GSOC Responds to NYU Parent Email

Although NYU President Andrew Hamilton’s message was sent to NYU’s parents email list, and did not specifically target parents of graduate workers, this email list includes many parents of graduate workers.

Hamilton’s email is an unveiled attempt to pit parents of students against striking grad workers. This effort to divide students, workers, and parents is a hallmark of NYU’s long history of union-busting and strike-breaking.

The email repeats a number of points that are inaccurate and mischaracterize our current positions. (Our longer response to President Hamilton’s anti-union messaging can be found here.)

In bargaining on Monday, April 26, GSOC  agreed to mediation on three conditions: 

• we will not end, pause, or postpone our strike;
• we will work with the federal mediator assigned to our contract, not a private mediator; 
• we will continue to hold open bargaining sessions.

NYU agreed to the first and third terms, but has requested 48 hours to respond on the second. We’re not sure why they need all this time to research the mediator that has already been assigned to our contract, but in any event, the ball is once again in NYU’s court. Our next bargaining session with NYU is on Thursday, April 29th at 1:00 PM EDT.

Graduate working conditions are undergraduate learning conditions. The demands for which we are striking—living wages, comprehensive healthcare, tuition remission—stand to strengthen, not weaken, the academic community at NYU. We expect that many parents will recognize this, and support our right to strike for a better university for all of us.

Since launching our strike we have been honored by a remarkable upswell of support from undergraduates, faculty, alumni, labor allies, and other supporters. This includes many messages of solidarity following Andrew Hamilton’s effort to distort our demands and the current status of bargaining.