In anticipation of strike, undergrads rally to support graduate student workers

[Omaha Steve]

Source: NYU

On Friday afternoon, just hours after NYU Provost David McLaughlin sent a university-wide email condemning a potential graduate student strike, a group of approximately 25 undergraduates had congregated in the Bobst lobby. The group, organized by the Student & Labor Action Movement, had gathered to protest McLaughlin’s email and to deliver to him a letter of their own.

The letter, quickly written, listed some students’ greivances with McLaughlin’s anti-strike email, and amassed a handful of signatures from the students gathered in the lobby. The group delivered it to a guard outside Bobst’s 12th-floor administrative offices. But where this early undergraduate effort to support graduate student workers saw limited turnout, momentum is quickly building among undergraduates in support of a graduate student strike. As of Monday morning, over 400 students had signed a new letter in solidarity with graduate students, while hundreds others had pledged to attend the bargaining session and other events in support of the graduate student union.

“We know that graduate student working conditions are undergraduate learning conditions,” reads a new letter from undergraduates to NYU President John Sexton. “We therefore urge the administration to provide graduate student workers with fair annual wage increases, 100% healthcare for all GSOC members, family health care and child care benefits, working PhD tuition remission, and a shorter-term contract length.”

Currently boasting over 400 signatures, the letter is expected to grow in support throughout the day. “We anticipate reaching about 500 signatures by the start of bargaining,” SLAM member Jonah Walters told Local.

FULL story at link. Follow NYU Local’s graduate student strike coverage here: http://nyulocal.com/tag/grad-student-strike-2015/




Photo courtesy of Anne Falcon.


Read more: http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2015/03/09/in-anticipation-of-strike-undergrads-rally-to-support-graduate-student-workers/

[mike_c]

1. solidarity...

...from an academic union brother!

[brooklynite]

2. From the poster, the protest seems to be getting distracted...

I understand the issue of supporting Grad Student Teaching Assistants, but taking a position on campus expansion seems to be out of left field.

[Helen Borg]

3. Makes sense to me..

Grad students are treated poorly because the money is spent on other things. The same could be said for assistant professors or temp facuilty. Certainly, the prez should not be paid 1.5 M+...

[Omaha Steve]

4. They are new at this

And learning the "how to unionize 101".