[AA]2 AA E-Zine www.aaezine.org www.aa2sbu.org/aaezine

On Friday, December 5th, graduate student Research Assistants (RA's) at Stony Brook University (SBU) will vote on whether or not they want to establish a union. They would be joining CWA (Communication Workers of America) Local 1104, the same union which TA's and GA's belong to, though as a separate bargaining unit. This is a similar structure to what the faculty have in UUP (United University Professions) with one unit representing West Campus and the other HSC.

Unlike GA's/TA's who are funded directly by SBU, SBRA's are funded through the Research Foundation (RF). The RF, headquartered in Albany with offices on most campuses, is a non-profit organization set up to administer research grants throughout all of SUNY.

Although the SBU AA E-Zine is primarily an undergrad venture, it covers the major events of IGSA (Indian Graduate Students Association) and SBCSSA (Chinese Students and Scholars). It would have ignored this election entirely simply out of ignorance that it was even happening had the RF not sent out an email to all campus media about it. The email and RF website were so blatantly anti-union we responded and said we could not put in the info as sent. For Asian international grad students, many of whom are SBRA's, they would not understand all the differences, especially if they came from countries that did not have unions. The RF was very reasonable, said we could remove what we found objectionable, and gave us the SBRA union url so we could list both sides.

The Zine was (and still is) behind schedule since there were end of the semester non-stop events last week so we just added it to the calendar the next day. The RF url was too long and our calendar would not automatically link it. To be fair, we unlinked the SBRA Union url too and explained why - only on the calendar page. We never told anyone what we were doing but the next day an email arrived from the RF's central headquarters in Albany. It was from Cathy Kaszluga, VP for Corporate Communications, with a shortened url to replace their long one.

Wow, they were checking our calendar. They really want to get the vote out. What was going on here? It piqued our curiosity and we began comparing the opposing sides. Below is what we found and as originally written it was supposed to go to the SB Press for their next issue.

Then an email press release arrived from the SBRA organizers. A meeting organized by Life Sciences RA's to explain unionization to their peers in Life Sciences (see copy of email below) was shut down by the Vice President of Research's office. Although the students had gone through the proper channels to book the space - freedom of speech was being banned on campus. Armed University Police were told to make sure the meeting did not take place - and it didn't. It seems the RF will go to all lengths. But aren't universities supposed to be the bastions of free speech? The pillars of open intellectual discussions? Like the art show that was taken down last year, at Stony Brook it seems that freedom of expression needs President Kenny's approval first.

Fortunately grad students, faculty, and the public will still have one opportunity before the election for a discussion on December 1st when the GSO will sponsor an open forum at the Wang Center in Lecture Hall 2 from 6-8pm.

Now back to where we started. What the SBRA's who want a union are saying is more credible than the RF on most issues. The students are blunt about what they want and angry at the RF for delaying the vote and their website portrays that. But one of their webmasters, Matt Engel, an SBRA in Biomedical Engineering, said "RA's have been organizing on campus for nearly a year and are excited about the prospect of showing a united front." Their website has been getting about 1000 hits daily.

The RF website, on the other hand, is very craftily designed. Without ever really lying, it emphasizes differences that appear to make it better than it is, and leaves out pertinent information that would give more truthful answers.

If only reading the RF website, SBRA's, and especially first year SBRA's, would falsely believe the following:
--A union means paying dues with the less than subtle implication that would decrease what they currently earn.
--A union would make it harder for their PI (Principal Investigator) to fund them.
--SBRA's currently make more than GA's/TA's - again with the implication being that SBRA's might get decreased funding in the future if they are in the same union.
And the list goes on.

It was only in health care that the comparisons were difficult to determine which was really better. But even here, the RF went out of its way to falsely imply that what they offer is definitely better. They emphasized, for example, that SBRA's currently have more choice - 107 dentists within 5 miles of SB - while GA's/RA's only have 37. And that does seem vastly better. (Though why anyone doesn't use the cheapest of all SB Dental School to give our students experience is another story.) The RF even put the more dentists comparison as its only example on the "Unionization Information for Graduate Student Employees" page.

But note that RA's pay a percentage whereas GA's/TA's pay a flat co-pay. So for example, a large white filling done by SBU Dental School alumnus Dr. Riutta, whose practice on Quaker Path is within walking distance of campus, would cost an SBRA $31.50 (7% of $450) while it would it would only cost a GA/TA $10.

