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We walk the line A surge of solidarity for graduate students at NYU
Sept. 22, 2005 John Sweeney tells the news media why graduate students need a voice at work. Flanking the AFL-CIO president are William Scheuerman, UUP president; and Stephen Rechner, UCATS president. Their promise: to protest New York University 's refusal to negotiate with 1,100 graduate student workers. Their plan: picket outside NYU, block access to the college library and get arrested. And so a surge of energy filled the streets outside the private Manhattan college on Sept. 1 as the footsteps of more than 500 protesters, representing the American Federation of Teachers, the AFL-CIO, and many others, thumped the hot sidewalks. It was the day the graduate students' contract expired. On that day, 76 unionists, upset about the college's refusal to recognize the students' union, were arrested. "This kind of civil disobedience in support of a righteous cause is a proud tradition in the union movement," said Dick Iannuzzi, president of New York State United Teachers. NYU made news in 2002 when the National Labor Relations Board ruled that graduate students could negotiate as a collective bargaining unit. At NYU the Graduate Student Organizing Committee/United Auto Workers 2110 was born. In 2004 an NLRB split decision reversed course, saying graduate assistants are not employees. NYU, no longer legally obliged to recognize the union once its contract expired, turned away. "Union-busting is for corporate criminals who have no values, not for an educational institution," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who was among those arrested. He came to New York , he said, to "express pure anger and disgust" at NYU leaders. "The point of blocking the library was to make it clear that busting the union is not something he (NYU President John Sexton) is going to be able to do quietly," said Stephen Rechner, president of the 1,700-member Union of Clerical, Administrative and Technical Staffs at NYU, one of the activists arrested. Rechner and United University Professions President William Scheuerman, who was also arrested, are both members of the NYSUT Board of Directors, as is Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers, who was at the rally cheering on the graduate students. The protesters were booked and released. "We'll be back," promised Scheuerman, an AFT vice president who heads the NYSUT affiliate representing academic faculty and staff at the State University of New York. Conditions at NYU are also being watched closely by the Professional Staff Congress, which represents academic and professional staff at the City University of New York. PSC was represented at the rally by President Barbara Bowen and Vice President Steve London — both NYSUT Board members — and Treasurer John Hyland, who was arrested. "Solidarity is one of the key factors for being there," said Hyland. Juanita Davis, a UCATS shop steward, who also was arrested, termed this — her first major rally — "an uplifting experience. "You had to be there to feel the camaraderie," she said. — Liza Frenette and Michael Hirsch |
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