Dozens of student workers at The New School went on strike outside the university’s Fifth Avenue buildings Wednesday afternoon, following more than six months of what they said were “insulting” bargaining efforts with the university. The union representing the students, SENS-UAW, is demanding higher wages, improved health care benefits, access to childcare funds and improved support for international students.
SENS-UAW — which is a part of the same union representing adjunct faculty at NYU and part-time faculty at The New School — currently represents over 500 academic student workers at The New School, including teaching assistants, research assistants and tutors.
The union filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board in February, accusing The New School of negotiating in “bad faith” and showing no intent to reach a new collective bargaining agreement. This was the third complaint the union filed with the NLRB since contract negotiations began in August 2023.
New School spokesperson Amy Malsin told WSN the university’s bargaining team has scheduled sessions with SENS-UAW for March 7 and 8, and said the university has offered the union “significantly enhanced wage increases for all academic student workers, enhanced health care subsidies and other proposed benefits enhancements.”
“Academic student workers aren’t getting enough wage income to live a proper life,” Yoav Landsberg-Lewis, a non-academic student worker at The New School said. “The way that the workers are treated is completely unfair.”
Dozens of students and faculty marched outside of The New School, holding signs with messages such as “pay us!” and “student workers are real workers.” The group was joined by two drummers and a tap dancer.
SENS-UAW exclusively represents academic student workers, while non-academic student workers, such as tour guides and resident advisers, have been barred from joining by The New School. Last year, hundreds of student workers demanded that The New School consider non-academic student workers as part of the union.
Other labor groups at The New School have also gone on strike in recent years. In November 2022, the university’s part-time faculty went on a three-week strike, which was considered the longest work stoppage by adjunct faculty in the United States. The strike ultimately culminated in a tentative agreement with the university, which included increases in compensation and pay for work done outside of the classroom.
“They don’t take their student workers seriously, any worker seriously,” fifth-year Ph.D. student and member of SENS-UAW’s bargaining committee Andy Carr said. “They don’t ever want to extend benefits to what they see as new categories or classes of workers because they’re worried it’s going to set a precedent.”
Contact Matt Petres and Shiphrah Moses at [email protected].