RA's have lots of complaints about health coverage. Rather than generalities the SBRA website would have been better to site specifics so that a more fair comparison could be made.

And the RF would have been smarter, and more honorable, to emphasize the hospital differential. This author spent 29 days in SBUH last spring due to a surgeon's error with a UUP policy that covered 100%, just as the current SBRA policy does. Under the GA/TA policy it would have personally cost thousands.

And therein lies part of the philosophical paradigm of all of this. The RF is technically not part of SUNY and keeps describing itself as private, not public. So when it describes how few Americans in the private sector are in unions, it is trying to make a case comparing apples to oranges. All the hundreds of millions of dollars it deals with was initially generated by faculty grants. ALL faculty are members of a union - UUP. Why is a union good for faculty but a union is not good for grad student employees at the same institutions? As Xiao Xu, another SBRA in Biomedical Engineering said, "PI's at Stony Brook have a union that works for them. We need a union that works for us."

More interesting is the attitude of administrators. Why knock an SBRA union when there is already a successful GA/TA one? Does it make sense to have some students satisfied while their peers are angry because they feel shafted? Lawrence Martin, Dean of the Graduate School, who as a Management / Confidential employee is supposed to remain completely neutral, told a recent GSO Senate meeting that he would do whatever the grad students wanted of him regarding the union. Yet when his speech was over, according to Engel the Dean then talked about how "unions are bad for business".

In the time since we began looking at both websites, Martin is now appearing in a video on the obviously anti-union RF site telling SBRA's to make sure they read both websites and to make sure they vote. To avoid the appearance of endorsing the anti-union RF point of view, shouldn't his presentation be on both websites?

How the RF words the issue of union dues is dishonorable as well. Of course union members would have to pay union dues ONCE a contract is signed, just as all faculty have to pay a percentage of their research grants to the RF. The infrastructures of both have to be supported. But a union is made up of its members. They must ratify any contract. Why would they ratify a contract that did not give them more than the cost of their dues? The RF's emphasis on this is obviously geared to those who do not understand unions.

And that is why the RF wants a big turnout and why it is pushing to have its website read. By unfairly stretching the truth its goal is to have students who do not understand vote no. It is how it succeeded at Albany and Buffalo. This election, however, looks to be different. SBRA union organizers saw how the RF manipulated the vote at other schools and have made sure that the majority of SBRA's know the issues. Months ago over 500 of the roughly 800 SBRA's signed a Union card asking to have an election. Since then the SBRA organizers have been talking to all RA's to help them understand everything.

Here is an example. The RF has a salary comparison showing that RA's on average make more than GA's/TA's. But again it is comparing apples to oranges. RA's are in departments where grants are plentiful. GA's/TA's in the same departments can make more when the downstate differential and fee waivers are added in. What brings the GA/TA average down are the poor students in departments that rarely get grants. Music students, for example, will suffer and tutor young children with no musical ability whose parents think they are geniuses just to pay the bills. They all have to work at something else besides what the Music Department can give them. A more honest comparison would be to compare RA's and GA's/TA's in the same department.

More importantly, however, a union could negotiate a bridge fund. When a PI loses funding, SBRA's are still full time students but now without any income. Their PI's still have their state salaries, and their GA/TA peers still have their state salaries. Only RA's are thrown out in the cold to fend for themselves. As SBRA Jaweed Sheriff said, "We need an organization that looks out for our interests, especially in these times of economic crisis."

To see what each side is advocating, readers should look at each website. SBRA's however, should consider carefully which side really does have their best interests at heart.

The SB RA Union website detailing all of their positions in favor of joining the union - a YES vote - is http://sbraunion.org/

The Research Foundation's website detailing their opposition to students joining the union - a NO vote - is http://www.rfsuny.org/vote

"Academia has created this vast academic sweatshop - a two-tiered system with grad students and adjuncts doing research and teaching the same courses for low wages while faculty get paid vastly more, with benefits, for doing the same thing." - a retired math teacher and former SBU administrator now getting his Ph.D. at CUNY where 60% of courses are taught by adjuncts and grad students.

