In almost 3 weeks, the Grad Labor Counts! petition to the National Labor Relations Board posted by Graduate Students United at the University of Chicago has gained close to 2400 signatures (are you one of them?)! Today, AFT President Randi Weingarten released a statement reiterating the AFT's commitment to securing the collective bargaining rights of graduate employees at private universities and urging the NLRB to issue a ruling stating that this important group of academic workers has the right to form a union. President Weingarten's statement is below.

"Graduate employees at private universities should have the same right as their counterparts at public universities to have a voice in their workplace through collective bargaining."

Statement by Randi Weingarten,President,
American Federation of Teachers,
On Request for NLRB to Grant Union Rights to Private University Grad Employees

Graduate Students United at the University of Chicago, which represents teaching and research assistants at that institution, is gathering signatures on a petition to the National Labor Relations Board, asking for a ruling on the New York University Graduate Student Organizing Committee's petition for collective bargaining rights for graduate employees at the nation's private universities.

WASHINGTON-Graduate employees at private universities should have the same right as their counterparts at public universities to have a voice in their workplace through collective bargaining. Whether they work at a public or private institution, graduate employees are paid for their instructional and research work and should be able to negotiate fair wages, benefits and working conditions. For more than 40 years, graduate assistants at public universities have been recognized as employees at their institutions and, therefore, as eligible for collective bargaining rights, and the law should treat graduate employees at private institutions no differently.

The AFT stands with the graduate employees at the University of Chicago, New York University and other private universities in urging the National Labor Relations Board to recognize the rights of graduate employees to choose to form a union. The AFT has supported the right of graduate assistants at private universities to organize since our 2001 campaign at the University of Pennsylvania.

Follow AFT President Randi Weingarten: http://twitter.com/#!/rweingarten 

In the latest development in a campaign to hold a union recognition election for graduate student research assistants (GSRAs) at the University of Michigan to affiliate with the Graduate Employees Organization, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, notable for his right-wing political connections, has filed a motion to intervene in a December 13 Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC) hearing on the employment status of GSRAs. Schuette's motion recycles the tired and discredited anti-union propaganda that pops up wherever graduate employees organize - namely that unionization will prevent the university from attracting top tier student and will inhibit the relationship between students and advisors. Schuette further claims - for reasons that don't make a whole lot of sense - that the University of Michigan Board of Regents recognition of GSRAs as employees makes his intervention even more necessary.

There is one and only one explanation for Schuette's desire to intervene in the MERC hearing - to delay or out-and-out deny GSRAs the ability to exercise their right to vote on whether they wish to join a union. Nothing in the reports on his filing indicates that Schuette is bringing anything substantive to the question of GSRAs' employment statuses; on the contrary, everything points to nothing more than garden variety anti-unionism.

The Graduate Employees Organization continues to press ahead in their campaign, and they have responded to the news of the Attorney General's filing with the following press release.

Members of Graduate Students United at the University of Chicago have begun a national campaign targeting the National Labor Relations Board with the aim of getting a ruling on a case filed in April 2010 by the Graduate Student Organizing Committee at New York University. A ruling in GSOC's favor would overturn current board precedent which - illogically - holds that graduate teaching and research assistants at private universities are solely students, not employees. Graduate employees at public universities in several states are currently recognized as employees and have access to collective bargaining as a result. Graduate workers at private universities, however - despite their work teaching undergraduates and performing research that benefits the university - do not have these same rights.

The GSU campaign, Grad Labor Counts!, is circulating a petition (that has over 800 signatures as of this writing) asking the NLRB to rule on the NYU case by the end of the year when the term of Board member Craig Becker expires, rendering the NLRB non-functional for the foreseeable future. The members of GSU and other graduate union activists at private universities are only asking for their basic rights. "Like graduate employees at public universities, we want recognition that we provide teaching and research services in exchange for a wage," said GSU member Andrew Yale. "A ruling on the NYU case will have a major impact on our status as employees here at the University of Chicago, where we are seeking the right to bargain collectively."

Graduate employees perform important work that has a major impact on the universities at which they're employed, whether they are public or private. That graduate workers at NYU, the University of Chicago, and similar institutions have seen their legal rights in limbo for over a decade because of an arbitrary and ultimately false distinction between their statuses as employees and students is unconscionable. Sign the Grad Labor Counts! petition today and add your voice to those calling upon the NLRB to recognize the rights of graduate employees at private universities.

Today, members of the California Faculty Association will stage a one-day strike at two California State University campuses - East Bay and Dominguez Hills. At issue is the CSU administration refusing to honor a contract that was negotiated in good faith - for two years running, the university has refused to give faculty members the raises that they were contractually obligated to give.

The broader issue is, of course, the continued hollowing out of public higher education, both in California and nationally. Students everywhere are paying more and more to go to college, and less and less of the monies going into colleges are being used for instruction. For many people, the dream of an affordable and accessible quality college education is slipping away from them. Today, members of the CFA are not only standing up for themselves, but for the students they serve. We here at the AFT stand with them. Please read below a statement of support to the members of the CFA from AFT President Randi Weingarten. 

The Union of Clerical, Administrative and Technical Staff (UCATS), an AFT affiliate representing 1,400 employees at New York University, has been in contract negotiations with NYU since September 14, 2011. Over the course of nine bargaining sessions, NYU has put just one proposal on the table - to restrict UCATS members access to the grievance and arbitration procedures in cases of discrimination - thus denying workers access to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Then, on October 26, the university presented proposals on wages and health insurance givebacks that amount to six years of pay cuts - despite the university's ample resources. They have not said that they cannot afford to pay living wages or provide affordable health insurance.  They have said that they no longer want to.

The proposals UCATS has made at the bargaining table are modest and universal: living wages, affordable health insurance and respectful working conditions.

UCATS has created a petition on behalf of workers at NYU that present the following demands: 

1. A fair contract for UCATS with living wages for the NYC metro area;
2. That NYU preserve affordable health insurance for ALL NYU employees;
3. That the UCATS bargaining team be treated with respect at the bargaining table. 

Will you sign this petition? Click here!