PLEASE SIGN AND CIRCULATE WIDELY:

Dear Members of the NYU Graduate Student Worker Community,

This week, three members of the Bargaining Committee that were elected to represent GSOC-UAW members in our contract negotiations with the NYU administration raised serious concerns about transparency and effectiveness in the bargaining process. In their letter (http://tinyurl.com/lx2tu6u), our elected representatives detail their frustration with a marginalization of member voices in both bargaining and the union’s campaign for support more generally. This led to a serious demobilization of our membership during the past spring semester, putting our chances of winning a strong, fair contract at risk.

We, the undersigned graduate workers from schools and departments across the university, stand with these committee members in their calls for a more transparent bargaining process and the creation of structures of accountability within our unit, toward the goal of winning the best contract for all graduate workers at NYU. Their concerns should be taken seriously, and they should face no retaliation for their desire to more fully engage the membership.

This, our first semester with a renewed union, should have been a joyous period of worker consolidation, an exuberant time of collectively building on our successes and fostering cross-departmental member-member connections. Instead, we have had silence, opacity, and inadequate results at the negotiation table.

The strategy pursued in the spring semester was designed to win a contract by May, but it failed to do so. Hundreds of graduate students signed an open letter calling for NYU to bargain in good faith, but that letter failed to push NYU to present a counter-proposal on economic issues until the end of the semester—and meant that most members’ engagement with the union during this crucial semester amounted to a one-on-one meeting with an organizer. This lack of mobilization and failure to build structures for representation within the unit meant that when NYU recently falsely promised a healthcare rebate to hundreds of graduate workers, the union didn’t have the means to adequately address the administration's malfeasance. Our union’s power rests in our collective strength, and the current strategy has failed to cultivate that strength. We must now do so.

Now that several of our members of the Bargaining Committee have either resigned or expressed grave concerns with current strategy and operations, we call on our remaining elected and staff leadership to take seriously our concerns about transparency and member engagement, which directly impact the mobilization of our membership—because that mobilization is the key to winning the best possible contract for all of our workers. Together, we can win a contract with increased wages, affordable healthcare, and benefits for worker families.

We support the members of the Bargaining Committee who are calling for more empowerment of our membership; the creation of an engaged member-led mobilization strategy; an end to closed-door, off-the-record bargaining between the NYU administration and UAW staff, particularly during the summer months, when a majority of our members are off campus; and new elections in the fall for those members of the Bargaining Committee that have resigned.

We truly believe in GSOC-UAW’s mission to make NYU a better workplace for all graduate students, and we stand with our elected representatives in calling on current leadership to live up to that promise.

