UAW Wins NLRB Decision Confirming Union Rights for Graduate Assistants at NYU

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), yesterday, issued a decision granting graduate assistants at New York University the right to organize a union. The NLRB rejected a "narrow reading" of the law and confirmed employee status on these graduate employees seeking union representation.

The decision reads in part "...we will not deprive workers who are compensated by, and under the control of, a statutory employer of their fundamental statutory rights to organize and bargain with their employer, simply because they also are students."

NYU graduate employees voted in a union election last spring, after a decision and direction of election was issued by the NLRB regional director, Dan Silverman. The ballots were impounded, however, when NYU filed an appeal with the Washington NLRB.

Yesterday's decision by the NLRB should result in the scheduling of a ballot count at the NLRB's New York offices, possibly as early as next week.

Graduate Students Organizing Committee, GSOC-UAW members are excited about this victory. Their organizing drive began in the fall of 1997 and has gained steam and widespread support over the years. They are confident that they wil prevail in the vote count and are ready to sit down with the NYU administration at the negotiating table.

UAW members are also mindful that this is a historic decision that will establish precedent for hundreds of thousands of academic student employees at private institutions. "We are proud to have forged the way for graduate employees nation-wide, who as a result of this ruling, will have union rights and the ability to improve their lives and their institutions," said UAW committee member Kimberly Johnson, a graduate student in the American Studies department.

"We hope that University officials accept both the letter and the spirit of this decision and take the opportunity to build a constructive relationship with GSOC-UAW," commented UAW Region 9-A Director Phil Wheeler.

"This decision confirms what academic student employees at campuses all across the country know from their experience, which is that they are workers and are treated as such by their university employers. It is good news that their rights to union representation have been clarified by this comprehensive and clear NLRB ruling," commented UAW Vice-President Elizabeth Bunn who directs the union's Technical, Office and Professional Department.