DUer needs your help...

[readmoreoften]

Hey Folks,

Pardon me if I am somewhat incoherent. I am physically and emotionally exhausted. I'm not sure I can write this post with much clarity, so forgive me. I'm currently one of the teaching assistants who is striking at NYU. Basically, Bush's National Labor Board appointees voted (with the democrats strongly dissenting) that private universities don't have to recognize their graduate students as workers (although, insanely, public universities still must). To make a long story short, this decision will allow major private universities to be run like Wal-Mart.

I don't want to go into the whole thing (it's a long, long "whole thing" I assure you) but if you want to read a good analysis of what is going on, please check out www.facultydemocracy.org

Tomorrow morning, those of us who are striking will lose our teaching appointments (and income) for the spring semester. The first graduate teaching assistant union was established in the 1960s. If this threat is carried out, it will be the first time that a university will have carried out such a retaliation against graduate workers in the United States. If Bush's appointees hadn't robbed us of our status as workers, this action would be in violation of the National Labor Relations Act (in other words, against federal law.) They have already been caught *spying* on pro-union professors. Their behavior is, frankly, scary.

Many of us are afraid. International students are frightened that they will be deported. The rest of us have no idea how we are going to make ends meet in NYC. Most of us are in our late twenties and thirties. Some of us have children. But most of us aren't going to bow down to the NYU's threats. If we lose, the repercussions will flutter across the university system and we feel that we are not only responsible to ourselves, but to the hundreds of thousands of students and workers who will come after us.

On a personal note, my decision to strike has made my life very difficult. While support for the union is generally strong, all of my colleagues (but one) are scabbing or unsupportive. Other than fellow strikers, who were all strangers to me just three weeks ago, I have no one to even *talk to* except my partner. What gets me up in the morning is KNOWING that I am doing the right thing, that I am fighting the Bush Administration on my home turf.

I would gratefully appreciate it if you could keep this message kicked. If you are an NYU alumnus, please tell the university that you will not donate until they make things right with their graduate workers. A petition was started today by a handful of world renown professors. If you are supportive in any way, please sign. Over 1700 professors and students have signed it in just one day. Seeing so many signatures makes me feel strong. http://www.petitiononline.com/tosexton/petition.html

Thanks in advance for your help. I hope I will have more time to hang out at DU and chat (or argue, who'm I kiddin'?) :hug:

Please, please, please keep this kicked.

[FreedomAngel82]

1. Stay strong!

Fight the evil bastards! I'm tired of this crap myself. I want my country back!! :hug: Please PM me if you need someone to talk to!

[GrpCaptMandrake]

36. One day longer

than the administration!

K/R

[AverageJoe]

2. Kicked

and recommended.

[Erika]

3. Tried to sign the petition

I got a 503 Error.

[Hissyspit]

9. Signed it with my academic affiliation. Good luck to you. n/t

[Erika]

11. It still won't let me sign Kick

[bluestateguy]

4. If people stick together, you'll win

I have no tolerance for scabs.

[rooboy]

5. Kicked. n/t

[nofurylike]

6. signed and kicked and nom

[saracat]

7. Signed it. Rat bastards. Best of Luck to you.

[KitchenWitch]

8. Kick!

[DanCa]

10. Done my friend good luck to you

PS pm me if things get real lean for your . I ll see what i can do to help.

[NMMNG]

12. Signed

What more can the Bush administration do to screw Americans in the name of Corporatism? :mad:

[PDJane]

14. Don't know........

but I'm sure they will think of something.

Lord, I despise this administration.

[DanCa]

16. Despise isnt a strong enough word. Whats after despise.

[ninkasi]

13. Big, strong kick...

hang in there...:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick:

[Swamp Rat]

15. kick and recommended n/t

[alphafemale]

17. Recommended. Good Luck!

[DesEtoiles]

18. Call NYU [phone] [e-mail]

[e-mail]

[phone]

[Radio_Lady]

19. Readmoreoften, if you want a regional podium to discuss this,

please contact me via private mail. I record a fifty-minute audio show every Friday at 8 AM Pacific Time/11 AM Eastern time. I can also do it at 9 AM Pacific Time/12 Noon Eastern time, if that is better for you. There are no breaks or call-ins and I usually talk with my guests about 20-30 minutes, at your discretion.

The program is broadcast the following Monday at 1 PM PT (4 PM ET) in Oregon and southern Washington State, but can be heard streaming on the Internet by anyone. We estimate our available audience at 80,000 to 100,000.

