NYU Graduate Employees File for Union Recognition, Hope to Overturn Bush Era Ruling

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Huffington Post

Michael Gould-Wartofsky

This morning, for the first time in 10 years, graduate employees at New York University returned to the offices of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to file a petition for recognition of their union and a formal union election.

From hand to hand, organizers passed a hefty box full of cards signed by a clear majority of NYU's estimated 1800-plus bargaining unit, then delivered it to an NLRB officer. The union's majority was certified by the American Arbitration Association last week.

With the move, the Graduate Student Organizing Committee (GSOC/UAW 2110) hopes to become the first union of its kind at a private university since graduate employees were stripped of federal labor law protections by Bush appointees to the NLRB in 2004. The ruling held that these employees' relationship with their employer was "primarily educational."

That decision was condemned by the UN's International Labor Organization as a violation of the internationally recognized right to organize. Dissenting board members called it "woefully out of touch with contemporary academic reality."


Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-gouldwartofsky/nyu-graduate-employees-fi_b_561439.html

[BlooInBloo]

1. Heh. I remember we tried that back when I was in grad school. Wish them better luck.

[Cha]

2. KR!

[fishwax]

3. good luck to them -- I hope the NLRB changes their ruling

:kick: