No Adjunct Sympathy (Strike) For NYU’s Striking Graduate Students
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.”
When asked exactly how many part-time faculty members had donated to the Hardship Fund and held classes off campus, Schlemowitz could not provide any numbers. He asserted, however, that part-timers’ support has been substantial, and emphasized the close alignment of interests and issues between GSOC and adjuncts.
“As far as our own local goes,” said Schlemowitz, “we’re dealing with many of the same things that GSOC is dealing with,” such as an administration that has been less than welcoming to unions. Maida Rosenstein, president of ACT-UAW Local 2110, affirmed that adjunct support has been considerable, noting that “hundreds” of NYU adjuncts have moved their classes off campus in support of GSOC.
Adjuncts’ support of GSOC has not gone unobserved by the NYU administration, which Schlemowitz believes has been “creating fear and distrust” among graduate students and faculty. As evidence of the university’s attempts to undermine solidarity among adjuncts and graduate students, Susan Valentine, a striking Ph.D. candidate in the NYU Department of History, pointed to a letter that the administration of the TISCH School of Arts purportedly sent to adjuncts, warning them that holding classes off-campus could be construed as a violation of their union contract’s no-strike clause. Schlemowitz, who has seen a copy of the letter, refers to it as the university’s attempt to intimidate adjuncts through “scare tactics.”
A letter of support of GSOC from scholars nationwide is dated 2 December 2005, and appears on the ACT-UAW website for adjunct faculty at NYU and the New School at http://www.petitiononline.com/tosexton/petition.html . At the time this article went to press, the letter had been signed by a total of 6,989 scholars from around the country, not exactly overwhelming support when one considers there are 1.1 million college faculty in the United States, and close to 50,000 full- and part-time faculty employed at colleges in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. According to Maida Rosenstein, the letter was not circulated for signature among adjuncts at NYU, who, as a bargaining unit, sent their own letter of support to Dr. Sexton.
