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An Open Letter to NYU Undergraduates On the Graduate Worker Strike

Sisters and Brothers:

The decision of NYU President John Sexton to withdraw union recognition from graduate employees represents an affront to the dignity of those workers and belies any notion that NYU is some sort of enlightened institution. In response to the University's move, on October 31, the NYU graduate workers union (GSOC/Local 2110 UAW) voted by an overwhelming 85% majority to withhold their labor in defense of the right to free association. I write to you because, as an NYU undergraduate, you are uniquely positioned to make a major contribution to the struggle for social justice by supporting this strike. I'm also writing because without your support this strike will end in defeat.

The strike beginning at your school on November 9 will reverberate far beyond campus. If Sexton's gambit to break the union is allowed to succeed and grad workers are denied a contract, the ability of working people all over the country to build and maintain power at work will be negatively impacted.

Power in a Union

The education system, the media, religious institutions, and the labor movement itself have all failed to properly draw attention to the importance of unions or even accurately portray what a union is. First of all then, I'll share some thoughts on unions to illustrate why I believe the workers' cause at NYU deserves your support.

Brushing aside the jargon, legalese, and rhetoric, a union is simply a group of workers looking out for each other in the face of a highly organized employer. Certainly, forming a union is partially about bread and butter and GSOC at NYU has fought for significant gains in wages and health care. It should be axiomatic that a worker deserves decent compensation whether or not that worker is also a student. However, NYU doesn't see it that way and without a union presence sooner or later it will make a move to roll back these material gains.

But forming a union is about much more than bread and butter. Organizing a union is how workers move towards democracy on the job and away from the notion that we shed our right to liberty when we walk through the factory, shop, or university door. John Sexton attempted to enfeeble the union by offering to enter into a contract regarding financial issues but not over working conditions. He primarily wanted to do away with the independent grievance procedure that enables union employees to meaningfully redress problems that arise on the job. GSOC rightly scoffed at Sexton's public relations-driven offer, as he must have known they would.

Sexton to Union: You're Done Here

NYU is capitalizing on a ruling from the viciously anti-union Bush Administration-controlled National Labor Relations Board which held that private universities are not compelled by law to bargain with graduate employee unions (though universities absolutely may bargain with grad unions). NYU has thereby placed itself at the forefront of an effort alongside corporations like Wal-Mart and the politicians who serve them to finish off the U.S. labor movement. Only 7.9% of private-sector employees in this country are members of a union and the number is on the decline. If graduate employees at NYU don't get the support they deserve, they will lose this strike, signaling to the corporate world that it's time to deliver the fatal blow to workers' unions in all kinds of industries.

A country without a strong labor movement is a country with over 45 million people without healthcare, 37 million people living in poverty, and a populace overwhelmingly opposed to a war but seemingly impotent to stop it. By putting themselves on the picket line, the graduate employees are fighting for all of us because unions are how workers gain a voice in society.

The Social Psychology of Union-Busting

John Sexton and NYU are already waging a battle for your hearts and minds. They are engaged in what's known as a union-busting or an anti-union campaign which is a comprehensive effort to break a union on all fronts through propaganda and other tactics. They correctly perceive you as a force that, if mobilized, will play an integral role in winning this strike. Therefore, be vigilant. Every word you read or hear from John Sexton, NYU, and seemingly neutral proxies they'll use (like anti-union grad students) will be designed to separate you from graduate workers and their union. John Sexton's letter to undergraduates showcased his message that the graduate student union is impeding your ability to get your education. You are entering the anti-union twilight zone care of NYU where everything directed at you is part of the union-busting effort: in this world it is the graduate students who will impede your education not John Sexton who made an extreme and reactionary move to break the union.

One of the worst arguments I've heard against supporting the strike is that NYU should not recognize the union since it is not obligated by law to do so. Frankly, law and morality have very little in common. If you're walking to class one day and see a baby not your own drowning in a shallow pond, you're under no legal obligation to help the baby. If you walk on and the baby dies because you don't feel like getting wet before class, in most jurisdictions you cannot be imprisoned under criminal law nor sued under civil law. Sexton needs to do what's right regardless of whether it's compelled by law. If he doesn't do what's right, maybe he'd like his office occupied 24 hours a day/7 days a week until he gets the picture.

