N.Y.U. Ends Negotiations With Union for Students (NYU refuses to recognize UAW)

NY Times ^ | August 6, 2005 | ALAN FINDER

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New York University formally notified the union representing its graduate students yesterday that it would no longer bargain with it.

In June, the university said it was moving toward severing its relationship with the five-year-old union when its contract expires on Aug. 31. In a memorandum distributed late yesterday to N.Y.U. students and faculty and in a letter to the union, university officials said they decided not to negotiate a new contract.

Jacob J. Lew, N.Y.U.'s executive vice president, said in the memo that grievances filed by the union over issues like who would be assigned as graduate teaching assistants had "imperiled the academic rights of the university and its faculty."

Mr. Lew also said N.Y.U. would unilaterally increase the minimum annual base for graduate teaching assistants, which is $18,000, by $1,000 a year in each of the next three years, and would continue to pay for health insurance.

Officials of the union, United Auto Workers Local 2110, responded by calling for renewed negotiations. "We are outraged that the university would simply walk away from bargaining," Jenny Shaw, a graduate student and member of the union's bargaining committee, said in a statement. "There's no reason to close off negotiations now."....

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Well, this has got to be a bitter pill for these NYU grad students -- to find out NYU, of all schools, does not want to negociate with their union.

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On the other hand, maybe his is all good preparation for what some of these students may later face in the real world. For example, if some of them become teachers -- and instead of finding out NYU will not help them, the teacher's union does not help them.

But, don't worry kids, the new "framing" strategies of the Dem Party will eventually solve everything! (Until then, blame everything on GW.)

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his = this

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BTW, FYI - this union represented NYU grad students who were working as teaching assistants at NYU.

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And, from the NYU student newspaper, here is a story about the protests of this decision, before the decision was formaly announced:

Three days before the final decision, hundreds rally for grad union

Oh, and there it is! The blame for all this goes to GW:

Excerpt from NYU student newspaper article above:

...History graduate student Jenny Shaw said she agreed with the pervasive cynicism.

"Part of me would like to believe that you [NYU prez Sexton] are being sincere, but you chose to ignore 600 petitions [and] overwhelming support for GAs and TAs," she said. We weren't consulted about this."

Though administrators have stipulated that numerous grievances filed through the union interfered with their rights, the graduate student's union, United Auto Workers local 2110, offered to withdraw all such grievances, according to the union's president, Maida Rosenstein.

"Our union stands prepared to bargain in good faith with NYU," Rosenstein said. "The final decision, whatever that is, GSOC is here to stay!"

Students had varying explanations for NYU's proposed decision.

"It's all about power," local 2110 organizer Bethany Runes said. "They don't want to relinquish it to anyone but themselves."

Ward Regan, president of NYU's adjunct union, indicated that NYU's decision demonstrates a microcosm of America's political atmosphere.

"[When] President Clinton was in office, he said grad students were workers," Regan said. "One thing is different [now]: George Bush is president. I'm sorely disappointed that NYU has decided to hide behind George Bush's anti-labor boards decision." ...

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formaly = formally

[RWR8189]

So the UAW has been reduced to scamming college students into paying dues?

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Well, as I understand it, the grad students - who are taching classes at NYU -- had some real grievances, mainly about their pitiful salaries. NYU did nothing, and, so, the students organized and won the legal right to have a union. There's something about it in the article, and I will post it.

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From NYT article:

In 2000, N.Y.U. became the only private university in the country to have a union representing graduate students. The board directed the university to permit its student workers to unionize.

But in a case last year involving Brown University, the labor relations board, whose composition had changed since 2000, reversed the position it had taken four years earlier. That was when N.Y.U. began to reconsider its relationship with the union.

The union turned down a final offer from N.Y.U. this week, Mr. Wheeler said, because it was nonnegotiable and included a proposal to do away with independent arbitrators for grievances.

