[The New School reached a tentative contract agreement with its
part-time faculty this weekend, ending a strike that lasted nearly a
month. ]
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NEW SCHOOL TEACHERS’ STRIKE ENDS AS NYC UNIVERSITY AGREES TO FIRST
PAY RAISES IN 4 YEARS  
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Olivia Ebertz
December 11, 2022
Gothamist
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_ The New School reached a tentative contract agreement with its
part-time faculty this weekend, ending a strike that lasted nearly a
month. _

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The New School reached a tentative contract agreement with its
part-time faculty this weekend, ending a strike that lasted nearly a
month.

A joint statement released by the faculty’s union, ACT-United Auto
Workers Local 7902, and the New School on Saturday said two highlights
of the five-year deal are pay raises and boosts to health care for the
workers.

Union leaders said they expect the agreement to be ratified by the
group’s 2,400 members later this week — and said all classes and
events would resume immediately.

“Now, together, we can return to our mission of teaching, learning,
creating and supporting our students,” the statement
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The agreement comes just in time for the final week of the
university’s fall semester.

The part-time teachers — who make up 82% of the university’s
teaching staff — had not received a raise in four years. They griped
their actual wages had shrunk by 18% over that time due to inflation.

Local 7902 President Zoe Carey did not disclose the specific terms of
the deal, but said the new pay structure gives teachers raises in
dollar amounts rather than percentages, which is aimed to help
teachers on the lowest end of the pay scale.

“What we tried to do in this contract was lift up the part-time
faculty who are currently paid the least,” she said.

Carey said the bargaining unit also won better job security, easier
access to health insurance and compensation for work done outside the
classroom.

The workers began striking nearly a month ago, on Nov. 16, when
contract negotiations stalled with the school. The action forced
students to sit out of classes for the bulk of the fall semester, and
many full-time faculty members joined the strike in solidarity.

Parents of the university’s students threatened to sue
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school for lost tuition while their kids were out of classes.

A teacher for the school, Marie-Helene Bertino, and Carey both said
the pressure worked, and that the teachers got everything they asked
for.

“It's pretty remarkable,” said Carey, adding the contract was
nearly set on Wednesday, Dec. 7, but that the union held out for a
better deal on health care.

“They finally realized that this is something we were not going to
move on. And they met our demands,” she said.

Bertino, a creative writing teacher at the New School for Public
Engagement who’s taught at universities on the East Coast for 10
years, said she didn’t expect to get any substantial pay raises
until her union went on strike last month.

“We were all so resigned to having to make due underneath this. The
system makes you feel like, Hey, this is New York City. There are
billions of writers here. We can replace you with someone who won't
mind these conditions,” said Bertino.

She said she spoke with her students, ahead of time, and told them a
strike would likely come, and they should understand it’s personal:
writers often work as adjunct faculty members to make ends meet.

“I just wanted them to know that I didn't take this lightly and that
this is what being a teaching artist in New York City looks like,”
said Bertino. “And for them to understand what it means to be a
writer in the world, especially a writer in New York City, this was as
good of an education as they would ever get as to what it actually
looks like.”

Carey said it is not yet clear if teachers will be paid for the time
they were on strike. She described the new contract as bittersweet.

“I think everyone is feeling an immense amount of joy and relief and
at the same time a little bit of frustration, because we've been very
clear in our asks for a while now and the university could have met us
sooner,” said Carey. “They could have done the right thing early
on and even prevented the strike entirely.”

_Correction: This story has been updated to correct the day the New
School faculty’s union, ACT-United Auto Workers Local 7902, and the
school released a joint statement. It was released Saturday._

* ACT-United Auto Workers Local 7902
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* New School
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