The email announcing the meeting that was shut down by University Police at the request of the Research Foundation:

Dear Life Science RAs,

We would like to invite you to our meeting regarding the RA Union tomorrow (Tues 11/25) at 2:30pm in LSB 038. We wanted to give folks another opportunity to find out why the majority of Research Assistants have signed in support of forming a union, hear what RAs in other Life Science departments say about forming a union, and to ask questions about the pros and cons.

Lunch will be provided.

All the best,

Life Science Organizing Committee members

ALBANY — While state leaders weigh huge cuts to the budget, an arm of the State University of New York is harboring at least $100 million its leaders say is off-limits despite the hardships confronting the state's 64-campus system.

SUNY's Research Foundation, which uses its status as a private entity to withhold details of its spending, has a surplus set aside in accounts that include almost $200 million invested in securities, according to the foundation's reports and its 2007 IRS statement. Another $106.5 million is in a savings account for temporary cash investments, according to the IRS report on finances through July 1.

The foundation claims $210 million of the funds are cash advances from grant sponsors that must be used eventually for specific research.

The remaining $95.8 million is grant money that can be used at the discretion of campuses. The grant dollars are called indirect cost funds meaning they do not have to be used for costs directly associated with the purpose of the research.

Of the $784 million in grant revenues awarded to SUNY campuses last year, for example from federal and other sources, about $125 million were indirect grant costs funds, according to foundation reports.

The lion's share of the surplus funds — which could be split among SUNY schools now worried about budget cuts — is spoken for by just two university centers whose staff were awarded grants. But the university centers, Stony Brook and the University of Buffalo, have not spent all the funds they won over the years, the Research Foundation said.

"You are describing a level of detail with which I am not conversant," said Carl Hayden, chairman of the SUNY Board of Trustees.

Hayden said he doesn't think SUNY can get the money: " I do not believe that is within the parameters of our contract with the Research Foundation — but I am less than entirely confident of the accuracy of that assertion."

His comment came on the day last week the trustees were examining ways to deal with huge SUNY cuts needed because of the state budget deficits, including a call for a major spike in tuition. Hayden still did not have an answer after Gov. David Paterson proposed another round of cuts to SUNY and his own tuition increase.

The Research Foundation handles nearly $1 billion a year in revenues — mostly grants awarded to the system's colleges and universities. The funding is administered by the foundation for 3 percent of the take. The foundation serves as a separate organization created to serve SUNY, although its president is also one of the top administrators of the university system.

Much of the money is paid to the 17,408 people on its $402 million payroll.

Foundation officials refuse to release a list of people on the payroll, which would include friends and relatives of prominent politicians and several people working in foreign nations with salaries as high as $380,000 a year.

The money is also used to pay lobbyists, state officials and a host of contractors in deals that are not always secured through competitive bidding or reviewed by state officials who typically must sign off on procurements.

Research Foundation spokeswoman Cathy Kaszluga said the foundation board could consider options for the surplus if the SUNY trustees asked. Until a change was made in 1991, unspent balances in the grant accounts were handed over to SUNY to be used as the university system wished, she said. That changed so that big universities that won grants weren't subsidizing others.

Blair Horner, legislative director of the New York Public Interest Research Group, said the excess funds are news to him. "You would think (the Research Foundation) would have an institutional interest in helping SUNY in a time of need," he said. "It may be simply that no one thought of it."

According to the Research Foundation, Stony Brook on Long Island and the University at Buffalo have tens of millions of dollars in surplus indirect grant funds. The money could help the university centers get by during times of reduced state support, according to some people familiar with higher education funds.

"We prefer referring to it as 'working capital,' " said Karol Gray, a vice president at Stony Brook. "Our working capital is a little higher than other universities."

The state Division of the Budget cannot take any of the surplus, said Kaszluga, the research foundation spokeswoman. They are "campus funds to be used to support instruction, organized research and other sponsored activities, and institutional activities," she said, adding that some of Stony Brook's surpluses are royalties from patents that can only be used for research.

Kaszluga said the campuses have plans for the money, but did not provide specifics. Some of the funds are needed to pay up-front costs for research.

Lauren Sheprow of Stony Brook said "these dollar amounts are not anything that can be used to cover the operating costs during belt-tightening times."

