The New School has offered cafeteria workers their jobs back, an announcement that comes in the midst of a University Center cafeteria protest organized by the Communist Student Group, which demanded protection of those jobs.
In a university-wide email sent late Monday, school officials announced they’d “reached a joint agreement” with UNITE HERE! Local 100, which represents food service workers in New York and New Jersey.
The New School will continue its “current operating agreement with Chartwells,” with which they had intended to sever ties, offer jobs to the workers in the union, and “recognize [it] as the exclusive bargaining representative for these employees in food service at the University Center,” the email said.
The school also said it would “negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement covering represented employees working in food services at the University Center.”
May 8 coincides with the start of the student worker strike organized by SENS-UAW.
The email capped a whirlwind week for the occupation that began May 1, which recently saw a birthday party for Karl Marx, throngs of outside visitors and a piñata of President David Van Zandt.
However, occupiers were unmoved by the university’s announcement on Monday night and showed no sign of abandoning their encampment on the second floor of the University Center.
In their official response to the announcement, the group expressed skepticism towards the agreement.
“No one’s leaving this occupation while the workers are still at risk of [Van Zandt] backing out on empty promises (again),” they said. “Come over here and put it in writing.”
The cafeteria occupation will act as a “strike kitchen” during the SENS-UAW protest, occupation organizers said.
“Strikers can come in and refresh themselves, get more food,” said Robert Cremins, an NSSR student studying philosophy. Cremins is a member of SENS-UAW and has also been involved in the occupation. “We’re getting more air mattresses for strikers that have to be there early, so they don’t have to commute.”
Protesters also demanded the food workers be paid, despite being unable to work during demonstrations. University spokesperson Amy Malsin confirmed Monday evening that Chartwells employees are being paid.
In the Monday email, university officials also requested that “everyone allow the University Center cafeteria to resume all normal operations for the benefit of the workers, their families, students preparing final work for the term, and the entire New School community.”
The protesters also said they don’t trust the agreement because only two cafeteria workers were present for negotiations. The New School Free Press was unable to verify this at time of press.
The New School has had a contract with Chartwells since 2002. The food service provider operates in 270 colleges and universities in the United States. The university announced it would not renew its contract with Chartwells effective July 1, according to a March 5 email sent by vice president for Finance & Business and Treasurer Steve Stabile.
Stabile’s resignation is on the cafeteria occupiers’ list of seven demands.
The decision put approximately 45 cafeteria workers at risk of losing their jobs, as the university did not expect to rehire a “majority” of workers, according to a letter sent by Tennent-DeCoteau, given to the Free Press by UNITE HERE! Local 100.
The occupation began on May 1 when members of the Communist Student Group led more than 150 students into the cafeteria. “We are shutting down the fucking cafeteria,” Robert Griswold, an organizer for the group, shouted into a megaphone.
At the start, the only paraphernalia adorning the walls were flags and posters from the communists, but as time passed, more made their support known. The walls have since been plastered with posters, signs, and banners for communism, socialism, Marxism, Black Lives Matter, feminism, anarchism, Antifa, and LGBTQ+.
Outside groups who have voiced their support include the Democratic Socialists of America, the Workers World Party, and Cooperative Coffees. Students have been signing in members of these outside groups as guests. Some of these off-campus guests have said they are spending nights in the UC cafeteria.
84 people have donated to the occupation’s Venmo account, “solidarity-4-ever,” which received its first payment in late January of this year. Occupiers say they have received more than $2,000 via Venmo.
A group of about a dozen demonstrators escalated the occupation on Monday morning by marching to Van Zandt’s university-paid brownstone, shouting through their megaphone at his doorstep. It was unclear if Van Zandt was at home during the demonstration.
Back at the UC, a particularly eye-catching flyer display was put up in the University Center’s main staircase Sunday afternoon. A large poster urged readers to “Burn David Van Ant,” accompanied by an image of the university president’s face on the body of an ant being burned by a magnifying glass.
“Everything that’s happening, with cafeteria workers, with student advising — it’s all the result of union busting, of the university’s union busting tactics,” said Cremins. “We’re resisting in separate ways.”
Photo by Orlando Mendiola