N.Y.U Graduate Students Threaten Strike
About 1,000 N.Y.U. graduate student teaching assistants lost their union representation back in August when their contract with the university expired. At that time, following a policy reversal by the Bush-controlled NLRB, the university decided it would no longer recognize a graduate student union.
In the end, N.Y.U. offered the union the right to continue to represent the graduate assistants on economic matters if it would forgo the right to present grievances to an outside arbitrator. The university said that some of the grievances the union had filed interfered with academic decision-making. The union denied that it had encroached on N.Y.U.’s academic rights and rejected the offer.
At the time, the university said it would continue to increase the $18,000 minimum stipend by $1,000 a year for the next several years, and would continue to pay for health insurance.
The graduate students have threatened a strike next week. In August, protests at the university resulted in 76 arrests.
[Meredith R. Miller]