A Big Breakthrough for T.A. Unions

NYU becomes first private institution to negotiate, but will others follow?

By SCOTT SMALLWOOD

Hundreds of New York University graduate students streamed into Judson Memorial Church near campus. The seats filled quickly, leaving dozens standing. It was March 1, more than a month after the National Labor Relations Board had ordered the university to bargain with the new teaching-assistant union.

ALSO SEE: Colloquy Live: Join a live, online debate with a key New York University administrator and a leader of the union that represents teaching assistants there, on N.Y.U.'s decision to become the first private institution to recognize such a union, on Thursday, March 15, at 1 p.m. U.S. Eastern time.

Frustrated by N.Y.U.'s unwillingness to negotiate, the students had come together for a strike vote. Instead, they were greeted with unexpected news: N.Y.U. would become the first private university to officially recognize a graduate-employee union.

The union and the university had reached an agreement earlier that afternoon that would bring the two sides to the bargaining table, dashing the hopes of other private institutions that had been encouraging N.Y.U.'s legal and public-relations battles against unionization.

After an afternoon of trading faxes, administrators and the United Auto Workers, which represents the teaching assistants, had crafted a statement that announced the removal of "academic issues" from any contract negotiations. That means the sides won't be talking about admission criteria, degree requirements, teaching methods, or course content. Instead, the graduate students will be pushing for higher stipends, better health benefits, help with the high cost of New York housing, clear job descriptions, and a grievance procedure. "And ultimately a voice at the university," said Lisa Jessup, the U.A.W.'s liaison to the graduate students.

The union contends it never pushed for bargaining over academic issues, making the announcement a clear victory in the eyes of the graduate students, some of whom had been working toward recognition for nearly four years.

The announcement came suddenly, catching even some student organizers flat-footed. Jason Patch, a sociology Ph.D. student and member of the organizing committee, said he was confident a strike was going to be necessary. Daniel Bender, a history Ph.D. student and one of the founders of the unionization effort, said that just an hour earlier he had told a friend that a strike vote would be needed to get the university's attention.

Then at 4 p.m., even before the union team returned from signing the agreement, administrators called the graduate students. "They said, let's start talking about bargaining dates," Mr. Patch said. Meanwhile, his colleagues in the sociology department were heading out to buy champagne.

That champagne will have long lost its fizz by the time the union knows if this victory translates into substantive gains. While the agreement creates the framework for contract talks, the real negotiating still lies ahead. Bouts over what else the administration considers an "academic issue" are likely. And while public support was strong when the union was simply seeking a chair at the bargaining table, other factions within the university community might not be as publicly supportive of specific union demands.

Shortly after N.Y.U. students got the good news, phones started ringing in New Haven, Conn., where Yale University graduate students soon converged on a local bar for their own celebration. "This is incredible news," said J. T. Way, chairman of the Graduate Employees and Students Organization.

Yale, which has been fighting a unionization effort for 10 years, is among the private universities that filed legal briefs supporting N.Y.U. in its case with the National Labor Relations Board. After the board ruled in the fall that N.Y.U. had to bargain with the union, Richard C. Levin, Yale's president, issued a statement urging N.Y.U. to fight the decision in court.

After N.Y.U. agreed to bargain, Mr. Levin said having a framework for negotiating was a positive move. "It's certainly preferable to have an agreement such as this as opposed to leaving everything wide open," he told the Yale Daily News. However, he continued, "I still believe that most students at Yale, after a full and reasoned debate, will decide that unionization is not in their best interest."

Yale graduate students hope the N.Y.U. decision will show their own administrators that a private university can sit down at the bargaining table with a T.A. union, said Mr. Way. He also urged Yale to consider the three decades of T.A. unions at public universities. "The Earth is still rotating on its axis, and those schools are still standing," he said.

Although N.Y.U.'s announcement sets a precedent, there's no indication that private institutions will fall like dominoes. Another university may be willing to take the matter to federal court. Also, this year President Bush can appoint three new members to the five-member N.L.R.B., changing the makeup of the board that issued the N.Y.U. ruling. Nevertheless, union organizers can't help but see a new day dawning in N.Y.U.'s willingness to bargain.

"Every new victory from the union side means it will be harder and harder for someone to draw that line in the sand," said Jon Curtiss, a long-time graduate-employee-union activist.

"It's huge. I'm dazed," said Ms. Jessup, the U.A.W. liaison to the N.Y.U. graduate students. "I think it's really going to embolden other workers at other universities."

Ms. Jessup and the U.A.W. are also organizing at Columbia University. "All along we've been watching N.Y.U. carefully and viewing it as a model for us," said Beverly Gage, a history Ph.D. student and member of the organizing committee there. "We would fully support Columbia making the same decision."

Columbia officials declined to discuss the N.Y.U. decision, saying that they don't comment on actions by other universities.

N.Y.U. did know that its decision would be closely watched by other private universities, said Robert Berne, vice president for academic and health affairs. He even acknowledged that the scrutiny was a factor, albeit a small one. "But we need to make a decision that's best for N.Y.U.," he said. "I know many of our colleagues would have liked to see us to continue to battle and go to court."

Unionization efforts began at N.Y.U. in 1997 when the Graduate Student Organizing Committee approached the U.A.W. for support. In May 1999, N.Y.U. turned down the union's request for bargaining talks, saying teaching assistants are students, not employees. In April 2000, an N.L.R.B. regional director in New York found that N.Y.U.'s teaching assistants were employees as defined by federal law and, as such, could bargain collectively.