Under the offer by N.Y.U., the university would continue to negotiate wages and benefits with the union, but grievances would be resolved within the university, without arbitration, Mr. Lew and David W. McLaughlin, the N.Y.U. provost, said in the memo.

Terrance J. Nolan, the director of labor relations at N.Y.U., contended in a letter yesterday to U.A.W. officials that the union had not upheld an agreement to honor the university's right to make academic decisions.

"Unfortunately, as demonstrated by U.A.W. grievances over who can teach and how many years graduate students can take to complete their studies, our leap of faith was not rewarded," Mr. Nolan said in the letter. But the union insisted that it questioned only certain management decisions, and that N.Y.U. was upheld by arbitrators. Mr. Wheeler, the union director, said the university was not harmed. He said, too, that it would be unacceptable to have grievance procedures resolved by university officials instead of independent arbitrators.

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The NYT article also said NYU will now give these grad student teachers a $1,000 raise each year for the next three years. (These grad student teaching assistants currently earn $18,000 per year.)

But remember - NYU is a private school. I'm not sure what the story is with respect to grad teaching assistants at public universities. Maybe they are already in a union.

[AHWilde]

For the first time since Ford agreed to recognize the UAW there are more non union cars made in America than union. So what is UAW doing about it? Trying to organize graduate students. That's what happens when you hire your organizers by running help wanted ads in the Nation magazine.

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LOL...but, don't worry America! The Dem's "framing" strategy will solve everything!

[BlackRain]

Isn't it a little ridiculous to pay $100,000 to go to college only to be taught by teaching assistants and not college professors?

Perhaps, the college professors at NYU and other colleges should support the TA's.

Otherwise, the professors will have to collectively get off their asses and start doing what that they are paid to do in the first place.

[niteowl77]

doing what that they are paid to do in the first place

Which in many cases is to write books for other professors to use as footnote material for their books, so that still other professors can use...

[Calvin Locke]

NYU should close it's doors for complete incompetence.

Everybody knows it was Ronald Reagan's firing of PATCO that started to bring some semblance of reality to union
monopolies.

NYU isn't teaching history, and isn't even accepting "history" students that know history.

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NYU prefers to have "celebrity teachers" -- not college professors. Here's a new typical NYU celebrity teacher:

Dominant Strategist for Democrats Ends Consulting Career [Bob Shrum, 0 for 8 in pres races, to NYU]

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Ronald Reagan's firing of PATCO

I don't think it's ever a good idea to fire the nation's air traffic controllers. The union leadership probably needed to be changed, but the rank and file of most unions are people who are not corrupt and not greedy. They often have real grievances, and in the case of ir traffic controllers, those grievances involved public safety issues, to help the public. Union leaders and ineffective union strategies have not been stellar in recent years, that's for sure.

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I meant: ....union leadership and union strategies...

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I meant to ping you on my post #15, and this excertp from the article link:

...The moment that cemented Mr. Shrum's reputation came in 1980, when he wrote Senator Edward M. Kennedy's farewell speech at the Democratic National Convention.

"For all those whose cares have been our concern," Mr. Kennedy said from the stage, "the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die."

So prized were Mr. Shrum's skills that presidential candidates found themselves competing in the "Shrum primary" to become his client.

If he had stuck with Jimmy Carter in 1976, he would have had one victory under his belt. But he grew disenchanted with Mr. Carter and quit just nine days after joining his campaign.

On Feb. 1, Mr. Shrum is to begin writing and researching at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at N.Y.U. He is to begin teaching there in the fall.

Hopes and dreams are all fine and good, but there comes a time when even Dem voters want dreams turned into reality, and their work fairly compensated. I am sure the NYU grad student TAs teaching Bob Shrum's NYU classes are peeved at this current situation. And I'm sure Bob Shrum and the NYU president are not taking any salary deductions from NYU in their mega salaries.

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excertp = excerpt

Geesh, I can not type today!

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Also see post #15, as I meant to ping you on that, too.