Others disagree, saying college presidents have quite a bit of latitude. The funds are used for administrative services — building space, heating, lighting, janitorial services and libraries — and not necessarily for specific grant work. But even some University at Albany officials say the funds are quite elastic.

Jeffrey Straussman, dean of Rockefeller College at UAlbany, said the indirect funds pay for expenses that would have to be paid whether grants were won or not. Straussman oversees some of the many foreign centers operated through UAlbany in many foreign nations, including Lebanon and Afghanistan, costing millions of dollars per year. For instance, the Research Foundation pays Mahmoud Batlouni, project staff associate at UAlbany's Center for Legislative Development in Lebanon, $350,000 from a federal grant for the work. The information is in the foundation's IRS filing, which must identify the top five foundation employees.

UAlbany would not provide the salaries and names of its other top-paid officials, referring questions to the Research Foundation. The foundation denied a recent Freedom of Information Law request, saying it isn't subject to the law. Robert Freeman, executive director of the State Committee on Open Government, disputes the assertion. In a 2006 case, an Albany-based state Supreme Court justice ruled the foundation is subject to the New York's FOI law.

Statesman
http://media.www.sbstatesman.com/media/storage/paper955/news/2008/09/18/
News/Research.Assistants.Unite.And.Form.Union-3437332.shtml

Research Assistants Unite and Form Union
by April Warren
9/18/08

In a rally to announce their formation of a union, over 200 Stony Brook University research assistants joined together Monday at the Student Activities Center Auditorium to sign a mission statement in support of joining Local 1104 the local chapter of the Communications Workers of America. Research assistants aid professors in research projects throughout the campus. "Our goal is to give RA's at Stony Brook a voice," according to sbraunion.org, a Web site created for this cause. "We are interested in increasing RA benefits such as health insurance and cost-of-living allocations, as well as lowering mandatory fees and establishing a system of grievances" discuss workplace issues and employment. "We are here today to send a message to the Research Foundation and John O'Connor, its President, to remain neutral and respect our right to choose whether or not we want a union, free from coercion or intimidation," said Xiao Xu, a research assistant studying cures for leukemia. Some students pay about $500 each semester in fees that include technology and transportation, according to a Newsday article. These fees are waived partially or even entirely for graduate and teaching assistants. The research assistants are targeting the Research Foundation of the State University of New York located in Albany, who the union claims is "anti-union." According to the research foundation, the assistants already receive pay and benefits comparable or better than their unionized state counterparts without having to join a union and pay dues or agency fees. The research foundation believes forming a union will not help. "The RF believes that having a unionized workforce in a sponsored programs environment like ours would not be beneficial or appropriate for students, employees or researchers," said Cathy Kaszluga, vice president for corporate communications for the Albany research foundation. According to Kaszluga, "We are pro-employee, not anti-union." The foundation believes injecting a third party, such as a union, could create delays in hiring and could endanger assignments if sponsors decide to work with non-unionized employers at other universities. The union has been forming underground for the past six months according to one union representative. Currently, about 600 of the 800 research assistants working at Stony Brook University have already signed on with the union. The research assistants hope to join the Communications Workers for America Local 1104. This union already represents over 4,000 teaching assistants at SUNY. "It was the right to organize that gave rise to our middle class and it is no coincidence that this right is being continuous challenged at a time when our middle class is under siege, said State Senator Craig M. Johnson (D-Nassau). "I strongly support CWA 1104's efforts to empower these Research Assistants and strongly urge the SUNY Research Foundation to do so as well."

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Stony Brook University research assistants are giving their employers exactly what they asked for by petitioning with the National Labor Relations Board their right to unionize.

What the petition does is put the matter on the NLRB agenda to review cases from both the employee and employer’s side regarding whether or not the employee’s cases are strong enough to cast a secret ballot election in which each worker decides whether or not they want to be represented by a union.

After all ballots are cast, the more popular vote would determine as a whole whether or not RAs at Stony Brook would be represented as a union or individually.

University RAs are saying their employer, the SUNY Research Foundation (SRF), is a well known union buster and notoriously known for trying to intimidate RAs not to join unions.

The foundation is a private, nonprofit educational corporation that works with SUNY to acquire, administer and manage external funds to advance research and education, and transfer technology from the campus to the marketplace.

