NYU Graduate Students Unionize

Landmark National Labor Relations Board Ruling Paved the Way

Beth Gardiner / AP 17nov00

NEW YORK - New York University graduate students have voted to unionize, two weeks after a landmark National Labor Relations Board ruling paved the way for them to do so, final results showed yesterday.

Students working as teaching and research assistants at NYU voted 619 to 551 in favor of unionizing, becoming the first at any private US university to form a union.

''This victory has been a long time coming, and we are now ready to speak in a united voice to the university,'' Kimberly Johnson of the Graduate Students Organizing Committee said in a statement. ''It's time to end long hours at low pay and inadequate health benefits.''

The students had voted in April, but the tally was held up for months by the NLRB deliberations. The NLRB and the United Auto Workers, which helped organize the students, also challenged the eligibility of some voters.

A Nov. 1 labor board decision gave graduate students at private institutions the right to form unions, overturning a two-decade-old precedent. Graduate student workers at public universities are governed by state labor laws and many are unionized.

It remained unclear whether the university would recognize the new union, however.

NYU spokesman John Beckman said the university could refuse to abide by the decision, be brought to court on an unfair labor practices charge, and then make its case against the NLRB decision before a judge. He said officials had not yet decided whether to do that.

The dispute that held up release of the election results centered on 94 votes from business school students who the UAW said did not meet union eligibility requirements and 201 from students who voted but were not on eligibility lists.