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Support Needed for TAs' Union at NYU |
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| Posted by: | James S. Uleman |
| Title/Position: | Professor of Psychology |
| School/Organization: | New York University |
| Sent to listserv of: | SPSP, SESP, SPSSI |
| Date posted: | December 4th, 2005 |
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FACULTY ASK SUPPORT FOR TAs’ UNION AT NYU
Dear colleague faculty member,
I belong to a group of NYU faculty (Faculty Democracy: www.facultydemocracy.org) that is trying to support TAs at NYU in their efforts to regain recognition of their union. As a fellow faculty member, presumably concerned with faculty governance and academic freedom, we need your help. Here is some background, and more can be found at our website (above).
Teaching assistants at NYU conducted a union drive in 1999-2000, won an election, and affiliated with the United Auto Workers (in a local that also includes other educational professionals in NYC such as Museum of Modern Art and New York Historical Society employees). The NYU administration fought hard against the union but was ultimately forced to recognize and negotiate with it by the National Labor Relations Board. There followed a 3 year contract that brought the teaching assistants health benefits and a stipend increase. During this time the university ran quite smoothly.
In the summer of 2005, released from the obligation to negotiate by a new Bush-appointed NLRB, the NYU administration un-recognized the union and has been refusing to negotiate with it. Given this extreme provocation, the union had virtually no alternative but to strike.
They began striking on Nov. 9 and several hundred professors have been teaching off-campus so as not to cross the picket line. The administration – really, President John Sexton – steadily refuses to deal with the union. He has ignored a compromise proposal by a former dean. At one point several administrators infiltrated course websites (using the program "Blackboard") so as to be able to determine which faculty and teaching assistants were supporting the strike; this resulted in widespread faculty outrage and the deans quickly withdrew from that effort.
Now President Sexton has again thrown a bombshell: he has threatened that any TAs who do not return to work by Dec. 5 will be deprived of an entire semester's stipend and those who dare to return to a strike in the next semester will lose an entire year's funding. (See letter below.)
Such an action would be unprecedented. Graduate student employees have struck at many other universities, including those in the Ivy League and those just as anti-union as the NYU administration, but nowhere have such draconian reprisals ever been taken. Moreover, to date American workers retain a right to strike. While employers may well withhold wages during a strike, punishing strikers for a semester or a year afterward is illegal. The basic disagreement between the students and President Sexton is whether they are workers or not, and his point of view must be reckoned with, but surely the action of assistants who believe that they are workers cannot be criminalized because one disagrees.
If this threatened punishment is allowed to happen it will set a disastrous example for democratic debate at universities throughout the country. It would also cause serious harm to the reputation of NYU. We fear it will make it much for difficult for the university to recruit and retain the best faculty and graduate students.
Hundreds of faculty have formed a group, Faculty Democracy, to protest President Sexton's policy and to push for greater administration consultation with faculty on important decisions – a consultation which, if undertaken seriously, might have prevented this whole debacle.
We urge scholars and intellectuals throughout the country to write to President Sexton and ask him to drop his threats and agree to negotiate with the union. He can be reached at 70 Washington Square, NY, NY 10012 and by email at john.sexton@nyu.edu. We would also appreciate it if you would cc: Martin Lipton, Chairman of the NYU Board of Trustees (mlipton@wlrk.com), Dean Richard Foley (dick.foley@nyu.edu) and Dean Catharine Stimpson (catharine.stimpson@nyu.edu), both of the Faculty of Arts and Science.
Please also cc: me, and let me know if you do not want your letter made public.
An easier alternative would be to sign the petition, at
http://new.petitiononline.com/tosexton/petition.html
Thank you. And please excuse any duplicate mailings of this communication.
---- Letter from President Sexton to NYU TAs ------
Dear Graduate Assistants,
Your admission to NYU’s graduate programs represents recognition of your potential to be part of the next generation of intellectual leaders, as men and women who will fill the ranks of university faculty throughout the world, as individuals who will lead lives devoted to advanced inquiry. In providing you with financial aid and the opportunities and responsibilities of assistantships, we hope to help prepare you for that life.
We recognize that for some of you there is an unfortunate disparity between the ideal and the reality. In some instances, assistantships have not been structured to accomplish what we want: to enhance professional development. There is always a delicate balance between matching undergraduate curricular needs with the academic and scholarly interests of those who teach; in the case of GAs, we have not always achieved that balance. While this is not true in every department, it is true in some.
Our exchanges with one another have been shaped by this reality and the mistrust engendered by it. We know we must work to bridge the gulf that has developed, and to align our realities with our ideals.
The recent announcement within Arts and Science limiting assistantship responsibilities in languages and literature departments to one stand alone course per semester is a first step. We know we must take others, but these academic decisions are best determined by schools and departments. The University will commit resources in support of these efforts. Moving closer to this ideal, however, will be difficult without restoring an atmosphere of mutual respect and good faith within the University community.
