The article leaves out the fact that PA law doesn't allow paying or otherwise providing any compensation to striking public employees which these grad students are.
Temple Student Strike Turns Ugly as School Ends Some Tuition Aid
51–60 of 265 posts
Re: Temple Student Strike Turns Ugly as School Ends Some Tuition Aid
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
People are not complaining that they are not paid for the period they are working. They are complaining that participating in the strike has revoked their tuition remission for the entire semester. Idiot leader. This will play out incredibly poorly. Grad students put up with more than they ought to already.
Would you still get equity grants and bonuses if you went on strike while working at a normal company?
I feel like yes, you would get options in your contract. But it doesn’t matter. The legality of this isn’t why it’s stupid. It’s the immense bad will from a class of poor students that are already doing a ton of work for very little. They would effectively now be asking students to pay to work.
Organized labor is coming for grad students.
Re: Temple Student Strike Turns Ugly as School Ends Some Tuition Aid
#53As various lawyers have commented on Twitter, this seems like an insanely blatant violation of labor laws. Just a straight up written confession of illegal retaliation. Unless they have some obscure exemption that nobody else knows about, I cannot imagine how the university's legal counsel signed off on this.
Can you point to some of those Twitter comments? I'm honestly curious of which labor laws they are violating. For example, I just did a search regarding healthcare for striking workers, and there is no federal law that prevents cancelling healthcare, to the point that some congresspeople have introduced bills in the last year to specifically outlaw that (but, to emphasize, those are just bills, they haven't been pass…
The NLRA governs what actions companies can and cannot take in response to protected labor bargaining actions such as a strike. It's currently unclear whether TU, as a "state-related" semi-public school is covered under the NLRA like any private school or business would be. If it's not, it would be subject to regulation under Pennsylvania Labor Relations Act, which covers public employees in Pennsylvania and seems to follow the national law closely.
In this case, withholding tuition remission for the entire semester simply for participating in a strike action for a small part of that semester would almost certainly count as unfair retaliation, since it goes well above and beyond withholding payroll for work missed during the strike.
Re: Temple Student Strike Turns Ugly as School Ends Some Tuition Aid
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
People are not complaining that they are not paid for the period they are working. They are complaining that participating in the strike has revoked their tuition remission for the entire semester. Idiot leader. This will play out incredibly poorly. Grad students put up with more than they ought to already.
Would you still get equity grants and bonuses if you went on strike while working at a normal company?
If you had been issued options to buy shares that had already vested it'd be pretty insane for a company to try and claw those back. Pausing the vesting schedule might be a bit more understandable but is honestly pretty damn petty for what you're getting unless the strike lasted a good chunk of the year.
Re: Temple Student Strike Turns Ugly as School Ends Some Tuition Aid
#55As various lawyers have commented on Twitter, this seems like an insanely blatant violation of labor laws. Just a straight up written confession of illegal retaliation. Unless they have some obscure exemption that nobody else knows about, I cannot imagine how the university's legal counsel signed off on this.
There are reports from strikers trying to refill medication that the medical benefit suspension has already unilaterally gone into effect. The university has gone ahead with their threats in that regard (which is especially shitty since it's pretty standard in the US to give employees a health insurance grace period on termination). I am really confused about what the university thinks they're going to get out of the…
I'm confused by that. When my health care ends by termination (of any flavor), I can continue to use that policy number and card for some time. I can then sign up for COBRA and continue my coverage using the same cards. Perhaps there's something else at play, but very strange to suddenly not be able to fill prescriptions.
Re: Temple Student Strike Turns Ugly as School Ends Some Tuition Aid
#56“If they choose to strike, i.e., stop working, they would lose any benefits that are connected to their jobs, including pay, free health care and tuition remission. Over 80 percent of the TUGSA-covered students have chosen not to strike, and are still working and still enjoying the benefits to which they are entitled, including tuition remission.” Pretty Simple.
Honestly it is - when an employer starts pulling crap like this it's a pretty clear sign that the labor action is necessary.
