Here is a letter from our sisters and brothers in GSOC-UAW, NYU's graduate assistant union:

"We want to thank you for your continued support of the GSOC-UAW organizing campaign at NYU.

"As you may remember, the NYU administration set up a 'company union' in an effort to undermine our organizing efforts. Elections for the leadership of that body were held this term. We are pleased to report that GSOC candidates swept the elections! Union supporters will control the company union and are committed to winning real rights for NYU teaching assistants and research assistants.

"This win, though not a final victory, is yet another example of the fact that a majority of NYU's TAs and RAs want the NYU administration to recognize their union - GSOC-UAW. We remain confident that, with your help, we will prevail winning justice for workers at NYU and proving yet again that workers cannot be denied their right to form and to join unions."

How To Help Add your name to the faculty statement >> Sign the letter from scholars to NYU President Sexton in support of GSOC >> Do not do the graduate assistants' work, and do not succumb to pressure from the administration to hire replacements for these workers. GSOC is committed to undergraduate education, and the security of a fair contract has proven to make the graduate assistants better teachers.

Background: NYU's hard-line position against GSOC/UAW is of serious concern to all academic workers. GSOC/UAW Local 2110 represents NYU's graduate teaching assistants. Under the Clinton administration, the National Labor Relations Board gave the NYU grad students the right to form a union protected by law. The administration of George W. Bush has taken that right away, and now NYU is using the reversal as a way to refuse to recognize and bargain with GSOC/UAW. After their contract expired on August 31, 2005, GSOC/UAW took a strike vote. With a majority of GSOC members voting, 85% voted yes to strike for a second contract. The strike at NYU started on Wednesday, November 9.

Many ACT-UAW members at NYU moved their classes off campus in solidarity with the strike, and many more marched with GSOC strikers on the picket line and joined GSOC rallies, demonstrations, and actions throughout the year.

In April 2005, over 700 GSOC members submitted a petition to NYU President John Sexton demanding recognition and negotiations, and the American Arbitration Association certified that a majority of GAs at NYU continue to support unionization. On April 27th, GSOC announced their majority, and 57 GSOC members and supporters, including ACT-UAW 7902 President Joel Schlemowitz and AAUP President Jane Buck and AAUP President-elect Cary Nelson, were arrested in a peaceful act of civil disobedience, in protest of NYU's refusal to recognize the grad union.

NYU arbitrarily fired a handful of striking GAs; about twenty strikers lost their pay for the entire spring semester, and at least two were denied employment during the 2006-07 academic year. (Both were unfunded M.F.A students who rely on their GA jobs for tuition remission as well as health insurance.) NYU has created a replacement group for the union, which provides GAs with "a robust voice mechanism" (according to President Sexton), but no rights, no contract and no power.

GSOC members continue fighting for a second contract, including deciding collectively when and whether to strike. GSOC thanks 7902 for its continued support during the strike, and offers congratulations on its great string of arbitration victories. GSOC looks forward to working with ACT-UAW to strengthen both union locals.

Visit the GSOC website >>