Striking NYU Grad Workers: “Our Struggle, Like Every Labor Struggle, Is Part of a Larger Fight”
New York University's finances are flush, yet the administration has stonewalled grad workers on wages and other demands, including limiting New York police officers' access to campus buildings. Now, the thousands-strong union is on strike.
New York University grad workers on the picket line on Tuesday. (Eric Blanc)
There are over 2,200 graduate workers at New York University. As of Monday, they are on strike.
The work stoppage began after what GSOC-UAW, the graduate workers’ union, describes as nine months of stonewalling at the bargaining table by the university administration. The union delivered a petition to NYU at the start of last month, urging management to “take contract negotiations seriously and make meaningful counter-proposals” or face a strike. The school chose a strike.
Bargaining began in August of 2020, and distance between the sides remains: sticking points for the strikers include the administration’s refusal to offer more than a $1-an-hour wage increase and its refusal to bargain over GSOC’s health and safety proposals, which include demands barring NYPD officers’ from entering campus buildings without a warrant and mandating that NYU no longer contract with the NYPD for events. In a letter that went out to some of the strikers’ parents, NYU president Andrew Hamilton calls the strike “unwarranted, untimely and regrettable” and advocates for a mediator to join the process.
This article is for subscribers only. Please login or subscribe to access our full archives and beautiful print and digital magazine starting at just $3 a month.