Comprehensive coverage: http://www.virtualmind.info/nyustrike/strike.htm
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http://www.nyunews.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/11/29/438c10473307f
NYU to punish strikers
by Liz Skalka
November 29, 2005 Washington Square News
Graduate assistants who strike past Dec. 5 will not be allowed to receive stipends or teach classes next semester, NYU President John Sexton announced yesterday.
In a 1,400 word e-mail to graduate assistants, Sexton wrote that the strike, which began on Nov. 9, must not continue, and that GAs who continue striking into next week will lose stipends and teaching assignments for the spring, though they will all retain their health benefits and tuition remission. Graduate assistants who return to work on or before the Dec. 5 deadline will not be punished, he said, though it is not yet clear how the university will determine which GAs are striking past the deadline.
The university is pursuing these actions primarily to ensure that the education of undergraduates is no longer affected, he said.
Though I fervently disagree with their decision not to teach, I do not think [those striking] made this choice lightly, Sexton said.
But however strongly felt a graduate assistants act of conscience may be, it should not be pursued any longer at the expense of undergraduates.
Sexton also outlined the steps NYU has taken to improve its relationship with graduate assistants since its contract with the graduate students union expired on Aug. 31, including decreasing GA teaching requirements and creating a working group to develop a new system for GAs to file complaints against the university. He also wrote that the university will now offer individual graduate students written contracts with the university, though the university is holding to its decision not to recognize the graduate students union, United Auto Workers Local 2110.
NYU became the first private university to recognize a graduate students union in 2000, after the National Labor Relations Board ruled that graduate students were workers and entitled to unionize.
When the board overturned its decision in 2004, negating NYUs legal obligation to bargain with the union, the university ended its relationship with the union after its contract expired on Aug. 31, 2005. The union has sought to regain university recognition since then, striking as a last-ditch effort.
Sextons e-mail discussed other contentious issues that have arisen since the graduate students began striking, including using Blackboard to monitor courses affected by the strike.
For [the GAs] and others, the changes to the student health plan and the errors surrounding Blackboard created doubts about the universitys goodwill, when both these issues could be understood quite differently in an environment of mutual good faith, Sexton said.
NYUs non-union contract offers full medical benefits, tuition remission and a $1,000 annual stipend increase until 2008, plus publication of the amount of the next three years stipends each April. The university will now offer written, as opposed to oral, contracts to graduate students to make it more clear that these contracts are legally enforceable, Sexton said.
>From now on, GAs who have absences without the approval of their dean will
be suspended from graduate assistant work and lose their stipends for two
consecutive semesters.
Determining which GAs are striking past the universitys deadline may be complicated by the neutrality agreements that many academic departments signed before the strike began. Such agreements specified that graduate assistants, faculty and students who choose to strike would not be reported to the departments dean and would not face penalties within the department.
History department chair Molly Nolan said her department consented to a neutrality agreement before the strike and will soon meet to decide how to proceed in light of the universitys ultimatum.
We are not going to do the enforcing work, said Nolan, who is a member of Faculty Democracy, a group of professors who largely support the union. I dont know how they intend to find out who is doing what.
Faculty of Arts and Science dean Catharine Stimpson said, however, the neutrality agreement consented to by some departments will not affect Sextons proposal to conclude the strike.
There can be a variety of ways of ensuring undergraduate education, Stimpson said.
Some faculty members said the universitys deadline is warranted. I think the university has been slow to react and quite generous, economics professor James Ramsey said. There has to be some sort of consequence for people with contracts who withhold labor.
Undergraduates suffered greatly because of the strike, Ramsey said. We live on undergraduate student fees, he said. And undergraduates arent getting their fair shake.
Some students said if NYU is truly trying to help undergraduates like those with classes that are taught by stand-alone TAs, they shouldnt wait a week to try to end the strike.
If someones class has been canceled especially since youre paying I think they should take action immediately, CAS junior David Alevi said.
The deadline was created to give graduate students a week to contemplate the consequences, NYU spokesman John Beckman said. Dec. 5 provides reasonable notice for striking graduate assistants to reflect on an important matter, Beckman said.
American studies professor and Faculty Democracy member Andrew Ross said that faculty members were probably not consulted before the decision was announced, and the ultimatum put forth by the university conflicts with GAs democratic rights.
Depriving graduate assistants stipend for two semesters is harsh for the actions that theyre taking, Ross said.
The Graduate Student Organizing Committee will not bend to the universitys ultimatum and will continue to picket and withhold labor until the university agrees to negotiate a contract with the union, GSOC spokesman Susan Valentine said.
We need to bargain collectively, Valentine said. Its on the university to sit down and negotiate. There is an end to this. GSOC member and history graduate student Jenny Shaw said her resolve to negotiate contract with Local 2110 will not waver.
I think that Sextons e-mail first and foremost shows that the strike has had a real impact on the campus, Shaw said. The Dec. 5 deadline is just as much about NYU trying to get us back to work to get in grades for the semester as it is about docking stipends.
Additional reporting by Kate Meyer and Barbara Leonard -------------------------------------------------------------- Please Note: Due to Florida's very broad public records law, most written communications to or from College employees regarding College business are public records, available to the public and media upon request. Therefore, this e-mail communication may be subject to public disclosure.