Support Striking NYU Workers

Graduate employees at New York University have gone on strike to protest NYU’s refusal to recognize their union and bargain a new contract.

NYU administrators are taking advantage of a partisan National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decision to deny its graduate employees their basic right to have a union and bargain collectively. The Bush-appointed NLRB denied tens of thousands of graduate employees at private universities important federal protections for forming unions and bargaining, overturning precedent and mistreating graduate employees—full-fledged workers who deserve full-fledged rights.

Over the past three years, NYU graduate employees and their union, Graduate Student Organizing Committee/UAW Local 2110, negotiated important improvements for campus workers, including a dramatic raise in stipends, health care benefits and overtime pay.

Don’t let NYU administrators take away their union and their rights. Take action now and tell NYU to honor graduate employees’ decision to form a union and to get back to the bargaining table now.

Sample Letter for Campaign

Subject: Respect NYU Workers and Their Union and Get Back to the Bargaining Table

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

I strongly urge you to recognize your graduate employees' right to a union and to return to the bargaining table immediately.

Campus workers have demonstrated their desire to have a union with UAW and worked cooperatively for more than three years with NYU to improve workplace conditions.

It is simply unacceptable for the university to deny its employees basic workplace protections and rights.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decision to deny private university employees protection when they choose to form unions is one of many blatantly partisan attempts by the Bush-appointed NLRB to restrict the rights of working people. Nothing in the decision prevent private universities like NYU from doing the right thing and honoring the workers' decision. Using the partisan NLRB ruling to take away the graduate employees' union and renege on a contract is just plain wrong.

Discontinuing your established relationship with NYU's graduate workers' union once their contract expires is unconscionable behavior, especially at one of the nation's most respected institutions of higher learning.

The freedom to have a union is a basic human right guaranteed by the United Nations 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and recognized by the U.S. government 70 years ago in the National Labor Relations Act. Well-established collective bargaining relationships at universities from coast to coast demonstrate that allowing graduate employees to bargain for a decent life does no harm to academic quality or relationships.

NYU must immediately honor the decision of its workers and resume collaborative work with graduate employees to reach a mutually acceptable collective bargaining agreement.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
November 10, 2005


Background Information

In addition to eliminating federal protections for graduate employees, the Bush National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) also restricted collective bargaining rights of temporary agency employees and workers with disabilities.

According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, 32 million U.S. workers already have no legal protection to form unions. The internationally recognized human rights organization Human Rights Watch calls this a fundamental human rights issue.

A recent survey showed 57 million nonunion workers want a union voice at work. But employer hostility, weak labor laws and attacks by the Bush administration stand in their way. More than 20,000 workers have been fired or discriminated against this year alone for union activities, according to NLRB reports. That amounts to a worker in this country being fired or discriminated against every 23 minutes for exercising the basic human right to form or support a union.

It’s time for our elected leaders to restore workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain collectively.

The bipartisan Employee Free Choice Act would ensure that when a majority of employees in a workplace decide to form a union, they can do so without the debilitating tactics employers now use to block their workers’ free choice.

This legislation would require employers to recognize a union after workers sign cards authorizing union representation. It would provide for mediation and arbitration of first-contract disputes and authorize stronger penalties for violation of the rights of workers seeking to form unions and negotiate first contracts.