Workers World Nov. 16, 2000: NYU workers win union shop

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------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Nov. 16, 2000 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------

After strike threat

NYU workers win union shop

By Shelley Ettinger

New York

Clerical and technical employees are voting on a new contract that includes union rights they spent 22 years fighting for. Graduate employees are celebrating a National Labor Relations Board ruling granting them collective-bargaining rights.

The battles aren't over. But things are certainly looking up for workers at New York University, the biggest private university in the United States.
In early November, leaders of Teachers Local 3882 announced that they had reached a tentative contract settlement with NYU. The highlight is a strong union security clause.
The open shop is now history at NYU. With this contract, every clerical and technical employee hired at NYU will have to join the union or pay an equivalent agency fee.
The union characterized several other matters as breakthroughs--first-time contract items. They include: health and safety language; paid release time for union officers; substantial improvements in job descriptions and job classification systems that will provide more ways for the union to protect workers' job rights; and a $250 signing bonus in holiday paychecks.
The contract also includes across-the-board increases for all workers. The raises range from 19.3 percent to 21 percent over five years, with the bigger percentage increases going to lower-paid workers. And there are substantial improvements in benefits, including dental coverage, life insurance and sick days.
The ratification vote by NYU's 1,600 clerical and technical workers is being conducted by mail ballot. Union leaders expect a resounding "yes" vote.
The contract is historic not only for all it achieves. This is also the first time in many years that a settlement was reached before the deadline.
History of struggle
Officials and activists in Local 3882 credit the contract victory and the speed with which they won it to three things.
First, the local has a history of struggle, including two strikes. The NYU administration knew it would be taking on a mobilized membership in a serious fight if it stonewalled on the union's demands. The workers, mostly women and people of color, had made it clear that they expected serious improvements in this contract.
The second factor was the increasing strength of organized labor. The national labor movement was watching NYU. Midway through negotiations, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney spoke at a campus rally. And just before the NYU talks started, workers at the Museum of Modern Art had won a five-month strike. Formerly an open shop, they now had the same agency shop the NYU union ultimately won.
The third factor was graduate-employee organizing.
Last year teaching assistants at NYU, fed up with low pay and practically no benefits for long work hours, formed the Graduate Students Organizing Committee. They brought in the Auto Workers union and petitioned the NLRB for an election. The election was granted, and took place in April.
NYU, backed by funds from all the Ivy League universities and represented by notorious anti-labor law firm Proskauer Rose, refused to recognize the union. When the graduate students voted on union representation, NYU filed an appeal, demanding that the ballots be impounded pending a decision on the appeal.
Joint strike threat wins contract
The NLRB's ruling on that appeal was expected at any time. So during the clerical union contract talks the NYU administration faced a terrifying prospect.
If the labor board ruled in favor of GSOC, and if NYU failed to reach a settlement with Local 3882 before the old contract expired, the two unions could walk out on strike together.
That threat brought Local 3882 its contract victory. A tentative agreement was in place when the old contract expired Oct. 31.
The very next day the NLRB announced its decision: Graduate employees have the right to a union. The ballots cast in April must be counted. If the majority voted for the union, NYU must negotiate.
The ballot count is slated for Nov. 8. However, NYU administrators have made it clear they intend to defy the board and tie the matter up in the courts for as long as possible.
Still, the graduate workers are ecstatic--at both their victory and the clerical union's. Local 3882 has pledged solidarity with GSOC as this struggle continues.
The writer was a member of
Local 3882's bargaining team.

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