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June 17, 2005
N.Y.U Plans to End Recognition of Its Graduate Student Union
New York University is moving to close down its graduate student union at the end of the summer, the labor movement's only toehold among graduate students at private universities.
Union officials quickly attacked N.Y.U.'s plan and vowed to fight the university in any way it could.
In a memo circulated yesterday, N.Y.U.'s provost David McLaughlin, and its excutive vice president, Jacob J. Lew, said that they had proposed that the university stop recognizing the five year old union when its contract expires Aug. 31st.
They said the collective bargaining process had produced benefits for student teaching and research assistants, like better compensation and clearer work rules, but that union grievance had threatened academic freedom. ....
"This is pretty disgusting," said Phillip A. Wheeler, director of United Automobile Workers region that includes New York. "They saw a way to get out of having the union, and they took it. They are disgusting as Wal-Marl."
He said the union, which will continue to operate on campus representing a different group of teachers -- adjuncts, or part-time instructors -- would look for as many was as it could to create problems for the univeisty.
"They will have a fight they regret," Mr. Wheeler said. "Anything and everything we can do, we will. If tehre is a procedure where we can take them to court, we will. We will work to expose them politically. We will lobby against them. We will look at the whole gamut of possibilities. They are not going to treat us in this fashion."
For full story, see Karen W. Areson, New York Times.