I Do Want To Strike, And Now I Might Have To.

NYU, thanking George W. Bush for his propitious recess appointments, moves to take advantage of the Brown decision and proposes to crush GSOC.

New York University announced on Thursday a "proposed
decision" not to negotiate a new contract with its graduate teaching assistants'
union. The announcement comes 11 months after the National Labor RelationsBoard
effectively reversed a five-year-old ruling that NYU was obligedto bargain with
its TA's.The proposal was made in a nine-page memorandum issued late
Thursdayafternoon by Jacob J. Lew, the university's executive vice president,and
David W. McLaughlin, its provost. The memorandum states that theuniversity is
under no legal obligation to negotiate a new contract whenthe current one
expires, on August 31, but puts off a final decisionuntil after a 30-day comment
period.

Michael W. Palm, chairman of the Graduate Student Organizing Committee at NYU and a Ph.D. candidate in American studies, said that the announcement was "disappointing and appalling, but it's not surprising.""We've been prepared for this," he said.