Re: Temple Student Strike Turns Ugly as School Ends Some Tuition Aid
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, they're separate from wages that graduate students earn. Roughly—graduate students attend college for free, but for financial aid / regulatory / internal budgeting reasons the college can't say they attend for free, so they instead set extremely high tuition numbers and then "pay" that tuition for the students, from one hand of the college to the other hand. But also AIUI Temple took away the whole of the tuitio…
But it's not pay. Their stipend would be pay. The tuition would be a benefit, just as tuition assistance programs at companies are benefits. It's perfectly legal to suspend benefits and pay during a strike, but they must be reinstated when the strike is over. Right or wrong, it seems primia facie legal. Edit: why disagree? What have I said that's factually incorrect? Please, educate us all and add to the discussion i…
Right but they’re not suspending the benefit they’re cancelling it. If they pro-rated a portion of the tuition assistance as owed that would be defensible. But this is a rug-pull.
Re: Temple Student Strike Turns Ugly as School Ends Some Tuition Aid
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are companies not allowed to stop paying wages to striking employees? Or is it that tuition remission is viewed as distinct from wages legally?
Yes, they're separate from wages that graduate students earn. Roughly—graduate students attend college for free, but for financial aid / regulatory / internal budgeting reasons the college can't say they attend for free, so they instead set extremely high tuition numbers and then "pay" that tuition for the students, from one hand of the college to the other hand. But also AIUI Temple took away the whole of the tuitio…
> financial aid / regulatory / internal budgeting reasons the college can't say they attend for free, so they instead set extremely high tuition numbers and then "pay" that tuition for the students, from one hand of the college to the other hand.
It's not just internal budgeting, it also allows them to accurately charge faculty grants for that tuition. Faculty are given grants by various organizations, but they don't get that money up front, they have to identify a cost relevant to the grant that was paid, then the grantor reimburses. In the case of tuition, the grantors generally require some documentation that the charges are reasonable and allocable, so they are charged whatever tuition would be charged to a student with no TAship or Research Assistant position.
> taking away tens of thousands of dollars for the entire semester simply for participating in a strike action during a tiny piece of it is absolutely beyond the pale.
Temple is also pushing this way down the calendar. The tuition demanded does not have to be paid until March, and even if not paid then, it only blocks registration for the next semester (presumably Fall). They seem to be minimizing the impact to the degree possible. Hopefully the strike will be over long before then, and this will all be moot.
Re: Temple Student Strike Turns Ugly as School Ends Some Tuition Aid
#59As various lawyers have commented on Twitter, this seems like an insanely blatant violation of labor laws. Just a straight up written confession of illegal retaliation. Unless they have some obscure exemption that nobody else knows about, I cannot imagine how the university's legal counsel signed off on this.
Can you point to some of those Twitter comments? I'm honestly curious of which labor laws they are violating. For example, I just did a search regarding healthcare for striking workers, and there is no federal law that prevents cancelling healthcare, to the point that some congresspeople have introduced bills in the last year to specifically outlaw that (but, to emphasize, those are just bills, they haven't been pass…
This (see below) seems to be the problem - students are being forced to pay for something that was originally gratis (punished) because they are protesting about something.
That is not normally how a liberal democracy works. We don't punish requests for comments, we engage ...
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Dear Temple Student:
As a result of your participation in the TUGSA strike, your tuition remission has been removed for the Spring semester. You now owe the full balance listed in TUpay, which is due by Thursday, March 9.
If your balance is not paid in full by the due date, you will be assessed a $100 late payment fee and a financial hold will be placed on your student account. This hold will prevent future registration.
Re: Temple Student Strike Turns Ugly as School Ends Some Tuition Aid
#60This is really interesting because I couldn't reach the NLRB website: If you query cloudflare's dns server 1.1.1.1#53 for nlrb.gov it returns ABANDONED. This prevented me from finding relevant regulations until I diagnosed the issue and disabled Cloudflare DNS. If you're currently unable to reach nlrb.gov, that might be why.