| Frequently Asked Questions |
What is collective bargaining? Why is GSOC a part of the UAW? Why does NYU refuse to bargain a contract with our union, GSOC/UAW Local 2110? What does signing a union card mean? Will I have to pay dues if I sign a GSOC/UAW card? How can GSOC/UAW Local 2110 help international students? Do I need permission from my professor/P.I. to join GSOC/UAW Local 2110? Will my professor/P.I. know I've signed a card? I get paid from a grant/by my professor/P.I. How could a GSOC/UAW Local 2110 contract help me? Does joining a union mean that I can be forced to strike? What is the Teaching and Research Assistants Collective Bargaining Rights Act?
|
|
A union is a group of workers who use their collective strength to have a say in their workplace conditions. GSOC/UAW (Graduate Student Organizing Committee) is the union for teaching, research and graduate assistants at New York University. GSOC is part of UAW Local 2110, a technical, office and professional local union that includes university, museum and publishing workers. GSOC, the UAW and Local 2110 are committed to restoring collective bargaining rights to their NYU graduate employee membership. Collective bargaining gives employees a say in their working conditions on issues like pay, workload protections, workplace safety and benefits. Since its inception in the 1990s, a majority of NYU graduate employees have consistently demonstrated their support for GSOC/UAW Local 2110 as their representative of choice as well as their preference for collective bargaining with their employer, NYU. What is collective bargaining? Collective bargaining allows graduate employees and the university administration to interact as equals and negotiate wages, terms, and conditions of employment. With collective bargaining, representatives we choose (fellow NYU graduate employees) will survey us to determine our priorities and then negotiate a contract with the NYU administration. We can negotiate for improvements in wages, hours, benefits, as well as the terms and conditions of our employment. We, as members of GSOC/UAW Local 2110, must democratically approve the agreement that NYU and our bargaining team reach before it becomes a legally binding contract that cannot be unilaterally changed. A contract is generally enforced by a grievance procedure, ending with binding arbitration before a neutral third party, rather than the NYU administration. Without a contract, NYU has the unilateral ability to decide and change our wages, benefits and working conditions. Since our contract expired, NYU has done just that. For a chart summarizing changes in workload protections and benefits before and after our contract, click here. We are affiliated with the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW), one of the largest and most diverse unions in North America, with members in virtually every sector of the economy. The UAW represents over 20,000 TAs and RAs at over 30 university campuses, including UC Berkeley, UCLA, the University of Washington and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. The UAW has long been a pioneer in winning the right to form a union for workers in higher education. Why does NYU refuse to bargain a contract with our union, GSOC/UAW Local 2110? There is no legal obstacle to the NYU administration sitting down and negotiating with our union. The NYU administration is capitalizing on a partisan right-wing National Labor Relations Board decision interpreting federal law. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is the independent federal agency that administers and interprets the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), a federal law governing the relationship between unions and employers in the private sector. The National Labor Relations Act guarantees the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively with their employers. In a 2000 case involving the rights of NYU graduate employees to organize, the NLRB recognized graduate employees as protected by the National Labor Relations Act. This NLRB ruling in effect guaranteed graduate employees the right to collective bargaining. In July 2004, however, a newly constituted National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with a majority of Bush Administration appointees reversed the NYU decision in a case involving Brown University teaching assistants. The decision, unlike the earlier unanimous bipartisan NYU decision, was split with the Republican majority voting to reverse and the Democratic appointees strongly dissenting. As a result of this regressive decision, union election ballots at four universities, held unopened by the NLRB for over three years, were discarded without ever being counted. NYU's ongoing decision not to negotiate with our union has been widely condemned by thousands of scholars and human rights advocates. In July 2008, the International Labor Organization, an agency of the UN, denounced the 2004 NLRB decision as depriving graduate employees of their internationally recognized right to collective bargaining and freedom of association. Currently, the UAW and our labor allies in Congress -- including Senators Kennedy, Obama and Clinton -- have introduced federal legislation, the Teaching and Research Assistants Collective Bargaining Rights Act, to amend the National Labor Relations Act and specifically secure the right to form unions for TA's and RA's at private universities and colleges. What does signing a union card mean? Signing a union card means that you believe in your right to form a union and bargain collectively with the university over pay, workload conditions, healthcare, sick leave and other workplace issues that affect you. And it means you - like the majority of graduate employees on campus - would like GSOC/UAW Local 2110 to represent you in collective bargaining with the NYU administration. Signing a card is the first step in the process of legally restoring our collective bargaining rights on campus. Your signed card will go to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) as proof of support for our petition for a union to represent graduate student employees. Because a union is based on popular support and will for representation, as many graduate employees as possible need to sign cards so that we can all get the union we deserve. We encourage your more active involvement in our union, but signing a card does not obligate you to do anything else.
