Where we are now:
We gave a full package of proposals to the NYU administration around 2pm on Monday, telling them that agreement would end our strike. Despite our significant movement and willingness to work towards agreement, we are still waiting for the response they’ve told us to expect. We are dismayed that the administration prefers the disruption of a strike to settling a fair contract.
We are currently on an unfair labor practice strike to force the administration to bargain in good faith and to win fair salaries that reflect our contributions to NYU and our length of our service, for family care benefits that will allow us to afford to raise a family in the city where we teach, and for policies that would permit us to continue to do the research we’ve been hired to do. An NYU education is only dignified if those who provide the education are themselves treated with dignity.
A recap of the weekend:
When we arrived at Wagner at 9:00 am on Sunday it was mild spring day. When we emerged from Wagner at 3:30 pm on Monday, we learned that the temperature had dropped significantly. Nonetheless, we were feeling the warmth of solidarity — from the hundreds of colleagues who had stayed up all night on Zoom, and from the hundreds more who were picketing Paulson yesterday. Even as we continue hold out for what we deserve, we have been celebrating our victories.
In the 48 hours or so before we went on strike, there was a flurry of activity, often in the middle of the night. Here’s a rundown of some recent wins, and some of the things we’re still fighting for:
JOB SECURITY AND ACADEMIC FREEDOM
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If you’ve gone up for review at least twice, congratulations! Starting next year, you will never again need to prepare a lengthy dossier just to keep your job. All NYU contract faculty will have presumption of renewal following their second reappointment.
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If you’re up for promotion, or still on your first or second appointment (and not yet presumptively renewable), the review process will be familiar: we’ve preserved peer review committees and reached agreement with the administration on a system for integrating the school-, program-, and department-level reappointment and promotion criteria developed through shared governance into our collective bargaining agreement. We’ve also secured neutral arbitration for non-reappointment and non-promotion grievances, and protections against “operational” reasons for non-reappointment like layoffs.
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We’ve won the right to grieve to an arbitrator if our academic freedom is violated, and a contractual commitment that the administration will not censor library materials, and the right to follow our professional judgement — not the demands of administrators or the whims of donors — in our teaching, our choice of instructional materials, and in our university service.
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We are still working to come to final agreement on protecting our participation in Shared Governance, but we have beaten back the administration’s most egregious attacks on it.
TIME WITH OUR FAMILIES
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We’ve won a host of expanded benefits that will allow us to spend more time with the people we love. New parents both employed by NYU can now both take full parental leave, and starting next year, all contract faculty will have 16 days of paid leave to care for relatives.
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For the first time ever, we also have retirement options that will allow us to retire with dignity. Starting next September, contract faculty who are at least 65 and have worked at NYU for ten or more years will be able to elect phased retirement, and teach half their regular courseload for full pay in their final year at NYU. In January 2027, contract faculty at retirement age will also have the option of electing to receive a one-time buyout, with 3 weeks of full pay for each year of service. The administration also agreed to protect the other retiree benefits we currently have, including medical benefits.
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Our overworked colleagues on 12-month contracts in Steinhardt and Nursing, who currently work year round, have some vacation to look forward to: four guaranteed weeks next year, and five every year thereafter, with a guarantee of at least two weeks of consecutive time off.
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We continue to demand a family care fund that would help the hundreds of contract faculty parents with children between the ages of 3 and 13 who are currently ineligible for the existing childcare benefit.
SUPPORT FOR OUR CAREERS
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For the first time, every contract faculty member will have access to their own guaranteed individual development account (sometimes called a professional development account or a research budget) of at least $2,500 annually.
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We also won a handful of sabbaticals (called “paid professional development leaves”), to be distributed on the basis of seniority to people who do not currently have sabbaticals. Existing sabbaticals in Tisch, Gallatin, and by-application professional development and research leaves elsewhere are now contractually protected.
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We won some protection against misuse of AI through an agreement that “a Contract Faculty Member shall continue to be able to exercise professional judgment in the execution of job duties irrespective of the use of artificial intelligence (AI).”
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We are still fighting for the right to be lead Principal Investigator on grants and projects with research staff — something the administration wants to take away despite our grants’ contributions to NYU’s reputation and budget.
The NYU administration has told us to expect a response on these crucial issues. While we’re waiting to resume negotiations, members of the BC are planning to join you on the picket lines today. Sign up for a shift, if you haven’t already. (But to be clear, everyone is always welcome on the picket line, even if they aren’t contract faculty and even if it isn’t your shift.) SIgn in to your shift using this link once you arrive.
In Solidarity,
CFU-UAW BARGAINING COMMITTEE
Richard Dorritie (Rory Meyers College of Nursing)
Elisabeth Fay (Expository Writing Program, Arts & Science)
Robin Harvey (Teaching and Learning, Steinhardt)
Thomas Hill (Center for Global Affairs, SPS)
Peter Li (General Engineering, Tandon)
Benedetta Piantella (Technology, Culture, and Society, Tandon)
Jacob Remes (Gallatin School of Individualized Study)
Chris Chan Roberson (Undergraduate Film & TV, Tisch)
Jamie Root (French Literature, Thought and Culture, Arts & Science)
Fanny Shum (Mathematics, Courant Institute)
Heidi White (Liberal Studies)