NEWS BRIEFS: Yale fires leaders of TA strike

According to a statement from the Graduate Employees and Students Organization, Yale's English Department permanently fired Robin Brown, one of the leaders of GESO. Yale teaching assistants withheld grades from the university for five weeks during an organized grade strike. "This kind of move is clearly illegal," said GESO spokesperson Ann Wierda. "These tactics will only serve to enforce the charges we have filed with a federal agency against the University for locking out and blackballing workers for union activity." GESO filed a federal complaint with the National Labor Relations Board last Thursday. Brown, along with two other graduate students, had disciplinary action taken against them. Their hearings were scheduled for this week. GESO also said the administration has eliminated the TAs' jobs by combining classes. "My class was dissolved and all my students packed into other teachers' classes," said Chris Cobb, one of the TAs who participated in the strike. "I know that some TAs have as many as 40 students in their class this term." – Andrea Ahles

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