SENS-UAW, representing The New School’s academic student workers, announced it will strike beginning next Wednesday if it does not reach agreements with the university on contract negotiations.
The union set their official strike deadline as March 6 at a membership meeting Monday night. If new tentative agreements have not been made by that date, union members will cease all work and begin picketing The New School. UAW Local 7902 President Zoe Carey said the call for a potential strike comes as a result of a dissatisfactory bargaining session yesterday morning.
“We were expecting significant movement, we took a very strong strike authorization vote which ended last week,” Carey said. “They did not expand healthcare coverage, they did not expand to include dental or vision, they didn’t include better rebates for healthcare premiums. They completely rejected support for international students, a childcare fund that costs less than one executive salary, gender-affirming care, and mental healthcare — all things that are priorities for members.”
The New School Human Resources Vice President Sonya Williams said the university has offered the union several packages “that address all open issues” in a bargaining update Monday.
According to the update, the university’s current proposal increases worker compensation more than their offer of a 29% raise from July, as well as benefits enhancements.
“While we respect the union’s right to strike, we hope that they will instead choose to continue bargaining in good faith towards a new agreement that works for everyone,” Williams said in the update.
“They put 50 cents per hour more on the table, just an insulting economic offer,” Carey said, referencing the raises offered for Teaching and Research Assistant (TA and RA) positions.
The union’s wage proposal is looking for an across-the-board increase of 40% followed by a 13.5% increase in two years. “What they just offered us was a weighted average of an 8% bump in the first year, followed by 4% for the five subsequent years, so it’s really a tiny movement from the offer that they made in July,” bargaining committee member Aaron Berman said.
On July 15, the university proposed 6% across the board, in the first year, followed by 3.5% over the next five years. But Berman said that the raises offered by the university’s most recent proposal were still not adequate enough to accommodate the costs of living and enrollment for student workers.
He added that other issues important to the union were not considered sufficiently by the university’s team. “They’ve requested that in exchange for this wage package that they’ve offered, we withdraw our proposal,” he said regarding tuition waivers. “The same goes for the article on international student rights and on our reproductive and gender affirming care proposal.”
The March 6 strike deadline means that unless significant strides are made in Friday’s bargaining session, SENS members will begin a strike. Were SENS to strike, members would no longer attend the classes they teach, respond to emails, post on Canvas, or partake in any of the work for which they are employed.
Instead, workers will take picketing shifts with the goal of disrupting the university’s status quo. According to SENS’ social media posts, the union will communicate more details about picketing in the days to come.
The New School is lying. Sonya Williams is lying.
They advertise a 29% raise, but they are offering a pay cut.
I’m a Research Assistant. Officially, my wage is $22.08 per hour. I’m paid for 5 to 10 hours per week for 16 to 32 weeks out of the year.
Unofficially, the arrangement is very different. Sometimes I work all year, sometimes I have long breaks. There are busy times and slow times. Some weeks, I only work a few hours. Other weeks, it’s a full-time job. And, for reasons I cannot detail here, if I formally report any of these labor violations, I could lose not only my measly income, but my place as a student at the university.
I wasn’t always a student. For six years, I’ve taught in universities. One semester was even at an Ivy. I have three advanced degrees. Before academia, I had other lives, one as a construction laborer, another as a restaurant worker. In those days, I could take home $30,000 a year.
Now, I’m in my mid-thirties. I’m divorced. I’m thankful my hair is graying faster than it is falling out. This year, at The New School, I’ll earn about $3,400 — before taxes. It will be enough to cover 3 months rent for my 6’x12′ room in lower Manhattan.
Sonya Williams wants you to believe The New School’s offer is generous. Let’s be clear. The New School is offering me—instead of $22.08 per hour—a whopping $23.90 per hour. There will be no change to my hours, no change to the systematic wage theft to which many, if not all, graduate student workers are subject. Nominally, what they are offering is a 7.62% increase. In inflation-adjusted dollars, The New School is proposing a pay cut.
The New School calls itself as a “progressive” university. An indeed, if we take a close look at The New School leadership—administrators making $300,000, $400,000, even MILLION dollar salaries—there is plenty of progress to be found:
It’s in their bank accounts.
Strike.
My roommate’s professor said that all faculty are going to strike in solidarity? Is that true?