On April 20, after months of occasionally heated negotiations, The New School’s Part-Time Faculty ratified a union contract with The New School administration.
According to Emily Barnett, the president of ACT-UAW, the part-timers union, faculty members adopted a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA)—a cooperative document outlining agreed-upon points of the contract. Barnett pointed to the specific union gains in the new contract which are: job security, health benefits, and real wages.
“We pushed back against an administration that wanted to skyrocket our health premiums and eliminate caps on increases to those premiums, said Barnett. “We gained real wage increases instead of the lump sums that the school proposed, which would not have added to our base salaries, and would have been insignificant. We rejected the school’s proposal to hire some faculty who would teach part-time but not be in the union.”
The members at the meetings included an elected negotiation committee ACT-UAW union members, as well as administrators from New School human resources including Carol Cantrell, the head of that department, and New School eans and legal staff.
Barnett credited the PT union and ACT-UAW members for what she called an “an immense push back” against the school’s administration, who had been “subverting” the value of the New School’s Part Time Faculty, she said.
“We pushed back against an administration that was determined to undermine our job security, reduce our wages, and eviscerate health benefits,” said Barnett.
The new contract recaps many of the same points as the past collective bargaining contract, but includes a few adjustments, the big one being job security.
After months of strategizing and perseverance, the gains for PT faculty have been immense, from “strengthening the job security provisions of our contract, [for] what’s the good of benefits if we don’t have jobs,” said Barnett, “[to] increasing access to health benefits.” This means that PT faculty are now signing contracts that secure their positions, making it harder for them to be relieved of their duties unexpectedly.
According to Barnett, this contract differs from the past contract by giving Mannes prep (pre-professional training before college) teachers the ability to apply for paid leave, as well as giving faculty, who teach only one semester, the eligibility for health benefits, whereas previously, one had to teach in both the Fall and Spring semesters in order to obtain such benefits.
The PT faculty felt that their jobs were less valued due to their lack of stability and security in their positions.
“By far, the most important aspect was job security,” said Barnett. “The rest of the contract means little to someone who doesn’t have a job. The Part-Time faculty had felt increasingly insecure and undervalued under the Van Zandt administration.”
“There are always compromises in negotiations,” added Barnett. “For instance, we wanted added compensation for teaching online since it takes more time to convert classes as well as taking more time to teach. While we did get some additional compensation, it wasn’t as much as we initially wanted.”
Though the contract’s main purpose was to benefit part-time faculty, Barnett stated that the contract also benefits the student population by providing students with better learning conditions from a secure and valued faculty.
“Teachers’ working conditions are students’ learning conditions’,” said Barnett.” When you have a faculty that feels secure and valued, that is reflected in the atmosphere throughout the school.”
The school administration declined to comment on the Part-Time faculty contract, but did post a short item on their ‘negotiation updates’ website stating their appreciation for the hard work put into gaining a “fair and responsible new agreement,” and for the part-time faculty themselves.