N.Y.U.’s graduate student union narrowly avoided a strike and reached a tentative agreement with the university early Tuesday morning.
After about five hours of tense negotiations, mediator Martin Scheinman walked out of the negotiation room at around 1:15 a.m. and said, “Goodnight and congratulations.”
The tentative agreement marks what the Graduate Student Organizing Committee-United Auto Workers Local 2110 (GSOC-UAW) hailed as a major triumph. Gains from the agreement include wage increases, tuition remission, childcare, healthcare and family healthcare.
“This contract has big bread-and-butter wins, as well as big wins for young families, which we have always felt was crucial to support the success of women in academia,” said Ella Wind, a member of the Bargaining Committee.
GSOC represents more than 1,200 teaching, research and graduate assistants at N.Y.U. and is the only such certified union in a U.S. private university. The tentative agreement calls for a six-year contract, to last until 2020, and also affords GSOC a union infrastructure including paid union staff positions, a grievance procedure and a process for representatives to meet with the university.
University spokesperson John Beckman said, “N.Y.U. is very pleased to have reached a tentative agreement with the UAW.”
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