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Organizing Victory
NYU graduate assistants win landmark recognition
Story by Khaalid Walls
 Graduate
teaching and research assistants at New York University are celebrating
their historic victory.
After two years of organizing, NYU has agreed to recognize and begin
bargaining with the Graduate Students Organizing Committee/UAW.
This is the first time a private university has recognized the right
of its graduate student employees to form a union.
In April 1999 an overwhelming majority of NYU’s graduate student
employees signed UAW cards. After the university appealed the vote, the
National Labor Relations Board ruled that the grad students had the right
to seek UAW representation.
The dramatic breakthrough was announced March 1 at a meeting of NYU graduate
student employees who gathered for what they thought would be a strike
authorization vote. Instead, the meeting quickly turned into a celebration
of the landmark victory.
The grad students cheered and applauded as the organizers recommended
electing a bargaining committee in place of what almost turned into a
strike of 1,500 student employees.
Organizer Kimberly Johnson, a graduate employee in the American Studies
Department, said, “The main reason we wanted to unionize was so we
could have a voice in our workplace.”
“When something happens to you, you have no one to turn to,”
said Johnson, who is looking forward to a contract in the next few months.
Johnson said now that students are organized, they’ll be able to
do a better job because their services won’t be spread so thin.
“We are pleased to have reached this agreement with the university,”
said UAW Vice President Elizabeth Bunn, who
directs the UAW’s Technical, Office, and Professional Department.
“Graduate student employees across the country have a
major stake in this historic achievement. The word is out--graduate students
everywhere are going to organize.”
And for grad students at New York’s Columbia University, that’s
more than just talk.
Columbia’s graduate students are in the beginning stages of organizing
with UAW Local 2010.
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