Teaching assistants at New York University are the first graduate students in the country to win the right to vote in a union election. The National Labor Relations Board ruled April 3 that 1,700 grad students employed by the university have the right to seek UAW representation.

"We grade papers, teach courses and recitation, hold office hours, conduct research, and perform administrative tasks," said graduate employee Laura Tanenbaum. "We are workers, and we deserve the right to vote for a union, and it’s disappointing that NYU resisted that idea at all."

NYU administrators argued that the teaching assistants are primarily students, not employees. NLRB regional director Daniel Silverman disagreed, ruling that there is no basis to deny collective bargaining rights to teaching assistants "merely because they are employed by an educational institution while enrolled as a student."

"This historic ruling provides graduate teaching assistants with a fundamental right already held by nearly all of our nation’s workers--the right to decide whether to form and be represented by a union," UAW President Stephen P. Yokich declared.

NYU teaching assistants earn an average of $10,000 for a nine-month appointment, with no employer contribution toward health care, which runs $1,000 a year. Unionized teaching assistants enjoy subsidized health care at many colleges.

An overwhelming majority of grad students signed UAW cards in April 1999, and the union petitioned the NLRB for an election. The university forced hearings on the "employee status" of graduate students, and has appealed the April 3 ruling to the full NLRB.

"NYU has stalled our right to a democratic process for almost a year now," said teaching assistant Michael Gasper. "It is time for NYU to respect the wishes of graduate students and the greater community who support our right to an election."

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and 100 other elected, labor, religious, and community leaders signed a letter supporting the students to NYU President L. Jay Oliva.

"Unionization will create a stronger, healthier university community," said teaching assistant Jason Patch. "By standing up for ourselves, we are making an investment in our futures and the future of NYU."

The UAW represents over 12,000 grad student employees at the University of Massachusetts and University of California. Eighty percent of the 1,650 teaching assistants at the University of Washington recently signed UAW cards in their drive for unionization. The UAW represents 14,000 other academic workers in several states and Puerto Rico.

"Across the country, graduate teaching assistants at many colleges and universities are struggling for union rights," noted UAW Vice President Elizabeth Bunn, who directs the UAW’s Technical, Office and Professional (TOP) Dept. "This historic ruling provides important legal and moral support for their cause."