Pickets

A picket line, in my view, is one of the most sacred things one can find on this Earth. A strong picket line is a glorious affirmation of workers' strength and a graphic illustration that no matter what the bosses do, workers' control their own labor power.

Why do union folks consider crossing a picket line so immoral? When people cross a picket line they are saying to those workers that their lives and the lives of their families are unworthy of support. Even worse, people who cross picket lines reflect an ignorance of the nature of a strike. These workers at NYU just happen to be on the frontline of a battle between corporate capitalism and working families. That is, since those who strike do so for us all and not just for themselves, crossing a picket line is tantamount to betraying one's own self. Crossing a picket line weakens the blow against the employer that the strike represents and seriously undermines the morale of strikers. People cross picket lines for two reasons: bad reasons and worse reasons.

GSOC has been encouraging professors to hold classes off-campus and it appears they approve of undergraduates crossing the line to go to class as long as the class is not taught by a replacement for a striker. I respectfully disagree with GSOC’s approach on both counts: they should demand that the faculty cancel classes outright and ask undergraduates to stay away from classes. A strike is designed to grind the wheels of production or service, depending on the nature of the establishment, to a halt. Attending class enables NYU to continue to provide its service thereby reducing the strike's impact. Holding the class off-campus makes little difference. Think about it in the case of workers on strike at a factory. If some workers at the factory decide to move the production process off company property, struck work is still getting done even if no physical picket lines are crossed. Imagine the fury from parents directed at NYU if classes weren't held at all versus having classes off-campus which wouldn't generate the same outcry. An all-out strike maximizes the potential for a rapid win rather than a protracted struggle which benefits the side with superior resources.

Taking Action

While respecting the pickets is, at a minimum, a necessity for any person of conscience, there is much more to be done. March on the picket line with the strikers, convince your fellow students to support the strike, persuade your professors to call off class, go to John Sexton's house and hold a sit-in or wake-him up with a bull horn at four in the morning, reach out to students at other schools or workers in your local community to gain their support for the strike, or hold an event to raise funds for a striker hardship fund. Going on strike is a very courageous and trying endeavor. We all need to step up for these everyday heroes.

On Sacrifice and Opportunity

Sisters and brothers, there is no doubt that what I'm asking of you is a major sacrifice. It is very inconvenient to interrupt your daily routine and adjust your expectations for this academic year. But strikes are all about sacrifice. The people sacrificing the most are the workers who risk their jobs and their livelihoods by taking the bold step of walking out. If we all had the courage to walk out and stop business as usual when the illegal and immoral war against Iraq was launched, over 2000 slain U.S. soldiers would be with their families right now and tens of thousands of Iraqis, if not more, would have avoided a painful death.

Everything that's decent in this country was one through struggle including the abolition of slavery, women's suffrage, and the eight-hour day. With this strike at NYU, you have been presented with an extraordinary opportunity to shine. Proudly tell your friends and enemies that you don't cross picket lines. Be a grandmother that can tell her grandchildren that never once in her life did she cross a picket line and disrespect those working people struggling against the hegemony of the rich.

Whether the NYU graduate employee strike ends in a stunning defeat or a magnificent victory, it is an endeavor of monumental importance to the cause of Labor and the lives of graduate employees and their families. In a very real sense, your participation can tip the scales in favor of a union victory. Be on the right side of history, cease the opportunity before you.

In Solidarity,

Daniel Gross

Epilogue To NYU Faculty:

I'm sure you have a great deal of important material lined up to teach your students. But because of John Sexton's grand betrayal the single best way to educate your students is to cancel classes outright for the duration of the strike. You too are in a unique position to make an impact. You have a chance to teach by example a concept hard to garner from a book or a lecture: an injury to one is an injury to all.

To NYU Staff:

We all know that a broken GSOC means a weaker bargaining position for every worker at NYU. The strikers will prevail if other NYU workers strike with them. Of course, some of you may be covered by contracts making sympathy strikes unlawful. Sisters and Brothers, on December 1, 1955 after finishing a shift at the department store where she worked, civil rights activist Rosa Parks got on a bus and refused to give up her seat to a white man. She was arrested. Just about 50 years later on October 30, 2005, Ms. Parks laid in honor at the U.S. Capitol, the first women in the history of the country to do so. Good luck to you.

Daniel Gross, a member of the Industrial Workers of the World, is an organizer for the first union in the United States at Starbucks. He can be reached at dgross at iww.org.