Hi, I talked to Get-Up, the graduate teaching assistant group at Penn. They are continuing their fight! I request that everyone send letters of encouragement and flowers to Get-up at the address below.
Please send cards and flowers this week! If you need the name of a local florist, please email me. The address is: Get-Up University Lutheran Church 3637 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA, 19104.=20 [EMAIL PROTECTED] To find out more information, please go to http://getuponline.org or call (215) 386-2120 Yours, Sharon Hurley Penn Staff Support Group supporting Get-Up's right to unionize [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Labor board: graduate teaching assistants at private schools have no righ= >t to form unions=20 > LEIGH STROPE, AP Labor Writer=20 > > > >---------------------------------------------------------------------------= >--- > > > > > > >---------------------------------------------------------------------------= >--- > > > Thursday, July 15, 2004 > > > >---------------------------------------------------------------------------= >--- > > > > > > >---------------------------------------------------------------------------= >--- > > > > > (07-15) 18:09 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) -- > > Graduate teaching assistants at private universities do not have the righ= >t to form unions, the National Labor Relations Board has ruled, reversing i= >ts 2000 landmark decision that resulted in thousands of new union members. > > The board, led by three Republicans appointed by President Bush, ruled th= >at about 450 graduate teaching and research assistants at Brown University = >in Providence, R.I., could not be represented by the United Auto Workers be= >cause they were students, not employees. > > The two Democrats on the five-member panel opposed the decision, which do= >es not affect public universities and colleges. The ruling was issued Tuesd= >ay and made public Thursday. > > "Because they are first and foremost students, and their status as a grad= >uate student assistant is contingent on their continued enrollment as stude= >nts, we find that they are primarily students," the decision said. > > It is one of several recent blows the GOP-dominated board has delivered t= >o organized labor. > > Last month, the panel overturned another Clinton-era case that had extend= >ed to nonunion workers the right to have a co-worker present at a meeting w= >ith supervisors that might result in discipline. Also last month, the board= > voted to consider two cases that could force unions to abandon recruiting = >strategies that let them bypass elections in the workplace. > > Brown's provost, Robert Zimmer, said the new ruling "correctly recognizes= > that a graduate student's experience is a mentoring relationship between f= >aculty and students, and that it's not appropriate for collective bargainin= >g." > > Alan Reuther, UAW's legislative director in Washington, said, "We strongl= >y disagree with it and we think it reflects this administration's anti-labo= >r orientation." > > The decision overturns the board's unanimous ruling in 2000 that let 1,50= >0 graduate teaching assistants join a union at New York University, the fir= >st private school where that happened. > > The Clinton-era ruling by two Democrats and a Republican -- there were tw= >o board vacancies -- said graduate students who work and receive compensati= >on as researchers and teaching assistants at private universities have the = >same rights as other workers to form unions and negotiate working condition= >s. > > But the current board now says that decision was wrong because it reverse= >d more than 25 years of precedent. > > "In our decision today, we return to the board's pre-NYU precedent that g= >raduate student assistants are not statutory employees," the ruling said. T= >his "long-standing approach changed abruptly" in 2000. > > NYU, in a statement Thursday, said it was gratified by the decision and n= >oted that the contract it negotiated with graduate teaching assistants is u= >p for renewal in a year. "The university will not make any decisions about = >its next steps until it has an opportunity to review today's ruling careful= >ly," the statement said. > > Universities increasingly are replacing tenured classroom teachers with p= >art-time faculty and graduate students. Unions, trying to reinvigorate the = >labor movement, have moved in to help boost membership. > > "This ruling is outrageous," said Nat LaCour, executive vice president of= > the American Federation of Teachers, eliciting loud boos as he told member= >s of the decision at the union's convention Thursday. "This must change." > > The union represents 150,000 faculty members, including 12,000 graduate t= >eaching assistants, at private and public colleges and universities. > > Graduate students trying to unionize pledged to continue fighting. > > Teaching assistants deserve to "have a voice in our working conditions an= >d our compensation," said Lauren Nauta, a graduate teaching assistant at th= >e University of Pennsylvania, a private school in Philadelphia. She is purs= >uing her doctorate in history and is organizing director for AFT's unioniza= >tion efforts on campus. > > James Shaw, a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts at Amhe= >rst, which is public, has been involved in organizing campaigns at Brown an= >d elsewhere. > > "People have the right under federal law to form and join unions. It's a = >big disappointment the NLRB would overlook that and say someone can't join = >unions just because they're a student," Shaw said. > > Graduate assistants at the largest campus of the University of Illinois, = >another public school, reached their first union contract agreement with ad= >ministrators Thursday, ending a decadelong dispute over the pay and working= > conditions. > > The agreement, if ratified by the union and approved by university truste= >es, would run until mid-2006 and cover all of the Champaign-Urbana campus' = >more than 6,180 graduate assistants, said university spokeswoman Robin Kale= >r. > > The National Labor Relations Board, a government agency, conducts electio= >ns to determine whether private business employees want union representatio= >n, and investigates and remedies claims of unfair labor practices by employ= >ers and unions. > > The board deals with private employers and has no jurisdiction over publi= >c universities and colleges, which are governed by state laws. Those laws v= >ary on whether graduate teaching assistants can unionize.=20 > >------=_NextPart_000_0A14_01C46CAA.783759B0 ---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>.
