At New York University, adjuncts and graduate teaching assistants are represented by the same collective bargaining agent—the monolithic and distinctly blue-collar United Auto Workers—but it doesn’t mean they walk with the same legs, at least when it comes time to strike. Graduate students at NYU walked off the job on November 9, 2005, in protest of the university’s decision to discontinue recognition of the GSOC-UAW Local 2110, which, in 2002, set a precedent by becoming the first graduate-student union at a private school. GSOC’s collective bargaining agreement with the university expired on August 31, 2005, and no new contract is on the horizon.

The NYU administration bases its suspension of recognition of GSOC on a July, 2004 decision by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which averred that graduate students are not employees within the meaning of Section 2 (3) of the National Labor Relations Act. (That decision, Brown University, 342 NLRB No. 42, may be viewed and downloaded at http://www.nlrb.gov/nlrb/shared_files/decisions/342/342-42.pdf). The new decision overruled an earlier, precedent-setting opinion in New York University, 332 NLRB 1205 (2000). Notably, the NLRB’s decision in Brown University does not obligate NYU to suspend recognition of GSOC; rather, it provides the university with a legal argument for doing so.

Four months later, NYU graduate students are still on strike, but without the help of their teaching stipends, which the university pulled in January. Meanwhile, NYU’s adjuncts, represented by ACT-UAW Local 7902, continue to teach classes and collect their paychecks. Does this mean they don’t support GSOC’s struggle? Not according to Joel Schlemowitz, president of Local 7902. In answer to questions from the Adjunct Advocate, Schlemowitz emphasized adjuncts’ support of GSOC, but explained that a no-strike clause in their union contract bars them from showing their support in the form of a sympathy strike. Instead, he said, part-time faculty support GSOC’s strike by donating funds to the GSOC Hardship Fund, moving classes off campus, and joining graduate students on the picket line. The ACT-UAW website for adjunct faculty at NYU and the New School (http://www.newschooluaw.org/gsoc_strikes.html) contains the following statement of support: “While ACT-UAW faculty members cannot strike in sympathy, we are showing our support in many ways…We continue to donate time and funds, form support organizations, and honor the GSOC picket line. The UAW and other unions are working at all levels of the labor movement to increase pressure on the administration to bargain a fair contract with GSOC.”

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