On Friday November 4, New York University Adjuncts Union, ACT-UAW Local 7902 held a victory rally at Schwartz Plaza on NYU’s West Village campus. The rally was originally planned as a picketing event, but union members had just approved a new tentative agreement hours after the previous contract expired on November 1. The union prevailed in bargaining and won significant improvements to their pay and benefits after authorizing a strike with 95% of voting members in favor. With the raises guaranteed by their new contract, NYU adjuncts are now some of the highest paid unionized contingent instructors in the U.S., according to their press release announcing the tentative agreement.
The contract addresses issues that are unique to contingent faculty, requiring NYU to pay adjuncts if their courses are canceled before the start of the semester, and retroactively compensating their labor for moving courses online in 2020-2021. These and other improved benefits and policies represent major progress for NYU adjuncts, who first voted to unionize in 2002 and approved their first contract in 2004. Prior to unionization, NYU policy required adjuncts to hire substitutes in the event of illness. Not only was there no sick pay, sick instructors also had to bear the cost of keeping their classes running.
In recognition of the wins in the new contract, speakers at the rally talked about the victory in the context of the broader labor movement and the recent history of NYU. Kristen Gonzalez, New York State Senator-elect representing District 59 characterized this event as part of the “larger message” that the labor movement and the working class are sending to powerful institutions and corporations. Adjunct instructor Gordon Beeferman spoke about the importance of mobilizing and how a strong and motivated group of organizers was able to keep their coworkers informed throughout the contract process. This effort, along with support from other campus unions, raised awareness of NYU’s anti-worker tactics and brought out a majority of union members to vote in favor of authorizing a strike. Andrew Ross from NYU’s chapter of AAUP emphasized the power of the strike threat in winning concessions from the administration—where bargaining failed to achieve an agreement the union could approve, the possibility of a disrupted semester was more convincing. Management can avoid the trouble of a strike authorization and the appearance of refusing to bargain in good faith by recognizing that workers across the university are organized and ready to fight.
NYU successfully avoided a strike by taking the threat seriously and meeting the union’s demands. NYU YDSA leader Lauren Munoz recounted how administration had tried to position undergraduates and their instructors in opposition to each other when graduate students went on strike last year, and how students can wield power through their tuition dollars when the university pushes anti-worker policies.
Given that our universities are deliberately structured in such a way as to fragment the instructor workforce into full time and contingent faculty, post docs, and graduate students, we need our unions to fight for improvements in the circumstances of our specific roles and to act in solidarity with each other across these divisions. Administrators may think that the “adjunctification” of so many teaching lines and the increased reliance on cheap grad student labor are useful financial strategies, but until we are all fairly compensated for our labor in planning, teaching, and grading, these are nothing but austerity measures that hurt students and the entire academic community.
Less than two months after NYU adjuncts won their contract, ACT-UAW Local 7902 siblings at The New School voted to accept a new tentative agreement. Across the country, University of California graduate workers and postdoctoral researchers made history with the largest higher education strike, gaining benefits in healthcare, childcare, and unprecedented wage increases. These movements were made possible by support from campus coalitions and union workers across sectors, from undergraduate students at The New School to Teamsters and construction workers on UC campuses. We can shut these institutions down when we work together, and our actions get results. Each win in our sector is a win for all of us and raises the standards for graduate workers and adjuncts everywhere. We will continue learning from these experiences, growing in our solidarity until all academics have the means to live with dignity and comfort.