We appreciate that for some GAs a collectively bargained contract, driven by a union, provides a greater sense of security; for them the University’s August decision to move ahead without the union was wrong. For them and others, the changes to the student health plan and the errors surrounding Blackboard created doubts about the University’s good will, when both of these issues could be understood quite differently in an environment of mutual good faith.
For my part, I will not repeat the challenging history that contributed to the University’s decision to work directly with our graduate students rather than through the intermediary of a union. Suffice it to say that we accept that, as we move forward, the burden is on the University to create an environment of trust as we aim to achieve the ideal.
To this end, we propose the following pathway: for all current and incoming graduate assistants, the University will offer written contracts based upon their appointment letters. From our perspective, these commitments already are binding; nonetheless, we will proceed to document them in a manner that makes clear to all that these contracts obligate the University and are legally enforceable. These contracts will detail the terms described last summer, including:
• $1000/year minimum increases in stipends for the 2005-06 academic year (already enacted), as well as 2006-07 and 2007-08, plus the publication each April of the next three year’s stipends;
• continued payment by the University of 100 percent of health care premiums for the comprehensive student health insurance plan; and
• full tuition remission.
But there is more work to be done, and much of it must be driven by graduate students themselves. Since the beginning of the fall semester, two groups of graduate students have set to work on matters of importance to graduate students generally, and graduate assistants in particular.
The Graduate Student Working Group is crafting a rights-and-responsibilities compact that will provide a basis for defining the relationship between graduate students and the University. The Working Group is also formulating a permanent grievance procedure for graduate students to replace the interim procedures presently in place. Some members of the NYU community have expressed concern about the fairness of a grievance procedure that ends with the Provost, a University official. While we must await the Working Group’s proposals, we are open to any suggestions they may have regarding how members from the academy outside the University might play a role in this process.
The Graduate Affairs Committee of the Student Senators Council has also started to address economic and benefit issues affecting graduate students in general and GAs in particular. Again, we must see what this group proposes; were it, however, to offer a new mechanism that would enable graduate assistants elected at the department level to act as representatives of all GAs in annual discussions of stipend levels, health care benefits, and other matters of importance, we would embrace that as part of our university governance procedures.
Lastly, I wish to talk about the strike.
Many GAs have continued teaching, others have taught at off-campus locations, and still others have not been teaching. I believe that those striking have been acting out of conscience. Though I fervently disagree with their decision not to teach, I do not think they made this choice lightly. But however strongly felt a graduate assistant’s act of conscience may be, it should not be pursued any longer at the expense of undergraduates.
So far, those who have been on strike have been able to act out of conscience without experiencing consequences for their actions; instead, the burdens have fallen on departments, faculty, and, in particular, our undergraduates. Because graduate assistants are also our students, those on strike have continued to receive their stipends, they have continued to receive free tuition, and they have continued to receive free health insurance.
Their points have been made and heard. The time has come for the University to insist that the academic needs of its undergraduates be met. All of us should share a deep commitment to meeting these needs. Those undergraduates in classes affected by the strike are understandably anxious about the disruption to their studies. Such disruption must not continue. I thank those who have been teaching, and I ask those who have not to return to the classroom.
For those graduate assistants who resume teaching and other assistantship assignments by Monday, December 5th (or the first class meeting thereafter) at the assigned times and places, and who fulfill all assigned responsibilities for the remainder of the semester, including grading, there will be no consequences. These GAs will be eligible for teaching and other assignments by the department for the spring semester. This amnesty represents a balance between our respect for the principled positions of those choosing to strike and our obligation to undergraduates, who have a right to complete their semester’s work and experience no disruption in their courses next semester.
Because we take both responsibilities seriously, graduate assistants who do not resume their duties by December 5 or the first scheduled teaching assignment thereafter while experiencing no consequences for this semester will for the spring semester lose their stipend and their eligibility to teach.
For those graduate assistants who return by December 5th and accept a teaching assignment for the spring, this acceptance comes with the commitment to meet their responsibilities without interruption throughout the spring semester. Absences not approved by the dean will result in suspension from assistantship assignments and loss of stipend for the following two consecutive semesters. Graduating students will be assessed comparably.
None of the striking graduate students will have their ability to continue their own studies affected. In all cases, their tuition and health benefits will remain in place, and where the suspension of stipend would create economic hardship, loans will be provided to students upon their request.
For those who will be satisfied with nothing less than a union, I know it will be a disappointment that the University will not recognize GSOC/UAW as the collective bargaining representatives of NYU’s graduate assistants. I nonetheless hope that we share a goal to make graduate education at NYU better, even if we differ about the vehicle for achieving this, and that we can come together around this goal.
This has been a difficult and rancorous semester. While I do not condone what has been done by those who have been striking, their actions have caused us to take a hard and unflinching look at ourselves and our practices, and these self-examinations will lead to significant, enduring improvements. I hope that in this spirit we can work together to complete the semester and rebuild the trust we need.
Sincerely,
John Sexton
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