Wednesday, February 22, 2006

NYU's Disgrace: The First 100 Days

The Graduate Student Organizing Committee strike at NYU passed the 100 days mark last week. The GSOC strike began on Wednesday, November 9, 2005. Despite widespread support from NYU faculty, staff and undergrads, as well as the broader community and the national labor movement, the NYU administration continues to refuse to come to the bargaining table.

Washington Square News, the NYU student paper, reports today that the American Association of University Professors marked the 100th day of the strike by sending a solidarity letter to the uversity administration:
The American Association of University Professors rang in the 101st day of the graduate assistant strike on Friday by sending the NYU administration and Board of Trustees a letter criticizing the university’s dealings with its graduate students.

Referencing the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which promotes unionization, the letter is the second to come from the group in as many weeks.

“Everyone has the right to form and to join trade union for the protection of his interests,” article 23 of the declaration says.

The association’s committee on graduate and professional students also sent a letter to the NYU administration on Feb. 6 in support of the Graduate Student Organizing Committee, the bargaining unit for the students’ union, United Auto Workers Local 2110.

“Graduate student assistants, like other campus employees, should have the right to organize to bargain collectively,” said Erika Gubrium, a member of the graduate and professional students committee. “Where state legislation permits, administrations should honor a majority request for union representation.”

The AAUP’s letter recommends that the NYU administration immediately revoke punishments for striking GAs, hold hearings for teaching assistants who have been denied appointments, promise to follow AAUP procedures for the future and negotiate a legal contract with GSOC.

Click here to see how you can show solidarity with NYU's striking grad students.

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