American Association of University Professors - American Federation of Teachers
Resolution passed by the Executive Council of
the Rutgers Council of AAUP Chapters, AAUP-AFT on November 16, 2005:
Presented by: Scott Bruton, Carlos Diuk, Kristen Gilmore, Rafael Greenblatt
On November 9, 2005, the Teaching Assistants at New York University went on
strike after the NYU administration refused to renegotiate their contract
(which expired on August 31, 2005) and refused to recognize their right to
unionize.
The Rutgers Council of AAUP Chapters supports the NYU Teaching Assistants in
their continued strike.
Further, the GSA condemns the spirit of
anti-union statements put forward by NYU’s administration and various academic
departments. In these statements, Teaching Assistants who were planning
to strike for recognition, a traditional union organizing strategy, were
threatened with loss of financial support and other reprisals.
We remind the administration of NYU that the freedom to have a union is a basic
human right guaranteed by the United Nations 1948 Universal Declaration of
Human Rights. Well-established collective bargaining relationships at
universities across the United States demonstrate that allowing graduate employees
to bargain collectively does no harm to academic quality or relationships.
Over the last few
months, the NYU Teaching Assistants have demonstrated again and again that
they want a union contract. Last spring, over 800 grad assistants, a vast
majority of their members, signed an open letter to President Sexton, calling
on him to negotiate a second contract. Last summer, hundreds of graduate
assistants, faculty members, undergraduates, and supporters, turned out to
President Sexton's town hall meeting and expressed the demand for a
contract. On August 31, the last day of the contract, they again
gathered in the streets, calling on President Sexton to return to the
bargaining table, and 76 people were arrested in an act of civil disobedience
protesting NYU's refusal to bargain.
NYU graduate employees and
their union, the UAW, negotiated important improvements for campus workers,
including a dramatic raise in stipends, health care benefits and overtime pay. Teaching Assistants at NYU are seeking to continue
to negotiate their working conditions through collective bargaining.
Teaching and Graduate Assistants at Rutgers University have been represented by
the Rutgers Council of AAUP Chapters in collective bargaining since 1973. The
entire Rutgers University community has benefited from this collective
bargaining relationship.
We call on the New York University administration to recognize the right of
Teaching Assistants to unionize and to immediately resume contract negotiations
in good faith with GSOC/Local 2110 UAW.