GSEU CALLS FOR ONE-DAY WORK STOPPAGE APRIL 29
Last month, TAs and RAs at Columbia voted on union representation with GSEU/UAW. Based on post-election reports, we are very confident that the union won. But, unable to defeat the union in a fair election, Columbia is now appealing the NLRB decision that gives RAs and TAs the right to organize, threatening to deny TAs and RAs at private universities across the country the right to vote on unionization. If Columbia wins its appeal, our ballots will never be counted; the election you just voted in will be thrown out.
In protest of the threat to our election and our right to organize, the organizing committee of GSEU recommends a one-day work stoppage for all supporters on Monday, April 29th. We ask TAs and RAs not to teach sections or classes, attend lectures for which they TA, grade papers, hold office hours, do research for their professors or perform any other work for Columbia, and instead to go to the picket line at the gates at 116th Street and Broadway, from 8 am until 6 pm on April 29th.
VOTING PROCEDURES
Voting on the one-day strike will take place Wednesday, April 24, and Thursday, April 25, from 10 am to 8 pm, and Friday, April 26, from 10 am to 5 pm. The ballot box will be located in the Butler Library cafe and in other departmental locations to be announced. Eligible voters include anyone who has signed a union card and who is working this semester. Anyone who has not yet had an opportunity to sign a card will be able to do so at the polls. To hold the strike, we need two-thirds of the working members who cast ballots to vote YES on the recommendation. The ballots will be counted publicly on Friday, April 26 at 6 pm in the Union Office at 430 W. 119 Street. Any GSEU member is welcome to come observe the counting of the ballots.
COMMUNITY SUPPORT . Over the year and a half that GSEU has been organizing, we have repeatedly asked Columbia not to appeal our right to vote on union representation. A majority of teaching assistants signed cards last year asking for union representation and a fair election. This year, over 800 graduate students signed a public petition asking Columbia to respect our union rights. More than 700 undergraduates and 18 registered undergraduate student groups have signed petitions calling on Columbia to respect the results of the election.
Almost every elected official who represents Columbia and the neighborhood-from Senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer to State Senator Eric Schneiderman and Congressman Jerrold Nadler-has signed public letters requesting that Columbia not interfere with the election or appeal its results. But none of these attempts at dialogue have stopped Columbia from filing its appeal, which threatens to have our election thrown out and the ballots destroyed.
We call once again on Columbia to drop the appeal, count the ballots, and respect the results of the election. If the administration drops its appeal, the university can avert our one-day strike and future actions.
We expect Columbia to campaign against this action as they campaigned against our union before the election. You should know that the one-day work stoppage is legally protected political activity. You have a complete right to participate in it without fear of any punitive action by any administrator or faculty member.
A GROWING MOVEMENT
New York University, on the other hand, is doing the right thing. Not only did it recognize its TA union and negotiate a contract signed last February that both sides agreed was excellent, but the university has agreed to hold a union election at the end of May for its 3,000 adjunct professors, who will vote on unionizing with the UAW. This is one of the first attempts by adjuncts at a private university to organize a union, and we wish them luck.
Meanwhile, TAs and RAs keep struggling to organize. Next week, TAs and RAs at Tufts University will vote on union representation with the UAW on April 22nd, 23rd and 24th. Next Wednesday, the Yale graduate student union, GESO (Graduate Employees and Students Organization), will be holding a mass demonstration together with Locals 34 and 35 of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees, to demand recognition of their union. These are only two of the TA and RA organizing campaigns threatened by Columbia's appeal. If and when we strike next Monday, we will be fighting not only for our rights, but for theirs as well.
If you have any questions, please feel free to call the union office at 749-6703.
On behalf of the GSEU Organizing Committee,
David Carpio Maurice Leutenegger Felicity Palmer Kim Phillips-Fein Dermot Ryan Maggie Williams David Wolach