Students Meet to Organize Action for Student-Worker Rights

Nearly 35 people packed themselves into room 517 of the 66 12 St building this past Friday to discuss the future of the New School Student Workers (NSSW). The meeting began at 6 p.m. and by 6:30 was filled with only a few scattered empty seats buried among the large group.

Complete with nearly 10 pizzas and a few cases of beer, the crowd was mostly dominated by graduate students with a long list of grievances against their university employers – the main focuses were on wages, transparency, job security, sick days, fair treatment and healthcare for all student workers.

The group also discussed possible solutions such as petitioning, unionizing, or even the possibility of organizing a strike. However, no specific action was agreed upon during the meeting.

Marianne LeNabat, a PhD candidate in philosophy and one of the NSSW members who helped mediate the discussion, countered the idea of unionizing. “We’re not secretly trying to move into a labor union,” she said, explaining that there are “legal and logistical issues” that come along with trying to unionize.

LeNabat told the crowd that the plans for NSSW’s future is in its early stages and that this meeting was an effort in that direction.

NSSW’s statement, read aloud during the meeting, calls for “steady and predicable employment, sufficient pay and benefits, fair treatment in the workplace, and the flexibility to allow us to fulfill our roles as students.”

The statement also emphasizes the importance of allying with student labor movements at other universities.

“It’s really important to solicit widespread student support and allies… with other schools that have already gotten unions – student unions,” said Cecily McMillan, a vocal graduate student known for her arrest at Zuccotti Park during the Occupy Wall Street movement.  “These other unions could really put some pressure on our school to say, ‘All the other schools in the area have student unions, we don’t and we stand in solidarity with your statements.’”

McMillan proposed a series of petitions to help spread awareness about their cause to students and schools in the city.  “We get petitions saying ‘all these things suck!’ – Then we’re building publicity and we can launch a campaign by the end of the year,” she said.

Though the student-workers did not agree on any particular issue to lobby for, attendees seemed most interested in a raise from the 9 dollars-per-hour wages and the implementation of sick days into their contracts.

“I think it is important to see how many names we have at this point and to somehow make [the administration] aware of us and then we figure out where to go,” said graduate student Brant Weathers.

NSSW plans on meeting again on April 19 at 6 p.m. to discuss future campaigning options.