“Enough is Enough”: NYU Grad Students Strike For Their Rights
By: Nyu Local
Tags: Labor, Gsoc, Unions, On Campus News, Protest

“Enough is Enough”: NYU Grad Students Strike For Their Rights

The GSOC strike commenced earlier this week after 10 months of attempted negotiations between the union and university administration. NYU Local Follow Apr 29 · 5 min read

By Eli Yurman and Kashish Bhatia

Photo by Kashish Bhatia

NYU’s Graduate Student Organizing Committee (GSOC) began its strike on Monday, April 26, after 96.4% of its membership voted to authorize the strike on April 9. GSOC has been in contract negotiations with NYU for 10 months, and university administration has continued to refer to their demands, which include a living wage, child care, and parental leave, as “unreasonable”.

Each day of the strike, protestors have rallied in front of Bobst Library and organized songs, chants, and speeches, before marching up and down 4th Street in front of the library and the adjacent Gould Plaza.

On Monday, the first day of the strike, protestors were joined by NYC mayoral candidate Dianne Morales, who spoke at the picket line. “It is shameful that NYU is exploiting the students who work for the institution, and not ensuring that all their employees have access to a good living wage, good healthcare, paid vacation and leave, and safety conditions that enable you all to support your families,” she said. “Especially while we are in the middle of a global pandemic.”

On Wednesday, April 28, as temperatures rose into the 80s, the number of protestors in front of Bobst grew to around 100, with another 300 attending the virtual picket line, according to GSOC organizers keeping track of attendee sign-ins. The strikers interspersed their marching with speeches from various organizers and graduate workers, and guitarists led those assembled in singing pro-labor songs, including “There is Power in a Union” and “The Internationale.”

“The student/TA ratio is so bad that not only are TAs overworked, but undergraduate students don’t get the attention they deserve,” said Bhumika Chauhan, a fifth-year graduate worker. “All our wages combined make up 1.2% of NYU’s annual budget,” she continued. “They can afford to grant our demands.”

Bhumika Chauhan addresses the strikers. Photo by Eli Yurman.

Several speakers stressed the importance of solidarity beyond just the NYU grad students currently striking, including solidarity with international students and solidarity with workers on other campuses and around the world.

“Today, on the third day of the strike, I’m refusing to work because I know that we deserve a living wage,” said Sandy Abu Adas, a fifth-year international PhD candidate from Palestine. “70% of my income goes to rent, and I can’t work outside the university because I’m an international student. Today I’m refusing to work because while we were bargaining with NYU over funding extensions, NYU was busy preparing the NYU Tel Aviv campus for their Go Local plan, while Palestinian NYU students living in the West Bank and Gaza will be prohibited from using these same learning facilities. Today I’m refusing to work because I know that our work is valuable. We run this damn school! Enough is enough!”

Sandy Abu Adas addresses the strikers. Photo by Eli Yurman.

“It’s not just NYU,” said Jordana Bombi, an NYU alum who was among the guitarists leading the singing. “It’s our brothers and sisters at Columbia and Harvard, too. From the Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama and in Staten Island, to internationally — we’re all in this together. We can win if we keep uniting.”

Representatives from other unions from around the city were in attendance on Wednesday as well. Zoe Carey, the president of ACT-UAW Local 7902 — the union for NYU adjuncts and New School part-time faculty, student workers, and health service employees — emphasized that fighting for graduate worker rights means fighting for everyone at NYU. “We’re going into bargaining next year,” she said, “and we know what it’s like when one of the biggest landlords in the city acts like you’re being unreasonable. Adjuncts fully support the strike.”

Zoe Carey addresses the strikers. Photo by Eli Yurman.

Over the course of its first three days, the strike has garnered significant support on social media, most notably from Senator Bernie Sanders, who on Wednesday tweeted out that he stood in support with GSOC workers fighting for health care and a living wage.

Other significant supporters included Micheal Hollingsworth, a candidate for NYC Council District 35, and several NYU professors, all of whom expressed their support of the strike via Twitter.

One tweet published on Wednesday morning expressed support for the strikers, while also claiming that NYU is “considering GSOC’s request for a federal mediator,” and that GSOC had reported “significant movement at the bargaining table.” In response to these claims, Lee Barrett, on behalf of the GSOC Bargaining Committee, explained via an email to Local that during their bargaining session on Monday, April 26, the union had agreed to mediation on three conditions: first, GSOC would not end, pause, or postpone the strike; second, both parties would work with the federal mediator assigned to GSOC’s contract, not a private mediator; and third, GSOC would continue to hold open bargaining sessions.

“NYU agreed to the first and third terms, but has requested 48 hours to respond on the second,” Barrett told Local. We’re not sure why they need all this time to research the mediator who has already been assigned to our contract, but in any event, the ball is once again in NYU’s court.”

The union’s next bargaining session with NYU is on Thursday, April 29, at 1 p.m. In-person protests will take place that morning in order to make time for the later negotiations. The strike will continue through the end of the week and beyond, and a full day of marches and speeches is planned for Friday, April 30.

“All workers need a living wage, all workers need free healthcare, and all workers need to be out here fighting for it,” Chauhan said.