CGEU Conference Resolutions
From CGEU
[edit] CGEU 2004
OPPOSITION TO NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD RULING IN BROWN UNIVERSITY BARRING GRADUATE EMPLOYEES FROM ORGANIZING UNDER THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS ACT
WHEREAS, 260,000 teaching and research assistants are currently identified by the US Department of Education as part of the higher education instructional workforce; and
WHEREAS, in 2000 the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) held that graduate employees at New York University (NYU) are employees entitled to organize for collective bargaining under the National Labor Relations Act (Act), prompting collective bargaining campaigns in a number of private universities; and
WHEREAS, on July 13, 2004, the NLRB by a 3-2 vote along partisan lines, overruled the NYU decision in the case of Brown University, ruling that graduate teaching and research assistants are not employees eligible to unionize under the act; and
WHEREAS, in the words of the dissenting members of the Board, this decision is "woefully out of touch with contemporary academic reality…seeing the academic world as somehow removed from the economic realm that labor law addresses -as if there was no room in the ivory tower for a sweatshop":
RESOLVED, that the CGEU pursue all possible avenues to reverse the decision and to extend the benefits of unionization to graduate employees at private institutions.
RESOLVED, that CGEU continue its efforts to organize graduate employees at public and private universities.
Passed July 25, 2004
[edit] CGEU 2006
Logo Development: CGEU encourages all allied locals to help develop the CGEU logo and use it on their printed materials and websites.
Solidarity with GSOC: CGEU encourages all locals to aid all other locals in the upcoming year with priority given to helping GSOC win at NYU. All locals are encouraged to send activists, staff, and resources to help with this important and urgent fight. All locals are encouraged to designate a liaison to GSOC.
Constitution Committee: Whereas, in the face of intransigent state governments in the Midwest, university administrators at NYU, Yale, and other schools in the East, and a recent NLRB decision that denies our very right to organize collectively, it has become necessary for multiple locals to engage in unified actions to achieve our aims,
Whereas, the success of any one local depends on the success of us all, and a threat against one constitutes a threat against all,
Whereas, each of our locals is committed to democratic decision-making in the planning and execution of collective actions,
Be it resolved that a committee be formed to draft a CGEU Constitution, which will lay out the ideals and purposes of the coalition, and describe the process by which collective decisions are to be made. The draft constitution will be reviewed, amended, and submitted to a vote at the annual meeting in 2007, and ratified in the coming months upon endorsement of two thirds of the member organizations.
The CGEU constitution shall in no way violate the individual constitutions of any local, including the process by which each local decides to engage, or not to engage, in any action.
Passed August 13, 2006