Sep. 15 roughly 200 RAs—doctoral students—rallied at the university’s student activities center to publicize their desire to unionize and join Local 1104 of the Communications Workers of America. Slightly more than 500 of the approximate 800 Stony Brook research assistants signed an organizing mission statement saying they want to become part of the Local that already represents more than 4,000 teaching and graduate students throughout the SUNY system.

In response Paul Kelly, assistant vice president of the SRF, said his organization is not anti-union and what it would like the RAs to do is follow the process of petitioning with the NLRB and see if board members will grant a secret ballet election.

There is distrust from the RAs regarding the SRF’s tactics in trying to convince employees not to unionize. In a press release issued by Stony Brook University’s RAs it says: “In the past several weeks, the Research Foundation has set up an anti-union website, and has begun communicating with employees to convince them to reject the union. So far, the SUNY controlled Research Foundation has warned RAs that a union would hamper hiring decisions, would interfere in the functioning of the Foundation’s work, and be a “third party” only interested in collecting dues.”

In response, Mr. Kelly said not everything the RAs are saying about his foundation is true. He also said it is true the foundation is reaching out to students on campus to provide factual information and ensure RAs understand all the facts and aspects before making a decision.

Mr. Kelly also said the foundation believes working with each student on an individual basis is a better way to operate, rather than working through a third party.

However, many RAs are still skeptical of the foundation.

“We call upon the SUNY Research Foundation to agree to a quick election, and not use scarce publicity-funded research funds on lawyers to delay our votes,” said Matthew Engel, an RA from the biomedical engineering department within a press release issued by the RA.

Currently, a hearing is taking place this week with the NLRB and it will continue into next week, Mr. Kelly said. After the hearing ends, the SRF and RAs will have their chance to submit briefs to the NLRB board expressing each side’s point of view.

The process will most likely take the decision to a secret ballot, Mr. Kelly continued. However, he said “it is possible” because this matter is dealing specifically with graduate students the board could say they are not eligible to unionize.

“In our case we believe they are students first and provide a stipend to them to benefit their education,” Mr. Kelly said regarding the foundation’s stand point.

Tim Dubnau, an organizing coordinator for CWA, said going to a Labor Board decision is only delaying what everyone knows RAs already want.

“The only think keeping us from a secret ballet election is bringing this to the Labor Board and hoping they will win an appeal because otherwise we will win,” Mr. Dubnau said. “The Labor Board does not want this and the foundation just wants to delay. The RAs know what they want and they want to be unionized.”

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SB Grad Magazine, News & Leisure
http://www.sbgradmag.org/content/news/campus/2008/9/research-assistants-go-public

Research Assistants Go Public
9/18/2008
by Frank Petrignani

Their message was delivered loud and clear: “United we bargain, divided we beg.”

This is what it said on the back of approximately 200 t-shirts worn by Stony Brook University research assistants (RAs) in the SAC Auditorium Monday, as a rally was held to publicize their desire to unionize. The RAs, who assist professors on research projects, want to form a union so they will have united representation in negotiations regarding wages, benefits and working conditions.

State and local officials came to the rally to support the RAs cause.

“They can’t negotiate their wages and are at the mercy of who their bosses are,” Legislator Kate Browning (WF-Shirely) said. “It’s hard to put bread and butter on the table when you’re not getting paid enough.”

Slightly more than 500 of the approximate 800 Stony Brook research assistants—doctoral students—signed an organizing mission statement saying they support joining Local 1104 of the Communications Workers of America. The Local already represents more than 4,000 teaching and graduate assistants enrolled throught the SUNY system.

The RA’s are employed by the SUNY Research Foundation (RF). The foundation is a private, nonprofit educational corporation that works with SUNY to acquire, administer and manage external funds to advance research and education, and transfer technology from the campus to the marketplace.

“We are not anti-union and we certainly respect their right to organize and unionize,” said Paul Kelly, assistant vice president for human resources for the SUNY Research Foundation. What the foundation would like the RAs to do is follow the National Labor Relations Act, he continued.

Otherwise known as the Wagner Act—signed into law July 5, 1935—this policy established a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), with the authority to investigate and decide on charges of unfair labor practices and to conduct elections in which workers would have the opportunity to decide whether or not they want to be represented by a union.