Almost immediately, Yale's president issued a statement calling on N.Y.U. to appeal the ruling. That's just what the university did. But the full labor board in Washington upheld the ruling in November. Until the recent announcement, N.Y.U. had not ruled out a federal court battle over the issue.

To get N.Y.U. to the table, the U.A.W. agreed to a formal statement confirming that "the collective-bargaining obligations of the university do not encompass matters that pertain exclusively to degree requirements." Keeping bargaining separate from academics, said Mr. Berne, has always been a sticking point for the university.

But union organizers and one faculty member described the agreement as nothing more than a way for N.Y.U., under increasing public pressure, to save face. "We never really thought our rights extended into the areas that are articulated in this letter, but we were willing to sign a letter stipulating that if it made them feel more comfortable," Ms. Jessup said.

Mr. Berne disagreed, saying union leaders have spoken dozens of times about negotiating on academic issues, including the admission of graduate students and the hiring of faculty members. "It's a little revisionist to say they somehow never had any interest in the academic issues," he said.

The university's position has been misunderstood throughout the unionization struggle, according to Mr. Berne. "This wasn't about anti-unionism," he said. "It was about protecting the academic interests of the university."

In addition to recognizing that "certain issues involving the academic mission of the university lie outside the scope of bargaining as defined by the National Labor Relations Act," the agreement also states that the U.A.W. will withdraw the allegations of unfair labor practices it had filed against N.Y.U.

In a memorandum announcing the agreement, Harvey J. Stedman, N.Y.U.'s provost, pointed out that many public universities with T.A. unions are subject to state laws that limit bargaining on academic matters. In contrast, the federal law governing the N.Y.U. negotiations has no such limits.

"There is," Mr. Stedman wrote, "a widely held value across the university that has been articulated by both those who believe we should have challenged the certification of the U.A.W. in the courts, and by those who believe that we should start bargaining with the union: the importance of protecting the academic nature and quality of what we do."

The N.L.R.B. ruling, in fact, had set forth a road map to handle this very issue. "The conclusion that graduate assistants are employees entitled to engage in collective bargaining, of course, does not imply the ... essential elements of academic freedom ... are necessarily mandatory subjects of collective bargaining," the ruling states. "Indeed, it is precisely because collective bargaining negotiations can be limited to only those matters affecting wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment that the critical elements of academic freedom need not be compromised."

Union leaders say they are more interested in pushing for higher stipends and better health benefits than arguing over academic issues. They hope to raise stipends, which now range from $7,000 to $13,000, to closer to $15,000, said Kimberly Johnson, a Ph.D. student in American studies and a union organizer. Also, Ms. Johnson said, the union will ask the university to pay more for the graduate students' health insurance. Teaching assistants now pay $1,000 a year for individual coverage or $5,000 for family coverage, she said. For many T.A.'s the university pays $400 of that bill, but that isn't adequate, union leaders say.

While N.Y.U. maintains that getting the agreement on academic issues was the key point, union organizers contend that the rising tide of anti-N.Y.U. sentiment, both inside and outside the university, was what really broke the log jam.

Undergraduates had turned in pro-union petitions with thousands of signatures. The Student Senators Council, which a year earlier had passed a resolution against the unionization effort, recently reversed its stand, overwhelmingly supporting a pro-union resolution. In an e-mail survey by the Faculty Council, 270 of the 300 faculty members who responded urged the administration to bargain. Legislators in Albany were asking pointed questions to administrators.

"The administration had to know that if there had been a strike, it would have been a public-relations nightmare," said Ellen Willis, a journalism professor and president of the university's chapter of the American Association of University Professors. "I think the majority of the faculty, regardless of their views on the union, basically did not want N.Y.U. to break the law and refuse to bargain."

The university had argued that the union effort could put academic freedom at risk, but professors saw it differently, Ms. Willis said. "For the faculty to say, 'Look, it's the refusal to bargain that will disrupt our lives academically' -- that left them with no argument. Some said, 'Look, we're concerned about things that the union might do, but that's not a reason to not bargain.'"

Mr. Berne of N.Y.U. said administrators consulted with various university groups about the unionization issue, and listened closely to what people said. "The loudest voices were inclined to urge us to bargain," he said. "I'm not embarrassed to say that influenced our decision."

Mr. Bender, one of the student organizers, said the community support was decisive. "The line had been that they were consulting with members of the university community," he said. That stopped working when administrators "weren't able to find a single group to stand up against the union."

And he sees a lesson there for T.A.'s at other private universities. Unlike factories facing a union drive, he points out, universities can't relocate. "What's Yale without New Haven?" he joked. "What are they going to do? Take those ugly Gothic buildings and move them to Mexico?"

Getting to the bargaining table is a giant step, but union organizers say the real change will come when they can point to an actual contract. Here, they can tell other private universities, is what a contract between you and your T.A.'s might look like. This watershed moment isn't the finish line, they know, but for the first time they can glimpse it in the distance.

"I don't see this as a three-week process, and then we'll have a stellar agreement," Mr. Bender said. "But then again, I thought we were going to take a strike-authorization vote. So maybe I'll be wrong."

Easy-to-print version

E-mail this article