Members of the student worker union staged a sit-in at the Human Resources office, as well as President David Van Zandt’s office Wednesday because they feel administrators are dragging their feet on proposals for their contract.
Outside Van Zandt’s office, more than 20 students worked quietly, filling the floor.
After SENS-UAW members occupied the HR waiting room for 45 minutes, Keila Tennent, associate general counsel and vice president for labor relations for the university, told the union that administrators would bring counter proposals to the bargaining committee on Thursday.
“Last bargaining session, [university representatives] refused to say they’d be giving us economic demands. But as soon as our membership turned out, they walked into the room and said ‘yes of course we’ll give economic demands,’” said Raven Hetzler, a member of the bargaining committee and economics student at NSSR.
The union presented their financial demands to the university’s representatives in December, they said, demanding protections for late pay, wage proposals, tuition remissions and benefits.
Members of the union said that while the university has not rejected their proposals, the administration has taken too long to act on them.
“It’s really clear that the administration’s strategy is to slow this down as much as possible. It is really unacceptable,” Hetzler said.
Agreements on wages, benefits, fee waivers, and other financial issues are necessary in reaching a contract, which the bargaining committee hopes to finalize by the end of the semester.
In March, union members voted to authorize a strike, giving the union the ability to set a strike date if deemed necessary.
“If the university continues to stall the economic proposals, we’ll have to start organizing the strike,” Hetzler said.
After receiving this confirmation, SENS-UAW moved their sit-in to outside of Van Zandt’s office. Union member Ibrahim Shikaki, a teaching assistant and student advisor, led a discussion section of the ULEC Introduction to Political Economy.
During this teach-in, Shikaki taught a lesson on the army of reserve labor, or the idea that a large amount of unemployment can give an employer more leverage. While the class discussed newspaper articles about workers for Amazon and Uber, he also connected it to obstacles SENS-UAW is facing in negotiation with the administration.
“Why go to look at what Amazon is doing with these workers when you have something very close to that in the school here,” Shikaki said.
“The point is, why not say that this is partly what the administration is doing? They’re not responding to our points. They’re taking advantage of a lot other students not having jobs and wanting jobs in order to push against what the bargaining committee is trying to do,” Shikaki added.
Heltzer said the sit-in was also an act of solidarity for other New School workers, including cafeteria workers who may be facing layoffs and NSSR student advisors who received an email informing them of cuts to their benefits.
“It’s really obvious that the administration’s posture is that they’re going to cut labor costs by busting unions. It’s clear from how they’ve dealt with our union and how they’ve tried to fight us at every turn and every step of the way, and it’s clear from how they’re dealing with all of the other workers in the school,” Hetzler said.
While Hetzler hopes that there will be administrative responses to their proposals on Thursday, he said the administration has gone back on prior confirmations to discuss economic proposals.
“Of course we’ll see how they behave in bargaining tomorrow, but this is a demonstration of the kind of power we have as workers,” Hetzler said on Wednesday.
During this teach-in, Shikaki taught a lesson on the army of reserve labor, or the idea that a large amount of unemployment can give an employer more leverage. While the class discussed newspaper articles about workers for Amazon and Uber he also connected it to obstacles SENS-UAW is facing in negotiation with the administration.
“Why go to look at what Amazon is doing with these workers when you have something very close to that in the school here,” Shikaki said.
“The point is, why not say that this is partly what the administration is doing? They’re not responding to our points. They’re taking advantage of a lot other students not having jobs and wanting jobs in order to push against what the bargaining committee is trying to do,” Shikaki added.
Hetzler said the sit-in was also an act of solidarity for other New School workers, including cafeteria workers who may be facing layoffs and NSSR student advisors, who received an email informing them of cuts to their benefits.
“It’s really obvious that the administration’s posture is that they’re going to cut labor costs by busting unions. It’s clear from how they’ve dealt with our union and how they’ve tried to fight us at every turn and every step of the way, and it’s clear from how they’re dealing with all of the other workers in the school,” Hetzler said.
While Hetzler hopes that there will be administrative responses to their proposals on Thursday, he said the administration has gone back on prior confirmations to discuss economic proposals.
“Of course we’ll see how they behave in bargaining tomorrow, but this is a demonstration of the kind of power we have as workers,” Hetzler said on Wednesday.
The university did not respond to request for comment.
Photo by Anna Del Savio