Public Employee Press

78 arrested at NYU protest

DC 37 activists joined 1,100 union and academic demonstrators at a rally Aug. 31 to protest New York University’s refusal to negotiate a second contract with its graduate employees union.

Seventy-eight protestors were arrested when they linked arms and sat down in front of the NYU library, including AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney and President Bruce Raynor of Unite Here, which recently left the AFL-CIO. Like the city’s Labor Day parade, the rally demonstrated the solidarity of the local union movement despite the national split.

The demonstrators protested the university’s refusal to bargain with United Automobile Workers Local 2110, which represents more than 1,000 NYU teaching and research assistants.

Under a 2000 decision by the National Labor Relations Board, NYU became the first private university in the country to recognize a union of graduate student employees. But last year, the Republican majority on the NLRB reversed the earlier decision and removed federal labor law protections from graduate students employed by private universities.