CFU-UAW Initial Bargaining Goals

In February 2024, contract faculty across NYU voted overwhelmingly to form our union, Contract Faculty United – UAW, in order to protect what we like about our jobs and improve what we don’t. As full-time, continuing faculty, we are at the heart of New York University, and these demands are about making this the best university it can be. As the largest union of private-university full-time non-tenure track faculty in the country, these demands reflect our specific needs and a vision for the academy. That vision for a healthy and just university rests on academic freedom and job security, compensation and benefits that support our lives, and time for ourselves and our families. 

To build a renewed university community where the rights of all are respected, we adopt the following initial bargaining goals:

1. 1. Write a strong contract with strong contract enforcement rights. We seek a fair contract with a clear grievance and arbitration process to collectively enforce our rights and benefits, and to maximize the ability of our union to engage in effective representation.

   2. Protect academic freedom. We seek strong contractual protections for academic freedom in our teaching, our research, and as members of our community, as well as full ownership of our intellectual property.

   3. Improve job security. We seek fair, transparent policies for reappointment and promotion, longer minimum appointment lengths, clearer promotion schedules, and appointments that become presumptively renewable following a period of continuous service.

   4. Guarantee equity and accessibility. We seek to ensure workplace rights and fair treatment, including equitable compensation for women, faculty of color, faculty with disabilities or long-term illness, and other members of marginalized or underrepresented groups.

   5. Ensure salaries commensurate with the value of our work and the high cost of living. We seek better pay for all, including guaranteed increases upon promotion, guaranteed annual cost-of-living adjustments, higher salary minimums, equity increases to address race and gender pay gaps, and experience-based salary increases to address compression. To address the high cost of living, we seek subsidized faculty housing, mortgage assistance, disability insurance, legal services, and free financial planning and tax advice.

   6. Build a more family-friendly workplace. We seek improved access to and financial support for childcare on and off campus; to protect tuition remission for dependents; to expand eldercare benefits and support for all contract faculty caregivers; and to guarantee paid medical, family, and other leaves of absence to care for ourselves and our families.

   7. Improve access to professional leave. We seek to guarantee regular paid sabbaticals for research, professional, and/or pedagogical development. 

   8. Establish workload limits. We seek reasonable, equitable, and enforceable limits on teaching load, contact hours, and class size; increased transparency in administrative service job descriptions; and fair equivalencies between teaching, advising, and other work.

   9. Improve healthcare for all. We seek improvements to the quality and affordability of medical, mental health, dental, and vision coverage, including dependent coverage, as well as access to local healthcare providers.

   10. Enhance retirement benefits. We seek improved access to retirement benefits, including retaining health benefits for ourselves and our dependents when we retire. 

   11. Increase support for international faculty. We seek stronger protections and improved support for international contract faculty, including H1-B and green card sponsorship.

   12. Promote a safe and healthy working environment. We seek policies that guarantee healthy, safe, and accessible university spaces; ensure ergonomic offices and classrooms; and keep our campuses and communities safe.

   13. Protect shared governance. We seek to ensure full contract faculty participation in the C-FSC and university-wide committees, school assemblies and councils, and department- and program-level committees.

These collective priorities are not listed in order of importance. To build a fair, equitable, and strong university, we are fighting for them all.