Mr. Kelly said the vote is the same as voting for a member of congress or the president, where there is a secret ballot, a curtain is drawn and people can vote in privacy.

Tim Dubnau, who represents the Local 1104, predicted representatives from the RF would say they wanted a secret ballot. “The problem is with the process to go to the secret ballet election because then the RF can stall and try to intimidate the RAs. The union would have a secret ballet election if we could do it seven to 10 days from today.”

In order to go through the process of a secret ballot with the NLB, the RAs need to submit a petition, and they have not done that yet, Mr. Kelly said. The RF could not give a timeline of how long it would take for the process to come to a vote because the RAs have not filed a petition to form a union and go with a secret ballot, he continued.
As the matter of RAs forming a union becomes more pressing for students who are in need of higher wages, it was made clear at the rally students would not be intimidated by their employer.

“We are here today to send a message to the Research Foundation and John O’Connor, its President, to remain neutral and respect our right to choose whether or not we want to form a union, free from coercion or intimidation,” said Xiao Xu, a research assistant studying cures for leukemia.

Although Mr. Kelly said the foundation is not anti-union, on the foundation’s website, rfsuny.org, it says: “The RF believes that having a unionized workforce in a sponsored programs environment like ours would not be beneficial or appropriate for employees or researchers for several reasons.”

On the RF website it also says when working in a unionized environment direct dealing between employees and management is prohibited by law. RF believes placing a "third party" between management and staff would have a negative impact on job satisfaction for all involved. The website also states: “A union could create delays in hiring and jeopardize projects because sponsors may decide to work with non-unionized employers at other universities where such delays may not be encountered.”

Others disagree.

“You are the backbone to the university,” said State Senator Craig Johnson (D-Nassau). “It’s only fair for you to unionize.”

Editors note: SBGradMag will continue following this story throughout the semester as breaking news develops.

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SB Independent
http://www.sbindependent.org/node/2361

Research Assistants' Union Rally Gets Tangled in Red Tape
09/18/2008
by Michael Kelly

Research assistants were embroiled in a dispute with Stony Brook University administration last weekend when a rally permit they submitted was held in limbo. The university's research assistants allege that the school tried to impede their attempts to unionize.

The Research Assistants of Stony Brook University held a rally Monday in the Student Activity Center auditorium to drum up support as they try to join the Communication Workers of America union. The research assistants were only able to proceed after an entanglement with university red tape that caused their organizing permit to be issued, revoked, then issued again over the course of 72 hours.

They said the runaround was the result of union busting tactics by the university. But the university says they revoked the permit due to confusion over what organization was actually using the auditorium—the research assistants or the CWA. There is also a state law that calls for SUNY to remain neutral in union activities, according to SBU Director of Media Relations Lauren Sheprow.

According to the research assistant organization's mission statement, "Our goal is to give RA’s at Stony Brook a voice. We are interested in increasing RA benefits such as health insurance and cost-of-living allocations, as well as lowering mandatory fees and establishing a system of grievances."

Research assistants work under a “project investigator,” which is a faculty member conducting research on topics like curing cancer or technological innovations. Research assistants are paid between $15,145 and $27,500, according to Jim McAsey, organizing director of the research assistants.

On the Friday before the rally, McAsey received a permit to use the SAC Auditorium on Monday from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The permit was made out to the Graduate Students Employees Union, issued around 11:15 a.m.

Shortly after the GSEU received the permit, Sharon Chambliss-Alvarez, SBU’s director of employee and labor relations, called Victor Rosado, a graduate student and Stony Brook's business agent for the GSEU, to tell him that SBU would be revoking the permit. Rosado said he was told that a union-support rally could not be held on campus due to a SUNY policy that dictates schools remain neutral in all union activities, and that allowing such a rally on school property would infringe on this neutrality.

Research assistants felt otherwise.

“Any excuse of trying to remain neutral…is a bunch of baloney,” Rosado said. “We felt [this] was a violation of our free speech, guaranteed to us in the United States constitution.”

Sheprow said that as a state university SBU was required by law to be a neutral party in any union organizing. Reiterating that the permit was revoked because there was confusion over who was actually hosting the rally Monday, Sheprow said the school questioned who was hosting the event because it saw advertisements for the rally put out by the Communications Workers of America, the union the research assistants are looking to join.

