GSOC-UAW, the union of teaching graduate student assistants and lecturers at New York University, has been forced on strike. After the National Labor Relations Board dominated by Bush appointees issued a stunning reversal of its own precedent recognizing the right of the graduate students engaged in teaching labor to organize and bargain collectively, New York University announced its unwillingness to bargain with the union, forcing it into a life-or-death strike for its own survival. Edwize has examined the issues behind this important struggle in the past.
You can take action in support of the GSOC strikers at NYU by sending an e-mail of protest to the NYU administration from this AFL-CIO web site. Please honor their picket lines at NYU.
4 Comments:
1 NYC Educator
· Nov 10, 2005 at 4:36 pm
I know precisely how they feel.
As a high school teacher, my union, the UFT, set it up in 1994 so we’d be unable to choose our own leadership. Here’s how it happened:
Apparently, the high school teachers voted for a Vice President who was not part of Unity, thereby challenging the status quo. Though Unity held a special revote to rectify this, they succeeded only in losing by a larger margin.
Then, in 1994, they changed the constitution so that all teachers would vote for all VPs. That way, the elementary school teachers, who outnumber us 2 to 1 but reliably support Unity, could drown us out.
So I know how they feel–utterly disenfranchised.
You won’t believe this, but the same people who deprived us of our free choice repeatedly bemoan the loss of choice for others, and constantly whine about how people violate the “tradition of union democracy.”
It’s remarkable.
2 SOC ST TEACHER
· Nov 10, 2005 at 6:50 pm
If anyone ever doubted it, NYCEducator, you have removed all question. You are a troll, pure and simple. It does not matter what the post or the thread is, you find a way to do your usual trolling.
3 NYC Educator
· Nov 10, 2005 at 8:57 pm
argumentum ad hominem
4 redhog
· Nov 14, 2005 at 6:10 am
Is the above comment “Pig Latin”?