Strike Deadline Looms For NYU Graduate Student Workers
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- NYU graduate student workers were preparing for a possible strike late Monday, amid complaints about their wages and benefits.
The Graduate Students Organizing Committee, which is part of the United Auto Workers Local 2110, set a Tuesday deadline for a strike. Negotiations were in progress late Monday night.
The union represents more than 1,200 graduate student workers at NYU, and complained that the university has not offered pay raises or health coverage for students who are working for as little as $10 to attend the pricey university.
But NYU has complained that the union's demands are not reasonable and would cost millions more, according to a DNAInfo report.
The school said it is offering an unprecedented deal to add benefits, expand medical coverage, and provide retroactive raises, the publication reported.
NYU spokesman John Beckman told the publication that the grad students are part-time workers and are meant only to work 20 hours a week and 28 weeks a year, but are demanding benefits beyond what full-time employees make.
But the union said the grad student workers often work more than 20 hours per week, the publication reported.
NYU Provost David McLaughlin sent an e-mail to students this past Friday afternoon, calling the possible strike "regrettable and unnecessary," according to a published report.
The union has laid out plans for a trike that include a picket during the day Tuesday in front of NYU's Bobst Library across from Washington Square Park, a teach-in, and an assortment of other pickets.
The strike is set to come in the middle of midterms at NYU, DNAInfo reported.