Inside Higher Ed: A strike falters
Labor activists in New York City gathered last month to mark the 95th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, a tragedy that left 146 dead, and that spurred sweeping labor reforms. The delegation from New York University’s union of graduate students didn’t have to travel far. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory is now NYU’s biology building.
Those graduate students are currently creating union history of a different kind, as a strike by some graduate assistants, now in its 16th week, has failed so far to bring the university to the bargaining table. Clearly, change in this case will not come about in a single fiery flash. What’s unclear is whether today’s history is one of a union that overestimated its strength or of a victory that will be quite a while in coming. In the short term, NYU appears well on its way to returning private higher education to non-union status with regard to teaching assistants.
Those NYU graduate students who want a union have been embroiled in their own labor struggle since the summer, when NYU stopped recognizing the Graduate Student Organizing Committee, a local affiliate of the United Auto Workers, and the only official graduate assistant union at a private institution. The union won major improvements in wages and benefits during its four-year contract, but NYU says it will provide gains even without a union.
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