UUP Press Releases

CONTACT: Denyce Duncan Lacy or Don Feldstein at (518) 640-6600
Lacy’s cell number is (518) 265-3114

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
August 31 , 2005

Statement by William E. Scheuerman, President of United University Professions, AFT Vice President, and Chairman of the AFT Higher Education Program and Policy Council regarding today’s rally at New York University

“We stand in solidarity with the 1,100 graduate employees at NYU represented by UAW local 2110 and call on NYU to do the right thing by sitting down at the bargaining table with the graduate employees’ elected representatives. We are outraged by NYU’s refusal to recognize the graduate employees’ union after they had a contract for four years.

“Thousands of graduate employees at many public higher education institutions are able to unionize. What makes NYU, Penn and Columbia different? The National Labor Relations Board and President Bush, who seem to be hell-bent on taking away workers’ rights and the protections that unions have fought so hard to establish.

“Just because they are private institutions doesn’t give them the right to treat their graduate employees as second-class citizens. Graduate employees at private institutions deserve the same rights as their counterparts at public institutions, including the right to organize.”

AFT represents 1.3 million members, including the 23,000 graduate employees in AFT locals around the country.  

UUP represents more then 34,000 academic and professional faculty on 29 New York State-operated campuses, and is an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO and New York State United Teachers (NYSUT).    

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