Graduate teachers at Yale University and Columbia University began a five-day strike yesterday, refusing to teach classes, grade papers or host review sessions in hopes that the universities will recognize their right to form unions.
About 500 people turned out in support of the Yale picketers Monday, according to Rachel Sulkes, organizer for the Graduate Employees and Students Organization. While Sulkes did not know how many of the 500 were actually graduate teachers, all were supporters of the students' cause.
The weeklong demonstration is the first graduate student strike since the National Labor Relations Board's ruling last year stated that graduate students are students rather than workers, and therefore cannot unionize. This decision decreed that graduate teachers can only win recognition as a union if university administrators voluntarily grant it.
The strikers at Yale are asking for healthcare for themselves and their dependents and for a concrete grievance procedure, among other requests. They are also asking the university to provide equal pay for graduate students who have been teaching for more than four years, as those students are currently paid less than some others.
Evan Cobb, a fourth year graduate student and Ph.D. candidate in German literature at Yale, said that many graduate teachers who have spouses and families are forced to rely upon Connecticut welfare because they do not receive health care.
Graduate teaching assistants at Yale and Columbia are in a similar situation to Dartmouth's graduate TAs. The rate for a Dartmouth Fellowship stipend in the graduate school of arts and sciences is currently $19,020, and is set to increase to $21,000. Students also currently receive $1,045 towards the Dartmouth student group health plan. Columbia graduate students get about $18,000 per year, while Yale pays between $17,000 and $25,000. Yale plans to raise the minimum stipend from $17,000 to $18,000 next year.
Dean of Dartmouth's graduate school of arts and sciences Charles Barlowe said that students are generally satisfied with their stipends. "We don't feel like it's an us and them type of relationship," he said.
According to Barlowe, Dartmouth tries to keep the stipends comparable both throughout Dartmouth's graduate programs and throughout the Ivy League, even though the cost of living in Hanover is less than in New Haven or New York.
Some students, though, must still pay tuition while others receive tuition waivers. All doctoral candidates at the College receive tuition waivers, Barlowe said.
Students at certain schools at Yale also receive tuition waivers, but students at the professional schools such as art, law and divinity must pay tuition, and often do not receive any money towards health care.
"I think that the point of this strike is for recognition. The fight may go on...we're out to win a recognized union here," said Cobb, who teaches a daily second year German class.
According to Cobb, the students in his class have been told to attend other sections this week. Though many undergraduates will not be able to make up the class time lost due to their busy schedules, they still support him and the graduate teachers' cause.
"The values the union is trying to defend are also things that undergraduates care about," Cobb said, adding that many of his students wished him good luck this week.
Several notable figures came out in support of the Yale strikers, including Connecticut's Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and Secretary of State Susan Byesiwicz.
"It's a very powerful thing to see that we have allies all across the state who recognize what the administration hasn't recognized," Sulkes said.
While Sulkes said that it is not the strikers' intention to form an inter-colligate union, she is glad to have the support of other members of the Ivy League.
"What this week is about is pushing on concrete issues. It's also sending out a message to the universities that this fight isn't over and it's going to continue and grow and escalate," she added.