I'd love to have you as my guest or some other person you might recommend. Please PM me if you are interested. I would call you directly to make the connection and would prefer a landline connection, but would make an exception in this case if a cellphone would be better.

Anyway, good luck -- I signed the petition.

In peace,

Radio_Lady

[readmoreoften]

23. Thank you. I'm going to PM you tomorrow.

That's if I'm not arrested or involved in a sit in or god knows what. (With everyday that passes, I have no idea what will come next.)

[Radio_Lady]

63. I haven't heard from you, but it looks as if NY is getting bad weather.

(I am assuming you are in New York.) I wish I were closer -- used to live on East 28th Street and Third Avenue in Manhattan.

So, I hope you don't get arrested or have to deal with intense cold.

Anyway, the invitation is open whenever you contact me.

In peace,

Radio_Lady

[mia]

20. I'm proud of you.

I was once a graduate teaching assistant.

You are doing the right thing and I know it takes a lot of courage.
Thank you for standing up!

[lildreamer316]

21. Please read this when you have a min.

Please consider this a signature on the petition from beyond the grave: My Mother Carol L. Killian; graudate in 1956 from Duke University; Masters in English Lit and a teacher from 1958 until 2002; PHD in all but name because cancer caused her to not be able to finish her dissertation in time. Taught at Guilford College in Greensboro, NC for 12 years and UNCG for 8. PIONEERED Several adult education courses in the 1980s and 1990s--"Adult Transitions". Inpired teacher and lecturer. Passed Jan.2; 2004.

Best of luck..our prayers with you.

[readmoreoften]

22. I consider her a signatory!

Thank you for that story. She's a Ph.D. far as I'm concerned :hug:

[readmoreoften]

24. Thank you all so much.

It was amazing for me to open my browser and see such strong support. I can't tell you all how much your support means to me. I'll be getting back to you to keep you updated.

[Susan43]

25. Keep your strength up

there are thousands behind you sending our best wishes. I wish there was more we could do to help. Good luck!

[roguevalley]

26. been there, done that. they are fuckers and you are a hero. I am

proud of you, honey, and will do what I can.

[laylah]

27. Stay strong! eom

[mntleo2]

28. Signed The Petition

Never forget that the workplace WILL always degenerate down to a sweatshop, if people do not stay vigilant. It is a given. While I am angry at unions for selling out their workers for their own bottom lines often, unions are all we've got. The petition was right on to say that negotiation is a drag, but undermining the union will not be productive (at least this was what I understood and why I signed it).

I know you are exhausted Hon, and I also have been through a similar fight that left me devastated for years. But I never, repeat NEVER(!) regretted standing up for what was right, even though my family and I paid and paid for it. I would do it again in a minute ~ and btw we lost. We lost for similar reasons as you are facing; lily livered idiots who do not realize how important it is that you all stand together or you lose everything. These idiots are the ones who are corrupting the whole workplace with their cowardice.

You can print out what I just wrote and you can tell your cringing coworkers I have been in the workplace for over 40 years and it ALWAYS happens that the workplace becomes nothing but a place of hell if you do not stand up and speak truth to power. Never once have I seen it do anything different. Then 'thank' them for undermining another workplace on behalf of me and millions of other workers who have given their lives trying to make things better with 100 years of struggle. "Thank" them for further making your university as well as the rest of America into nothing more than another cheap sweatshop. Tell them I hope they rot in hell ~ and btw, thanks to their temerity, so will their children and future generations suffer for their yellow cowardice. And yes, people like me think the increase in poverty, homelessness, and all the misery the working poor face every day is because of this kind of selfish, shortsighted inaction. They can now say all that misery is their fault.

My 2 cents

Cat In Seattle

[Nothing Without Hope]

29. Of course, this sets things up so that RICH GOP DONORS can send their

kids to private universities - they can afford to support them. The poorer riff-raff like you (and most of us) can be starved out. Sounds like a BushCo idea.

Good luck in your fight. :grouphug:

[Maraya1969]

30. Done!

[annabanana]

31. as an NYU alumni

and the daughter of a Professor Emeritus, I am furious, but not surprised. Schools have always had authoritarian tendencies, and to find them going over the edge in today's political climate is to be expected.

(p.s. forwarding the petition to Pop)

[readmoreoften]

38. thanks anna.b.

some alumni are telling the university that instead of donating to them they will donate to GSOC (our union) until they negotiate. feel free to give them this line. ;)

[SW FL Dem]

45. Will do

Hubby and I are both alumni. NYU is calling us nightly for our annual donation. Maybe I'll pick up the phone tonight :evilgrin:

[readmoreoften]

65. THANKS! eom

[xchrom]

32. kicked and signed.

