SENS-UAW, the New School’s academic student workers union, voted to pass a new labor contract with the New School administration on Monday, Dec. 3.
This contract came after more than 64 sessions of negotiation between the two groups’ bargaining committees, and will be valid until August 31, 2023.
Some highlights of the contract include: wage increases, signing bonuses, fee waivers and health insurance discounts.
This agreement comes after protests and a labor strike at the end of the Spring 2018 semester. SENS-UAW planned to strike on Nov. 26 if an agreement had not been found with the university.
“Cancellations were happening [Friday, Nov. 30] and it was happening at Columbia,” said Michael Dobson, a fifth-year Ph.D. student in Global Politics at NSSR and a member of the bargaining committee. “We had faculty on the picket line.”
SENS-UAW released a statement on their Facebook page, saying, “This is a major victory: the administration increased their total offer significantly from their previous positions.”
Members of the bargaining committee, who have been negotiating with administrators since Sept. 20, 2017, are happy with the contract.
The new contract includes protections against safety issues in workspaces.
“You can’t be put in a position where you have certain things that you have to do that are not listed in your contract. If there’s a safety concern in your job place you can actually reach out to HR and the administration will address it and you will not be forced to stay in your workstation,” said Cagla Orpen, a fifth-year Ph.D. student in Sociology at NSSR, and a member of the bargaining committee.
“Another thing we’re all really proud of is our workplace protections against discrimination and harassment. We now have a way that workers can report these sorts of incidents up to a year after they occurred which is much longer than Title IX offers,” Orpen said.
Students at the SENS-UAW’s contract information session on Thursday, Nov. 29, expressed appreciation for the fact that they will have mandated job descriptions through the new contract, as many workers weren’t provided with descriptions in previous positions.
“We actually know what our jobs are now because we will have accurate job descriptions and mandated hours that we work.” said Zoe Carey, fifth-year Ph.D. student in psychology at NSSR, and another member of the bargaining committee.
Some other victories include “wage increases starting in Spring 2019 that will bring hourly rates to $40.80 for TFs, $30.60 for TAs, $20.40 for RAs, $19.38 for tutors, and $16.32 for CAs,” according to SENS-UAW’s Facebook page.
In addition, the University Services Fees, which costs $40 per term, will be waived for academic employees working five hours a week or more.
The New School has also committed to cutting student workers’ health care costs, with health insurance rebates, which currently start at 35 percent or 50 percent depending on eligibility. The rebate will increase to 50 percent or 65 percent by the end of the contract. An additional $300 will be added to this rebate for any student who has been working this semester or worked last year under the old contract.
The university also committed to working with SENS-UAW’s labor committee to find a framework for providing childcare.
“This is an awesome contract. It’s a really good contract. It’s not settling. We’re also setting ourselves up to be very strong when we bargain the next contract in five years.” said Carey.
Voting started Thursday, Nov. 29, and continued until 5 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 3. The contract was ratified with 260 votes for yes to 33 votes for no, according to an email sent to student workers.
The SENS-UAW bargaining committee unanimously recommended this contract.
The university released a statement on Nov. 30, saying that, “We’re pleased to have reached an agreement with SENS-UAW on a strong, fair, and equitable contract for the academic student workers who play such an important role in our community.”
The SENS-UAW bargaining committee described this agreement as part of a larger labor organization trend across the country.
“This is part of a bigger movement that is happening throughout the United States in the context of neoliberal situations at higher education institutions. We will be in solidarity with other movements that take place throughout the United States,” Orpen said.
“Numbers and majority involvement was really important every step of the way. We had a majority strike that brought us this contract.” Carey said. “They put another $2.5 million on the table because they really wanted to avoid a strike because of how obstructive a strike is. That was demonstrated by the strike that we did last semester.”
Many faculty members sent joint emails to the administration advising them to meet SENS-UAW’s demands, as a strike would obstruct class time and take away from important final projects.
“The president of our local [Emily Barnett] is a part time faculty member at Parsons,” Carey said. “She was at the bargaining table with us the whole time and was also really supportive and helpful in forwarding all of our messages to the part time faculty, which are a unionized workforce, but also make up a majority of the faculty at the New School.”
“I think we concluded a powerful first contract and am very proud of what was accomplished,” said Barnett.
“It’s been a long road, but it’s been worth it,” Dobson said. “Unions work.”
Illustration by Olivia Heller
