Our union is part of a broader movement to reclaim job security for contract faculty. This week, we write to share more information about how the union helps safeguard our jobs and ensures equitable compensation and benefits.  

Currently, we are at-will employees on contingent appointments. NYU can unilaterally change the terms and conditions of our employment without consultation or explanation.

• Contract faculty are subject to frequent, extensive reviews that leave us in perpetual insecurity. Appointments can be as short as one year, and terms can be changed radically.

With a union, we can negotiate for just-cause protections, guaranteed appointment lengths, a transparent review process, and the right to take grievances to neutral arbitration.

• After a majority of faculty vote to ratify the contract, NYU cannot change the terms agreed to in negotiation.

As we all have experienced, we must reapply to keep our jobs, and are dependent on the favor of individual deans and chairs. We have little to no say in the way we are evaluated, reappointed, and compensated. 

• When the pandemic began, NYU offered tenure-track faculty a one-year extension to “minimize impacts on our faculty members’ long-term success.” By contrast, our reviews went ahead as scheduled, despite a research which suggests that the pandemic will have a disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable and over-extended among us. 

With a union, we work together to determine our bargaining priorities, and vote to approve fair reappointment and promotion policies.

• NYU is required to share relevant employment data with the elected contract faculty bargaining committee, allowing us to remedy existing inequities and salary compression.
• We have the ability to call special impact bargaining sessions to address issues outside the scope of our current contract.

As things stand now, the administration can disregard the recommendation of a convened grievance committee. 

With a union, stewards elected from our ranks help members understand their rights, resolve issues before they become grievances, and navigate the grievance process when necessary.

• We can negotiate for a more transparent process and the right to take grievances into neutral arbitration – a right our graduate and adjunct colleagues have already won through collective bargaining.

Collective bargaining gives us security. Improved and secure conditions enhance the quality of teaching and research, making NYU a better university.Building a strong union will take all of us; to get involved, please contact us.