Signing a card does not obligate you to pay dues. No GSOC/UAW Local 2110 member will pay dues until we as graduate employees collectively bargain and negotiate a contract and put it to a vote by our membership. After a majority of the membership votes in favor of the contract, then membership dues amount to 1.5% of your gross monthly salary. The amount of dues will be offset by the gains of the contract - no one will vote in favor of a contract where dues would be more than the negotiated increase in salary and guaranteed raises. Many prestigious public universities, including the University of Michigan, the entire California University system and the University of Washington, have contracts for graduate employees. Dues do not exceed the gains of these contracts and they didn't for our first GSOC/UAW Local 2110 contract either. How can GSOC/UAW Local 2110 help international students? Our union has also been involved in national efforts to improve the working lives of international graduate employees. Acting as union members and united with UAW members across the country, we've been able to lobby for visa rights, including having international graduate employees' visa fees paid by universities as a condition of their employment. Ultimately, all graduate employees at NYU have the same fundamental problem: they are working without a legally binding contract, and that means that their pay, benefits, and workload can be changed by the NYU administration in any way and at any time. A GSOC/UAW Local 2110 contract between graduate employees and our boss, the NYU administration, will cover all graduate employees who work for the university, regardless of citizenship or country of origin. As an international graduate employee, could I face legal problems (with my visa or the university) if I sign a GSOC/UAW Local 2110 card and join the union? International students and scholars have the same rights as U.S. citizens to join and participate in unions. It is illegal for an employer to punish an employee for their union activity. In the many years that the UAW has represented international graduate employees at campuses across the country, no one has reported any complications in their status from unionizing. International members have been integral in GSOC/UAW's leadership since its inception and continue to play an active role in our union. The right to collective bargaining is an internationally recognized right. In 2007, the International Labor Organization (ILO), an agency of the United Nations, specifically recognized the right of graduate employees at private universities to unionize. In fact, the ILO condemned NYU's refusal to recognize our union - GSOC/UAW Local 2110 - as a violation of our internationally recognized rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining. Under the new restructuring (called FAR4 in GSAS), how will international graduate employees be able to maintain their visa status (i.e. have sufficient income and proof of income/support as required by the US government) after their final year of fellowship? No one knows. When FAR-4 was first announced in Spring 2009, international graduate employees - many of them GSOC/UAW Local 2110 members and organizers - asked the NYU administration this same question. To date, the NYU administration has not offered a solution that can provide security to all international graduate employees as changes are being implemented on a department-by-department basis. This situation is yet another illustration of our need for a recognized union - when we have recognition and a contract, the NYU administration will be required to meet with us, share information, and bargain over the impact of restructuring and other changes that affect our working lives. Do I need permission from my professor/P.I. to join GSOC/UAW Local 2110? No. The right to collective bargaining is an individual right. Choosing to join a union is an individual decision and one that you must make on your own. Your professor/P.I. cannnot make that decision for you. GSOC/UAW Local 2110 would represent you and negotiate on your behalf with your employer, the NYU administration, over the terms and conditions of your employment -- not your professor/P.I. The NYU administration has the ultimate authority to set the terms and conditions of graduate employment.. A GSOC/UAW Local 2110 contract would make the terms and conditions of graduate employment clear and legally binding. Both graduate employees and the NYU administration would then each know what to expect from each other - a GSOC/UAW Local 2110 contract makes our workplace more secure. Will my professor/P.I. know I've signed a card? Signing a card is a private, individual decision and your signature will be kept confidential from the NYU administration, your professors and colleagues. It will not be made public without your express consent. I get paid from a grant/by my professor/P.I. How could a GSOC/UAW Local 2110 contract help me? A GSOC/UAW Local 2110 contract would clarify the working relationship between you, the graduate employee, and your employer, the NYU administration. A grant or other funding that your lab or P.I. might secure is still ultimately administered by NYU, which retains the ultimate legal designation as your employer. While many grants establish pay rates for graduate employees engaged in research, these amounts are minimum guarantees that universities can exceed. Contracts for graduate employees at the University of Washington, for example, negotiated higher pay for research assistants on grants. A GSOC/UAW Local 2110 contract would not only secure your rate of pay for the duration of the contract, it could also guarantee raises, sick leave, stable healthcare and other benefits that would improve your overall employment package. Does joining a union mean that I can be forced to strike? No. A strike as a union strategy can only be called after the membership votes and a 2/3 majority authorizes the strike as an action. Even if the membership voted to strike, no one would force you to do so. It would still be your individual choice. I'm a graduate student who teaches; I was told by the NYU administration that I am now part of the adjunct faculty union. How does that relate to GSOC/UAW Local 2110? ACT-UAW Local 7902 is the union for adjunct faculty at NYU and the New School. GSOC/UAW Local 2110 is the union for ALL graduate employees at NYU and is the only union that represents ALL graduate employees and all of the work that we do, which includes teaching, researching, tutoring, grading and performing administrative and other work. By alleging our membership in the adjunct union, the NYU administration is attempting to bust our union and weaken the rights of everyone who teaches and researches on campus. The NYU administration never contracted ACT-UAW Local 2110 about graduate employees becoming a part of their membership. Both GSOC/UAW Local 2110 and ACT-UAW Local 7902 agree: GSOC/UAW is the only union for ALL graduate employees. ACT-UAW Local 7902 stands in solidarity with our efforts to negotiate a contract of our own - one that our graduate employee membership participates in crafting through collective bargaining and one that our graduate employee membership votes on and ratifies. Read a joint statement on this issue from ACT-UAW 7902 and GSOC/UAW Local 2110 here. What is the Teaching and Research Assistants Collective Bargaining Rights Act? The Teaching
and Research Assistants Collective Bargaining Rights Act amends the
National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to guarantee the right to form unions
for teaching and research assistants at private universities and colleges.
The National Labor Relations Act is a federal law that governs labor
relations in the private sector. Restoring our status as employees under
the Act will guarantee our right to form a union and offer us the protections
included in the Act. |
|
|
GSOC/UAW
Local 2110 · 256
West 38th Street, Suite 704· New York, NY 10018·
(212) 387.0220 · fax: (212) 228.0198 · local2110@2110uaw.org
|
|
