Joe Tirella is NYU’s senior director of executive communications.
For more than 14 months, NYU and Contract Faculty United have been negotiating a first collective bargaining agreement. NYU’s position remains consistent: A fair, competitive and sustainable agreement that recognizes the vital contributions of our contract faculty is the best outcome.
In hopes of furthering progress, the university has made multiple offers to enlist a mediator — a neutral, third-party professional who works with both sides to clarify positions, identify areas of compromise and help move negotiations toward agreement. NYU has even offered to cover the full cost. We have been both surprised and disappointed that the union continues to decline. This is a well-established and widely used step in labor negotiations and has helped many parties reach resolutions.
The union’s apparent intention to move toward a strike authorization vote — without enlisting a mediator first — begs a key question: If the CFU’s shared goal is a first contract, why bypass mediation in favor of escalation?
The university finds the union’s refusal detrimental to those we are all committed to — our students. Rejecting mediation means spurning a neutral, structured process that is designed to facilitate compromise and move parties toward agreement.
NYU respects the right of our contract faculty to organize and advocate. We voluntarily recognized the CFU and entered negotiations in good faith. At the same time, we also have a responsibility to safeguard the academic continuity of our students and to preserve the sustainability of our university.
Our compensation proposals would place NYU’s full-time contract faculty among the highest-paid unionized contract faculty in the nation, with guaranteed annual raises and provisions for increased minimum salaries by rank. We have also proposed protections for academic freedom, professional development and shared governance on academic and pedagogical matters.
Negotiations thus far have yielded some progress. We have reached 14 tentative agreements on important issues.
However, the two sides remain far apart on many issues, including key economic matters. The CFU’s demands are dramatically out-of-step with agreements reached with contract faculty bargaining units at other universities. The union’s current compensation demands would add an additional $700 million in costs to the university’s budget through 2031. For a tuition-dependent university operating in challenging financial times for higher education, those demands raise serious concerns.
NYU has successfully negotiated fair contracts with other United Auto Workers-represented employees without a job action, including, most recently, with resident assistants. There is no reason why this process with the CFU should be different.
The university hopes the CFU will join us in choosing mediation over escalation, for the benefit of our students, faculty and our future together.
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