More than 100 newly unionized university employees will begin contract negotiations with The New School in mid-February. They hope to secure better compensation and benefits, more fair hours, and the ability to negotiate when changes are made to their jobs, organizers said.
The 123 employees, who include Student Success advisors, financial aid advisors, Making Center staff and Information Technology support staff, voted to unionize on Nov. 30 and are now represented by Local 1205, a New York unit of the large labor union, International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
Henry Drobbin, a senior office assistant at The New School’s International Student and Scholars Services, is the chief shop steward for New School workers, acting as a link between staff and the union.
An “overwhelming majority” of staff eligible to vote for unionization did so, Drobbin said.
“There was a strong demand from the staff here to want representation on the job,” he said. “What mostly appealed to them was [having] a say in their workplace — to understand that they have a say in their benefits and what happens to them on the day-to-day.”
Staffers also want to improve their general working conditions, according to Nelson Nuñez, a union representative for Local 1205 who is working with the university union members.
“When [the university] made changes that affected the workers, they either had to take it or leave it,” Nuñez said, emphasizing what he characterized as the university administration’s “‘take it or leave it’ attitude.”
Changes to work schedules, caseloads, vacation policies, rollover benefits, and expensive health care options, as well as “additional responsibilities in general and not feeling compensated” have all angered staffers, Drobbin said.
Not having wage increases regularly, not being compensated for widespread forced overtime, a fear of retribution for speaking out against changes to their jobs, and the cost of living in New York were issues staff face that were highlighted by organizers. Additionally, the union is concerned for the safety of Making Center staff, as they work with equipment that is “not as safe or up to the standards that [it] should be,” Nuñez said.
Drobbin emphasized that the union members see their unionization as a positive development for the school as a whole. “Everyone who was involved with this is committed to The New School, and [having] a socially just environment here,” he said.
For their part, university officials said they are hopeful about future negotiations. “The New School looks forward to productive negotiations and an otherwise positive relationship with the newly formed unit,” said a representative of the communications office.
The decision by Student Success advisors to unionize came less than two months after administrators merged the previously separate roles of academic advisors and career advisors, controversially leading each advisor to assume both roles.
The 123 employees make up the second bargaining unit of New School staff to be represented by Local 1205. Another bargaining unit, currently with 130 New School employees, consists of library staff, office assistants, and mail and accounting clerks, and has been represented by the same union for “at least 20 years,” according to Nuñez.
In addition to these two units under Local 1205, there are five other groups of New School employees that are currently unionized with different unions, according to Drobbin. The five other units are adjunct faculty, maintenance workers, security staff, technicians, and some staff at The School of Jazz.
Drobbin has been a part of the clerical unit under Local 1205 for six years, and said he began to organize the new unit about two years ago, when non-unionized staff reached out to him with an interest in organizing.
Advisors reached out to Drobbin initially, followed by IT staff, and Drobbin said that the process took two years because they were waiting to have a “a large enough group that had enough leverage to hopefully get a strong enough contract.”
Nuñez said that once union contract negotiations with the university begin in February, the new Local 1205 unit could be merged with the previously existing clerical unit “if the parties agree,” or a separate contract for the new unit could be negotiated. “Our preference is to have one bargaining unit [of New School employees],” he said.
Photo by Julia Himmel.