NYU reaches contract settlement with TAs

Academe, Mar/Apr 2002

New York University and the union that represents teaching assistants on campus reached settlement on a contract in February, the first time that a private university has entered into such a contract with graduate assistants. The four-year agreement between the university and the union, an affiliate of the United Auto Workers (UAW), stipulates that the university will cover the cost of health insurance for graduate assistants and will set minimum stipends at $15,000 for most graduate assistants starting next fall. The minimum will be raised by $1,000 a year in each of the three subsequent years covered by the agreement. The agreement incorporates the provision that the university reserves the right to "exercise sole authority on all decisions involving academic matters," including "who is taught, what is taught, how it is taught, and who does the teaching."

Another UAW-affiliated group of teaching and research assistants at a private New York institution, Columbia University, is one step closer to collective bargaining after a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board ruled in February that it can unionize. As is common in such cases, both sides disagree with the board's decision about which graduate assistants will be included in the potential bargaining unit, and the university may also appeal the board's decision that the graduate assistants are employees.