[hwmnbn]

33. OK, K&R.......nt

[tavalon]

34. Damn

My thoughts are with you. While we have been unable thus far to unionize here in the south (I'm a nurse), I am strongly pro-union and my heart is with you. Bless you for fighting the good fight.

[Peace Patriot]

35. Signed, kicked and recommended! Ban Bushonomics in New York and...

...everywhere in the USA!

[Pharaoh]

37. signed, kicked and nominated

the capitalist bastards!

:dem: :dem: :dem:

[StaggerLee]

39. 2425 sigs so far!

K and R!

:dem:

40. kick

We need our unions and we need our schools to generate oxygen, not suffocate us.

[myrna minx]

41. Kick and good luck.

:hug:

[mike_c]

42. Solidarity!

Grad assistants on my CSU campus just won bargaining rights last year, under the UAW, after a LONG struggle. Most of the faculty supported them-- we have our own union representation of course. Of course, as you point out, we're a public university where labor laws still have some authority for grad assistants.

Best of luck. I support what you're doing 100 percent.

on edit-- I signed the petition with my academic affiliation.

[Jokinomx]

43. I wish you the best.....

:toast:

Always do the right thing because its the right thing to do!

[Zhade]

44. K/R

:hug:

[Canuckistanian]

46. K&R..

[MissMarple]

47. Good luck!

[brook]

48. Signed.

Happily noted local Cal Poly sigs too! Good Luck. Maybe some of you can ride out the storm with p/t Xmas jobs? It's hard to take a stand - but you have to do it. Better to suffer now than to be undervalued all the rest of your life.

[in_cog_ni_to]

49. signed.

:kick:

[Senator]

50. kick

[Just Me]

51. I get so upset when I read situations like this!

:grr:

Sometimes, it seems like this country has lost it's moral compass and commitment to fairness.

But, you and people like you ARE the moral compass and the soul of fairness!

Never give up!!! :hug:

[mshasta]

52. kick!

:kick:

[Greybnk48]

53. 3,264 sigs so far

as a former T.A. I'm with you!!

[mzmolly]

54. 3306 now.

:hi:

[Norwood]

55. Kick!

[IndyOp]

56. I signed and sent it on to 300 members of the Progressive Faculty

Coalition at my university. I've read your other posts about this RMO - you can be ***very*** proud of yourself staying the course -

:yourock:

[silverlib]

57. Please let us know how this works out

I signed and looked at a partial list of the latest signers. There are some signers with powerful affiliations.

Best of luck to you!

[Pooka Fey]

58. KICK! 3655 Hang in There and Good Luck. And F those union-busting pricks

[mia]

59. Kicked!

and signed.
3658 signatures now.

[DesEtoiles]

60. kick

[rman]

61. kick

[cry baby]

62. .

[readmoreoften]

64. One day longer, one day stronger.

This petition was printed and delivered to the NYU administration by supportive faculty and will continue to be delivered to them. The deadline was reached and now many of us are supposedly fired, with scabs being hired en masse to take our jobs. NYU has created a company union called GAC in order to undermine the democratically elected union and confuse the student body and faculty. Oddly enough my 18 year old students saw through this more quickly than even some of the savvier members of the faculty.

If you are an NYU Alum, PLEASE contact President John Sexton at [e-mail]. Tell him that you've donated to NYU in the past, but if he doesn't set things straight with the graduate student union (GSOC/UAW) that you will give your donation elsewhere or to the strike hardship fund.

If you're a NYC resident, you can email the bastard with huge subject lines: NY IS A UNION TOWN.
If you want to get a letter to him, you can always write him. I don't know the exact address but I bet this will do:

President John Sexton
New York University
10003

If you know any faculty at NYU, call them up and ask them what their position is on GSOC. If they hem and haw, then light a fire under their ass.

Arrrgh! We need help. We're just a ragtag junkyard band of a few hundred graduate workers fighting against one of the most powerful universities in the country. (NYU is the largest private landowner in Manhattan.) They have the most powerful union busting law firm in the nation behind them. They have PR firms and private detectives. We have the mighty union, DU, and right on our side.

It's a tough battle but we're fighting to win. Bush's National Labor Review Board says that I'm not a worker. If I (who teach, design, and grade my own classes) am not a worker, then who will be next?

Thanks for all the DU love. I will keep you posted.

[Tsiyu]

66. early morning

kick :kick: