Friday, July 16, 2004

UAW Slams Labor Board Decision on Academic Employees

“We’re more determined than ever to organize, to improve teaching and learning conditions on campus.” said Jahanbani, a PhD candidate at Brown who has worked as a teaching assistant in the University’s history department. “We are teaching classes, grading papers, advising students, and performing work which is critical to the educational mission of this institution – and we’re entitled to the same rights as any other group of workers.”

The GEO at Brown is an affiliate of the United Auto Workers, which also represents academic student employees (ASEs) at New York University, the University of California, the University of Massachusetts, and other campuses.

Decided on 3-2 party-line vote, this week’s Labor Board ruling reversed a previous unanimous and bi-partisan ruling which made it easier for teaching assistants and research assistants to get their administrations to the bargaining table.

The Labor Board ruling will impact union organizing campaigns currently underway at Columbia University, Tufts University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University.

“The right to join together to bargain for a better standard of living is a basic human right,” said UAW President Ron Gettelfinger. “The Labor Board should be protecting and expanding the rights of workers, not restricting them.”

“Unfortunately, this is what we’ve come to expect from President Bush’s appointees to the Labor Board,” said Gettelfinger. “Their recent decisions have all been aimed at making it more difficult for workers to join unions.”

“University administrators are mistaken if they think this decision will intimidate the many thousands of academic workers who have decided to form unions,” said Elizabeth Bunn, secretary-treasurer of the United Auto Workers, and director of the union’s Technical, Office and Professional (TOP) Department.

“The majority of these teachers and researchers at Brown, and many other campuses, have organized themselves to improve their wages, working conditions and benefits,” said Bunn. “No ruling from the NLRB changes that.”

“The movement for workers’ justice on campus won’t be deterred by this partisan, anti-democratic decision,” said Phil Wheeler, director of Region 9A of the UAW, which includes Rhode Island and other New England states.

“Tens of thousands of academic workers have joined our union,” said Bunn. “Our experience shows that workplace democracy on campus not only improves working conditions for employees– it also improves the quality of education available to students.”