April 28, 2006
NYU Grad Students Arrested During Protest
NYU graduate students - and their supporters - protesting the university's union policies were arrested yesterday during an afternoon rally in Washington Square Park. Fifty-seven people, including graduate assistants from Columbia, UPenn, and Yale, were arrested for civil disobedience - the Washington Square News says those arrested were the ones who "sat in the street and blocked traffic at Washington Square North for 10 minutes." According to insky, who took the photograph above, the students were demanding that NYU President John Sexton be fired. The arrested protesters were released after a few hours and NYU said, "We will not compromise our principles because of staged arrests.”
This is the latest chapter in the trying-to-unionize saga of NYU's Graduate Students Organizing Committee - last fall, they went on strike, only for the university to hand down ultimatums, and have been on strike for the past six months (the NY Times says that NYU believes only a few dozen assistants are striking). More photographs from insky and uffish.
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We weren't demanding Sexton be fired -- we were chanting that he be arrested for denying us our labor rights. What we're demanding is a second union contract.
Grad students already get $19,000 a year cash, free tuition and free health insurance. Hard to see how they need a union. This looks more like a top down predatory union campaign, not a grassroots fight for rights. It's no secret that the afl-cio is looking for new sources of dues cash. The grad students should transfer to another school if they don't like the deal, but it sounds like most of the 'protesters' don't even attend NYU.
the graduate student strike has become sort of a joke at this point to people in the nyu community. the real strike has been over for months, but a few times a week you'll see a raggedy-ass group of 6 or 7 grad students "striking". at this point, its become an embarassment and a sign of delusion on the part of the GSOC. whether they deserve to unionize or not is an absolutely moot issue because the administration is not budging, period.
If it's true that TAs get all the benefits mentioned in #2, I have absolutely no sympathy for these protesters. Why should student tuitions subsidize more benefits to these TAs who are alreay getting a free education, healthcare, stipend, and other benefits. TAs are NOT blue- collar workers who have limited opportunities and regularly taken advantage of by their employers.
yes, we get all the benefits noticed here - thanks to a union contract that we negotiated with NYU in 2001-2002. we are fighting for a second contract to ensure that future TAs retain these benefits and a say in their working conditions. yesterday's events were in part to publicize a recent petition in which a majority of the people who do the work we do at NYU said they still want a union. as someone who has been on strike since november and working to get a second contract, i can assure that it's the folks on the ground who are fighting this. the measly dues that we pay on our stipends are not enough to maintain anyone's interest. it's the workers desire for union representation - a fundamental right - that keeps others supporting us.
Jesus, just suck it up for a couple of years until you get a real job. At that point you'll appreciate it much more because of all the "hardship" you had to endure.
Fucking entitlement issues are really plaguing our country.
pugsley, your post is almost verbatim what you posted on gothamist back on november when we went on strike. and it's still misinformed.
afl-cio isn't looking for "new" dues -- we had a union contract for 4 years before it expired this past summer, so we're not exactly "fresh" meat. and yes, over 40 of the 57 arrested were nyu grad student-workers, myself included.
over half the grads signed a petition this past month reasserting that the majority still wants union representation.
as for vin's comment, we're not asking for *more* benefits, as the pugsleys and president sextons of the world would have you think. we're merely asking for a second contract to safeguard what we already have (the fruits of our first union contract, as susan valentine pointed out).