“I think it was a matter of who was actually holding the event,” Sheprow said. “One organization secured a permit, and another one was advertising that they were using the room.”

She said she thought it was mostly a paperwork issue, and that the university had not been engaging in union busting tactics.

Rosado said there were “heated discussions” between the university and the GSEU on Friday over the permit, but that nothing was resolved. It wasn’t until Monday, shortly before the rally was set to take place, that the GSEU and the university ironed out an agreement that allowed the rally to take place.

The agreement allowed the union-support rally to occur, but forbade third party participants in the rally from distributing union organizing materials.

“There are stipulations for reserving space [on campus],” Sheprow said.

While Rosado admitted that the GSEU had been “vague” in the reason they were requesting a permit, Sheprow said the space request was for a “broad-based educational discussion of work-life conditions." Rosado thought the university knew of the event’s intention weeks prior to Monday.

Rosado believed the university knew since early September because of communication with the university by politicians who were set to speak at the event or who were supporting the research assistants’ attempt to unionize. Rosado claimed that Congressman Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) had personally called President Shirley Strum Kenny about the event, though this could not be confirmed with Bishop’s office.

A letter from Congressman Bishop was sent to President Shirley Strum Kenny on Sept. 1, voicing his support for the research assistants’ intention to join the CWA. The letter made no mention of the rally held Monday, though, and he did not personally attend.

Sheprow said she was unsure about communication between elected officials and President Kenny. She said the university only took special notice of the event when it saw the CWA’s flier the Friday before it was to occur.

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SB Press
http://thestonybrookpress.com/2008/09/22/stony-brook-research-assistants-launch-campaign-to-unionize/

Stony Brook Research Assistants Launch Campaign To Unionize
22 September 2008
by Jake Conarck

On the afternoon of September 15, about 150 research assistants, students, elected officials and union members gathered in the SAC auditorium to rally for research assistants’ right to unionize. RAs work for the SUNY Research Foundation and assist professors in conducting research but many feel they deserve better working conditions, including higher wages and health benefits.

Teaching assistants and graduate assistants employed by the university are already members of the Graduate Student Employees Union, a member of the Communication Workers of America Local 1104. However, research assistants do not enjoy the same benefits as TAs and GAs and have been organizing to join the GSEU for several years.

Out of the approximately 800 RAs who work at Stony Brook, about 500 have expressed their support for joining the union by signing onto the RA unionization mission statement.

Several RAs as well as union officials and elected officials chastised the university for what they believed to be union-busting and intimidation tactics carried out by the administration.

Although the GSEU had a written permit allowing them access to use the SAC auditorium for the rally, the administration had revoked that permit the Friday before the event. Any efforts to organize a union are prohibited on university property according to state and SUNY policy.

Despite the revocation of the permit for the rally, the GSEU and RAs decided to go ahead with the rally in the auditorium as planned.

“If we don’t have a place to hold our rally, we no longer have our freedom of speech,” said Xiao Xu, a research assistant studying cures for leukemia.

The administration eventually decided to allow the GSEU to hold the rally in the SAC auditorium after arriving at a compromise with union officials. “Our friends who are elected officials and legislatures helped us and put pressure on the university to allow us to hold our rally,” said Xu.

Several local officials were present at the rally including State Senator Craig Johnson, State Assemblymen Marc Alessi and Pat Eddington and representatives for Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy and Congressman Tim Bishop.

Many of the officials expressed dismay at what they perceived to be the university’s intimidation tactics in preventing the RAs from unionizing.

“The Research Foundation is acting like a schoolyard bully. When you dealt with a schoolyard bully you got your big brother or sister and you went back and kicked the bully’s ass,” said Chris Shelton, a representative for the CWA, to wild applause. “Well we’re coming back to kick some ass.”

Administration officials were unavailable for comment at press time, despite several calls and emails.

Although SUNY is bound by state law to ensure that its workers and not subjected to union-busting pressure tactics, the SUNY Research Foundation is a private corporation and claims to be a separate entity.

“SUNY respects the right to organize. So should every SUNY entity, including the Research Foundation,” said George Bloom, president of the CWA Local 1104. “The past lies and intimidation by the SUNY RF, which is a research institution supposedly interested in public service and the pursuit of truth, were outrageous.”