NYU Agrees to Contract With TA's, Setting Minimum Stipend and Health Benefits By SCOTT SMALLWOOD
New York University and the union representing teaching assistants there have reached a proposed contract settlement, the first ever at a private university.
The two sides reached the four-year deal Monday night and announced details Tuesday. The university will raise stipends to a minimum of $15,000 a year and pay 100 percent of the health-insurance costs for graduate assistants.
Stipends at NYU vary (and will continue to vary under the deal), but the average across the university now is about $12,500. The minimum will increase to $15,000 for the 2002-3 academic year and then by an additional $1,000 each subsequent year. If an assistant was already getting more than the minimum, the contract provides for a 3.5 percent annual raise. Currently, health benefits vary, with some departments paying for some of the health-insurance costs, generally less than half, and others paying none.
But, with several other private universities facing unionization efforts, one of the most notable parts of the NYU agreement is that it exists at all.
"I'm still skeptical, but maybe more optimistic about whether this is good for graduate students and the university," said Robert Berne, NYU's vice president for academic and health affairs. "Clearly other people can improve on what we've done, and I'm interested in other judgments."
The deal resolves a lengthy fight between the university and the union, an affiliate of the United Auto Workers. Last winter, after the National Labor Relations Board ruled that the teaching assistants could unionize, the university eventually agreed to bargain once the union agreed not to negotiate over academic issues. "There were moments over the past months where I didn't think this was going to be settled without a knock-down, drag-out fight," said Mr. Berne.
Both sides made plans to handle a strike. "People were prepared to fight," said Lisa Jessup, an organizer for the TA union. "But people are relieved to know that we can achieve something that everybody is really proud of without a fight." She called the contract "ground-breaking" and said it would energize the union movement.
The proposed contract, which is expected to be ratified by the union this week, will be closely examined by other union organizers. Since the labor-board ruling in the NYU case, the UAW has been organizing unions at Brown and Columbia Universities. Officials there are fighting the union efforts: Brown has appealed a regional NLRB ruling, and Columbia is awaiting a similar regional decision.
Also, the American Federation of Teachers has organized a union at the University of Pennsylvania. That union has petitioned the NLRB for recognition and hearings are being held this week in Philadelphia.