NEW YORK -- On Friday, Feb. 3, a busload delegation of 50 New York University (NYU) graduate student workers and supporters will travel to Washington to ask the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to restore their rights under federal law to have democracy in their workplace. 

The group of teaching, research and graduate assistants, members of Graduate Student Organizing Committee/UAW (GSOC/UAW) Local 2110, will leave New York early Friday arriving at the NLRB around 11:30 a.m. The workers will deliver a letter to the labor board requesting a decision be made on their nearly two-year-old petition for an election. A press conference will follow in front of the NLRB offices at 1099 14th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20570. 

"We are asking the NLRB to give back what we should have by federal law:  democracy at work," said Rana Jaleel, a doctoral candidate in the American Studies Department. "It has been a long road for us, and a decision is overdue." In May 2010, GSOC/UAW filed a petition for union representation. Several months later, the NYU graduate workers won a major victory when the NLRB ordered a new hearing on whether NYU graduate teaching and research assistants have the same rights as other workers do on their jobs - the right to vote for a union and have collective bargaining rights. 

Last June, acting NLRB Regional Director Elbert Tellem accepted the key claim presented by the teaching and research assistants that they are university employees.  However, he was constrained from ordering an election because of a 2004 NLRB Brown University ruling that graduate workers are students without the same rights as other workers. 

Now, the nearly 1,800 teaching and research assistants say justice delayed is justice denied. The workers want the NLRB to decide immediately so they can vote during the spring semester. 

"Graduate student workers are a part of a growing movement and have a long history of having union rights at public universities across the country," said UAW Region 9A Director Julie Kushner. "After almost two years, a decision should be put on the fast track so that these workers can exercise their democratic right to form their union.

"It is time to put politics aside and allow these workers to move forward quickly," Kushner added. 

"We have worked hard, been accountable to workplace procedures and rules, paid taxes on our earnings and like other workers, supported our families and our communities," said Neil Myler, a Linguistics Department teaching assistant.

The workers teach undergraduates, conduct valuable research and perform other functions for their employer, NYU. 

"I see on a daily basis the hard work performed by graduate employees on behalf of the university," said Jeff Goodwin, professor of Sociology at NYU. "The terms and conditions of their work are set by the university; where and when to show up, what to teach and who to teach. 

"The work they do is not some student exercise. It is core to the university's mission of research and teaching. They deserve the same rights as other workers who have the right to vote on whether to be in a union," Goodwin added. 

"These academic workers are willing to get on a bus and deliver their message in person. That is what democracy looks like," said UAW President Bob King. "They represent an important part of our union membership and a vital movement infused with energy and determination.They deserve to have their fundamental rights restored." 

Having established the right to have a union in a landmark NLRB decision in 2000 involving graduate employees at NYU, these same workers were stripped of their collective bargaining rights by the NLRB under theBush administration in a case deciding the union petition for a similar group of workers at Brown. 

In 2004, in a narrow, 3-2 partisan ruling, Republican appointees to the NLRB broke with established precedent and overruled the 2000 NLRB NYU case. The decision resulted in the destruction of impounded ballots that were never counted after democratic elections among Brown's teaching and research assistants and those at other private universities, including Columbia, Tufts and the University of Pennsylvania.

The NYU administration refused to recognize the previously NLRB-certified UAW graduate employee union after the Brown decision, with which it had successfully negotiated a contract, and to bargain a successor agreement to the one which expired in 2005.

The NYU workers also support graduate workers at the University of Minnesota who want to form a union. On Jan. 17, University of Minnesota graduate workers invited the school to join with a majority of its 4,500 graduate research and teaching assistants to file a petition for union recognition with the State Bureau of Mediation Services. At the same time, these graduate workers asked the bureau to schedule a union election.

The UAW, one of the nation's most diverse labor unions, represents more than 45,000 workers in higher education, including teaching assistants, research assistants, academic administrators, full-time and adjunct faculty, postdoctoral researchers, and clerical, technical and professional employees.

Here's more information on Friday's event:

Who:              Julie Kushner, UAW Region 9A director

                      Neil Myler, Linguistics Department teaching assistant

                      Rana Jaleel, American Studies Department doctoral candidate

What:             NYU worker delegation to ask NLRB to decide on right to form union. Workers take 250-mile                        road trip for the right to vote and to win a voice in the workplace.

When:            Friday, Feb. 3, 11:30 a.m. arrival at NLRB. Press conference to follow on 14th Street, outside                        of NLRB offices.

Where:           National Labor Relations Board, 1099 14th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20570

NOTE: VISUALS WILL BE PROVIDED.