Many of you have recently received a letter from John Sexton, the President of NYU, stating the Administration's position with respect to the NYU graduate employee union (GSOC/UAW Local 2110) and our strike. We are writing this letter to tell you, in our own words, who we are and what we are asking of the NYU Administration.

We are the GSOC organizing committee, representing a collective bargaining unit of roughly 1000 teaching, research, and graduate assistants at NYU. In 2000 we voted overwhelmingly to unionize and join UAW Local 2110. In 2002, we negotiated a historic contract with the NYU Administration - the first contract for graduate employees at a private university. The improvements that followed were tremendous for the entire NYU community. Our first contract expired on August 31, 2005, and we are asking the NYU administration to negotiate a second contract.

Before we unionized, graduate employees at NYU were paid less than a living wage (often below $10,000 a year) and benefits were almost non-existent. No security or job rights existed. With our first contract, we increased pay by 40% on average, established employer-paid health care, child care, paid leave, paid training, a fair grievance procedure and union rights. Now, NYU wants to return to pre-union days in which the administration unilaterally dictates all of our terms and conditions of employment. Since our contract expired, the administration has already cut our health benefits, without notice or consultation. (You can read a comparison of our health benefits under the contract and now at: http://www.2110uaw.org/gsoc/healthcare_benefits.pdf)

Our membership has voted to strike, beginning November 9, 2005. The Administration has insinuated that this makes us irresponsible, unprofessional, and uncaring. These insinuations are insulting and patently false. NYU's graduate school has become one of the most competitive in the country - in large part due to the contract gained by unionization. We are highly trained and fully committed to our professional and intellectual vocations. We take our work seriously, and we maintain a deeply personal investment in the intellectual development of our students. We are the ones who are in the classroom with your sons and daughters on a daily basis, not the Administration. Our working conditions are your children's learning conditions.

Our strike comes only after every possible effort to reach negotiations with the NYU Administration. We have implored the Administration - in town hall meetings, rallies, and an open letter signed by over 800 graduate students, a huge majority of our members, last spring - to negotiate a second contract with us in good faith. Still, the administration refuses to respect our collective, majority decision to unionize. We believe that the Administration has responsibility to us and to your children to continue the bargaining process that has worked so effectively, to the general benefit of students and teachers alike.

Despite the claims in President Sexton's letter, the Administration has yet to bargain with us. Instead, in August, they gave us 48 hours to respond to a "take it or leave it" offer that would have allowed them to cut health benefits at any time, eliminated union security and given the Administration final authority on grievances or interpretation of any area of the contract. In response, we asked for face to face negotiations to discuss all the issues -- the Administration refused.

The text of the University's offer can be read at: http://www.nyu.edu/provost/ga/proposal.pdf
Our Union's request for clarification of certain issues can be read at: http://www.nyu.edu/provost/ga/uawletter080405.pdf
The University's response breaking off negotiations can be read at: http://www.nyu.edu/provost/ga/lettertouaw080505.pdf).
Our summary sent to members can be read at:
http://www.2110uaw.org/gsoc/GSOC_update_August_9_05.htm

The Administration has attempted to justify its refusal to negotiate by claiming repeatedly (and vaguely) that some grievances filed by GSOC members have interfered with "academic decision-making." Every grievance GSOC has filed concerned our compensation or working conditions. What Sexton calls "interfering with academic decision-making" were our objections to their cutting TA and GA compensation, often by 50%, to adjunct or hourly rates of pay. Grievances filed on behalf of GSOC members facing these cuts are hardly "academic."
A return to the unilateral administrative decision-making process, as it existed before the union, is not in the best interests of NYU undergraduate students. Only a second contract for GSOC will guarantee fair, safe, and livable working conditions for your children's teachers.

Sincerely,

The GSOC Organizing Committee

What You Can Do To Help

- Support your child in their decision to support GSOC and the strike.
- Call and email President Sexton and ask him to enter good faith negotiations with GSOC.
john.sexton@nyu.edu and (212)998-2345
- Come join us on the picket line if you're in the area! Our picket is one of the few NYU events that's free and open to the public!