Union leaders arrested at NYU
Labor shows solidarity at graduate employee demonstration

Supporters of the Graduate Student Organizing Committee, the UAW affiliate that has represented New York University graduate employees since 2002, came out in force in August to protest NYU’s refusal to recognize the bargaining rights of its graduate employees. The private university’s union-busting tactics drew the ire of some 1,100 protesters, including United University Professions president and AFT vice president William Scheuerman who, along with AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, was one of 76 unionists arrested by New York City police.

The demonstrators blasted the university administration’s refusal to negotiate a second contract with the Graduate Student Organizing Committee. Last year, in a politically motivated ruling, the National Labor Relations Board reversed itself and said that graduate employees at private universities are students and therefore do not have the right to collective bargaining.

The rally drew supporters from all over New York City and from as far away as the Midwest. First among them was the Union of Clerical, Administrative and Technical Staff, an AFT local at NYU, which played host to AFT contingents from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Rutgers University/AAUP-AFT, the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University. In addition to the United University Professions/AFT and New York State United Teachers, local support came from Kathy Levine, vice president of the Association of Dowling Adjuncts, and from AFT vice presidents Randi Weingarten of the United Federation of Teachers and Barbara Bowen of the Professional Staff Congress of the City University of New York. They say they fear NYU’s actions will embolden other university leaders to break existing unions and block organizing drives.

“Our contingent came up because the stakes are high. If this university succeeds in blocking a new contract, it’s bad for all university graduate assistants,” says Tina Collins, a Penn research assistant in history and political director of Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania/AFT.

Unionists help with recovery effort

Five United University Professions members from State University of New York Maritime College are on board the college’s training ship anchored near New Orleans, playing key roles to aid the recovery effort from Hurricane Katrina. The five UUPers are part of a 76-person crew on board the Empire State VI, SUNY Maritime’s 17,000-ton, 565-foot training ship, for what’s expected to be a two-month assignment. Their mission: to provide housing and support for ConocoPhillips workers who are repairing the company’s oil refinery in Belle Chasse, La.

“Our mission is about getting everything up and running,” explains Thomas Spina, a UUP member serving as security officer on the ship. Spina said that despite having just returned from a two-month training tour, he didn’t hesitate when asked to serve on the relief mission. “You don’t think about it. This is our job,” he said. It meant leaving behind his family, including his wife, seven-year-old daughter and four-year-old son. “There’s a tremendous amount of sacrifice. But we’ll make do with what we have to do.”

Ann Barry, another UUPer at Maritime who serves as navigator on board, also accepted her sudden deployment without hesitation. She has no doubt as to the value of their mission. “We’re helping to get one of the biggest refineries in the nation back in service, which will help to lower gas prices,” she explained.

In addition to feeding and housing 350 ConocoPhillips workers, the crew was asked to take in about 300 National Guardsmen who had been stationed at a school in New Orleans.

The other UUPers serving on the mission are chief engineer Matthew O’Donnell, chief mate Matthew Mahanna and first assistant engineer William McCaney. Andrew McCarthy will join the crew soon to replace Spina.

—Donald Feldstein, UUP

'I've never seen anything like this'
Visiting nurse describes working with Katrina survivors in Alabama

Grace Garrison, a registered nurse with the Visiting Nurse Service of New York since 1989 and before that, an emergency room hospital nurse, thought she had seen it all. But then came Hurricane Katrina. Garrison went to Montgomery, Ala., to volunteer with the Red Cross to help care for Hurricane Katrina evacuees.

“I’ve never, never seen anything like this before. Nothing compares to this,” Garrison said after completing the first week of a two-week stint in late September.

Garrison is one of several United Federation of Teachers nurses and other health professionals who answered the call for medical assistance in the Gulf Coast region.

The needs of the evacuees are enormous, their stories disturbing and the work overwhelming and emotionally trying, but Garrison said patients were appreciative. “I’ve never gotten so many hugs in my whole life,” she said. With a backpack of supplies provided by AFT Healthcare, Garrison ventured South and was assigned to a one-stop service facility in Montgomery for evacuees from New Orleans, Baton Rouge and elsewhere. She saw about 60 patients a day with a variety of problems, including missing glasses, dentures and medication; cuts; extremely high blood sugar and blood pressure; and stress-related ailments.

“I just think about all these people and what they’ve been through,” she said.

She recounted the story of a woman in her 60s who had been shuffled among five shelters in various cities. Once she arrived in Montgomery, she couldn’t find a place to stay and had no money for a hotel room, so she slept in the truck that she traveled in. “When I saw her, her blood sugar was in the 500s and her blood pressure was 240 over 100-something,” said Garrison.

The work isn’t for everyone, said Anne Goldman, special representative of the Federation of Nurses/UFT. Many health workers who went to the Gulf Coast to help could not stay for long because the work is so draining, she said.