without a union and a contract, they're reliant on Sexton's goodwill and good faith to enforce that. I don't think any striker at this point has much cause to trust in either.
(Why the hell academics end up as part of the UAW has never been entirely clear to me, but there you go: I'm a paid-up member of Local 4121 here at the University of Washington. Let's be clear on this, graduate students are very well-served by unionising. We're the low hominids on the academic totem pole. Administrations everywhere know that we're a source of cheap labour without much freedom to go elsewhere without totally disrupting the pursuit of our degrees, and given half a chance they will invariably, invariably take advantage of this. Budgets are tight these days. Health care is expensive. Public funding isn't what it was, tuition and fees are going up all the time, and one very very easy way for an institution to save money is to put the squeeze on the grads. Without some form of collective bargaining, it's very hard for us to fight back at all. The contract won by the UAW for us here at the U of Washington has noticably improved our quality of life, and I'd be very surprised to learn the situation was any different at a place like NYU.)
There are NYU faculty circulating a letter in support of the strikers which you can read here, and a petition that any faculty members out there can sign here.
This is a time for all us low hominids on the totem poles to stick together and stand up for workers' rights. To put it simply, the world is run by bastards who will fist-fuck us up to the elbows if they get the chance. It's not just their recta at NYU at risk here, but yours and mine and all of ours too. For god's sake, let's protect our assholes from the assholes.
Posted by aloysius at December 06, 2005 02:49 PM |