Sincerely,

1. Joan Morgan, Social & Cultural Analysis
2. Nikki Zeichner, Integrated Digital Media, NYU Engineering
3. Liz Fink, Institute of French Studies
4. Scott Alves Barton, Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, Steinhardt
5. Debashree Mukherjee, Cinema Studies, Tisch
6. A.J. Bauer, Social & Cultural Analysis
7. Darach Miller, Biology
8. Alex Manevitz, History
9. Michelle O'Brien, Sociology
10. Tamara Kneese, Media, Culture, and Communication, Steinhardt
11. Matthew Canfield, Anthropology
12. Bilal Hashmi, Comparative Literature
13. Kartik Nair, Cinema Studies, Tisch
14. Daniela Dover, Philosophy
15. Carlin Wing, Media, Culture, and Communication, Steinhardt
16. Eman Abdelhadi, Sociology
17. Dwaipayan Banerjee, Anthropology
18. Diana Castro, Integrated Digital Media, NYU Engineering
19. Faris Giacaman, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies/History
20. Peiyang Chen, Chemistry
21. Jeremy Dolan, Philosophy
22. John Feldmann, Politics
23. Grace Helton, Philosophy
24. Shima Houshyar, Near Eastern Studies
25. David Klassen, History
26. Javier Molina, Integrated Digital Media, NYU Engineering
27. Eoghan Quinn, English
28. Caitlin Wind, Near Eastern Studies
29. Sarah Zarrow, Hebrew & Judaic Studies
30. Leon Hilton, Performance Studies, Tisch
31. Danni Wang, Biology
32. Mónica Caudillo, Sociology
33. Christy Thornton, History
34. Jessica Feldman, Media, Culture, and Communication, Steinhardt
35. Riley Simmons-Edler, Biology
36. Adaner Usmani, Sociology
37. Paulina Suárez Hesketh, Cinema Studies, Tisch
38. Natan Zeichner, History
39. Athanasia Nantina Vgontzas, Sociology
40. Zach Schwartz-Weinstein, Social & Cultural Analysis
41. Aro Velmet, History
42. Erik Van Deventer, Sociology
43. Geoffrey Traugh, History
44. Sarah Albritton, Biology
45. Edward Crowley, Sociology
46. Alaina Morgan, History
47. Natasha Shivji, History
48. David Wachsmuth, Sociology
49. Brian Ray, Social & Cultural Analysis
50. Josh Frens-String, History
51. Ian Merkel, Institute of French Studies
52. Stuart Schrader, Social & Cultural Analysis
53. Michela Duranti, History
54. Jonah Birch, Sociology
55. Michael Gould-Wartofsky, Sociology
56. Eman Morsi, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies
57. Jen Ayres, Social & Cultural Analysis
58. Emmaia Gelman, Social & Cultural Analysis
59. Daniel Aldana Cohen, Sociology
60. Erez Maggor, Sociology
61. Aviv Derri, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies/History
62. Tiana Bakić Hayden, Anthropology
63. Tony Andersson. History
64. Rebeccah Friedman, History
65. Disi An, Biology
66. Tim Wood, Media, Culture, and Communication
67. Beatrice Wayne, History
68. Anthony Rossi, Biology
69.  Samuel Ng, Social & Cultural Analysis
70.  José Miguel Palacios, Cinema Studies, Tisch
71.  Laliv Melamed, Cinema Studies, Tisch
72.  Ramin Rahni, Biology
73. Rachel Nolan, History
74. Peter Rich, Sociology
75. Matt Shutzer, History
76. Lana Povitz, History
77. Tarini Sridharan, Cinema Studies, Tisch
78. James Robertson, History
79. Shelly Ronen, Sociology
80. Joanna Curtis, History
81. Dan Bruzzese, Biology
82.  Elizabeth Koslov, Media, Culture, and Communication, Steinhardt
83. Kavita Kulkarni, Media, Culture, and Communication, Steinhardt
84. Jacob Gaboury, Media, Culture, and Communication, Steinhardt
85. Katy Walker, History
86. Gabriel Rocha, History
87. Kouross Esmaeli, Media, Culture, and Communication, Steinhardt
87. Oscar Marquez, Social & Cultural Analysis
89. Susana Morales, Social & Cultural Analysis
90. Alya El Hosseiny, Middle Eastern and Islamic studies
91. Laura C. Matthews, Anthropology
92. Barbara Andersen, Anthropology
93. Schuyler Marquez, Anthropology
94. Vijayanka Nair, Anthropology
95. Ravideep Sethi, Economics
96. Jen Heuson, Media, Culture, and Communication
97. Jackson Smith, Social & Cultural Analysis
98. Jennifer Trowbridge, Anthropology
99. Will Thompson, Anthropology
100. Zee R Perry, Philosophy
101. Abigail Weitzman, Sociology
102. Joshua Hudelson, Music
103. Natalie Blum-Ross, History
104. Gordon Beeferman, Music
105. Bernard Brown, Biology
106. Mirjam Frank, Music
107. Christopher Nickell, Music
108. Shannon Ward, Anthropology
109. Sara Duvisac, Sociology
110. Suneela Mubayi, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies
111. Amarilys Estrella, Anthropology
112. Jessica López-Espino, Anthropology
113. Magdalena Sabat, Media, Culture, and Communication, Steinhardt
114. Marlon Burgess, Social & Cultural Analysis
115. Hossein Fattahi, Anthropology
116. Gaurav Garg, History
117. Meghna Chaudhuri, History
118. Aditya Dhananjay, Computer Science
119. Jacqueline Hazen, Anthropology

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