AFT, labor groups rally behind NYU grad union

Striking graduate employees at New York University held their picket lines through the end of classes in December, despite administration warnings that they would lose their stipends if they were not back at work Dec. 7. The workers, a unit of 1,000 represented by the Graduate Students Organizing Committee, an affiliate of the United Auto Workers, went on strike Nov. 9.

GSOC was the first graduate employee union to wrest recognition from a private university employer in 2001 and it negotiated its first contract in 2002. At the same time GSOC was scoring victories, graduate employees were organizing, filing petitions and holding elections at Columbia, Brown and the University of Pennsylvania. They all suffered a severe blow in 2004, when new Bush appointments to the National Labor Relations Board took their seats and, reversing an earlier decision, ruled that Brown graduate employees did not have the right to bargain collectively. Before GSOC’s first contract had even expired, NYU announced that it would not recognize the union’s right to negotiate a second one.

Thus began a new phase in the David-and-Goliath fight of private university graduate employee unions to secure the right to bargain. It is a fight that many in the labor movement have jumped on board to support. On the day GSOC’s contract expired, Aug. 31, 2005, 1,100 supporters rallied at NYU and more than 70 were arrested, including AFL-CIO president John Sweeney and AFT vice president William Scheuerman (see News & Trends, October 2005 AFT On Campus). The rally was supported by GSOC’s sister union, the Union of Clerical, Administrative and Technical Staff/AFT. Other graduate employee unions turned out as well, including AFT members from Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania, the Teaching Assistants’ Association at the University of Wisconsin, Rutgers University, Temple and the University of Illinois.

In support of the strike, NYU professors held classes off campus, wrote letters of support signed by departments and formed a new organization called Faculty for Democracy.  

On Nov. 19, AFT president Edward J. McElroy sent a strong letter to NYU president John Sexton, asking him to “do the right thing.” He urged Sexton to return to the bargaining table to negotiate a successor agreement.

“It is unfortunate,” McElroy wrote, “that the NYU administration has forced GSOC into this position rather than continuing the collective bargaining relationship, which had begun the process of improving working conditions for graduate employees and thereby improving the educational environment for graduate employees and undergraduate students alike.”

All of the unions that belong to the AFT Graduate Employee Locals (AGEL) have been active in supporting GSOC, sending people to join the picket lines, donating to the strike fund and writing letters to NYU’s president.

Florida finally severs SEVIS fees

After three years of picketing, editorial writing, resolutions, letters, meetings, mailings, a petition and even legal briefs, the University of Florida Graduate Assistants United/AFT celebrated a victory over international student fees when administrators suspended the $100 annual charge to international graduate employees.

“This was a major issue at universities across the country, and a cynical attempt to generate revenue from some of our most vulnerable scholars,” says Todd Reynolds, UF-GAU co-president. UF had transferred the cost of the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), a monitoring system required by the federal government, onto students as a matter of course. But a state legislative accounting review declared that the fee was enacted without statutory authority and the administration decided to absorb the cost. About 2,800 graduate employees are affected by the decision.

Although SEVIS was initiated in 1996, its implementation went into high gear after Sept. 11, 2001, to monitor international visitors.

Other graduate employee unions that have had the fees withdrawn include the Teaching Assistants’ Association/AFT at the University of Wisconsin, which drew support for repealing the fee through the Madison City Council as well as through rallies, letter-writing and a “grade-in” in 2004. Members of the Graduate Employees Organization/AFT at the University of Michigan don’t pay SEVIS fees, either; nor do those at Rutgers, where if a graduate employee gets tuition remission, by extension all fees, including SEVIS, are waived. In Florida, only one other state institution, the University of South Florida, charges for SEVIS; Reynolds believes UF’s repeal may change that.

To celebrate GAU’s victory, the local hosted a Campus Equity and Solidarity Speak-Out on Nov. 9, hoping the victory would boost morale for NYU grad employees struggling to win back recognition as a bargaining unit.

Since the fee campaign, GAU is more mindful of other international student issues, including insurance.

“If we learned anything, it is that because a disproportionate number of grad workers here are international students, international student issues are labor issues,” says Reynolds.

NYU staff union reaches contract

The New York University Union of Clerical, Administrative and Technical Staff/AFT (UCATS) managed to walk a delicate line last semester. Not only did the AFT union vigorously support its sister, the Graduate Students Organizing Committee/UAW, by cosponsoring rallies and having board members get arrested. It also negotiated a six-year contract, ratified Nov. 14 with a 447 to 148 vote, providing the highest raises negotiated by any NYU union recently, says Stephen Rechter, UCATS president.

The contract runs from Nov. 1, 2005, through Oct. 31, 2011, with 3.5 percent raises in the first year, 3.25 percent in each of the next four years and 3 percent in the last year. The union fought hard on sharing healthcare cost increases. Healthcare coverage is maintained for all at the university’s expense, but in 2007, employees must contribute for dependents.

UCATS battled to keep important union rights, such as a general duty health and safety clause and security language protecting members facing suspensions and discharges. Most importantly, says Rechter, the union maintained one contract for all members. “Like many employers, NYU made a proposal for a two-tier contract to pay future workers less. We were steadfast in our refusal.”

As the semester came to an end marked by more labor unrest with GSOC, UCATS walked the picket line every day and members dug into their pockets to contribute to GSOC’s hardship fund.