CLAWS Keeps Growing - 2022 Recap!
CLAWS — the Coalition on Labor Action by Workers and Students — is NYU’s student-worker coalition. The coalition includes a wide range of unions, pre-union formations, and student groups from NYU’s many constituent schools, undergraduate and graduate alike. The coalition works to support existing unions in their negotiations with NYU, and to help form new unions among currently unrepresented workers.
The year started on a high note for the coalition, as NYU’s sergeants won inclusion in Local One SOU, which represents NYU’s security workers. (See below for more information!)
At the start of the Fall semester, on September 23, CLAWS held a teach-in with six NYU unions: ACT-UAW Local 7902 (representing Adjunct Faculty), CFU-UAW Local 7902 (representing Contract Faculty), GSOC-UAW Local 2110 (representing Graduate Workers), UCATS Local 3882 (representing a wide range of clerical, administrative, and technical workers), OPEIU 153 (representing clerical and technical workers at the NYU Tandon), and Local One SOU (representing security workers).
The event was hosted by two of the coalition’s constituent student organizations: YDSA (Young Democratic Socialists of America) and LSEJ (Law Students for Economic Justice). Approximately one hundred students and workers packed into an NYU classroom for the teach-in.
Following this event, students and workers alike mobilized to support NYU’s adjuncts, who won a massive contract victory in November. (See below for more information!)
The coalition continues organizing. As other unions enter contract negotiations with NYU, CLAWS will be ready to mobilize students and workers alike in support. And organizers continue their efforts to form new unions for a wide range of unrepresented workers across the university.
NYU Labor Wins
NYU Sergeants Win Union Recognition
On February 9, 2022, the NYU Sergeants voted, with 100% support from present members, to join the Local 1 Security Officers’ Union.
Sergeants are a specific classification of Security Worker at NYU. Previously, Local 1 had represented most other Security Workers at NYU, but the Sergeants had been improperly excluded from the union. The Sergeants have successfully defeated NYU’s attempt to divide Security Workers into separate bargaining units. Local One has been strengthened, and continues to be a powerful force on campus.
NYU Adjuncts Win Big
In November of 2022, NYU’s Adjunct Union - ACT-UAW Local 7902 - ratified a new contract with NYU by a membership vote of 1,533 to 20 (a 99 percent rate of approval).
The new contract encompassed significant increases in pay, compensation for work outside the classroom, health insurance subsidies, and other benefits.
The contract came only after a hard-fought battle by ACT-UAW Local 7902. The CLAWS Coalition supported ACT-UAW in two marches, as well as phone banking for strike authorization. The first march was held on April 14, 2022, and coincided with the first day of negotiations between the union and NYU; the second was held over the summer on July 20th, 2022. Both actions drew over 100 union members and supporters — including undergraduate and graduate students, NYU workers from other unions, and workers from across NYC.
Ultimately, as NYU negotiators stalled, the Adjunct union voted overwhelmingly — with 95 percent approval — to authorize a strike in October 2022. In the face of committed and militant union membership and strong support amongst NYU students and workers, NYU backed down in November, and adjuncts will enter the Spring semester with a win!
NYC Academia Sees Big Labor Wins
Columbia Graduate Student Strike
At the start of 2022, student workers at Columbia University reached an agreement with the university, ending a 10-week strike. The agreement secured by Columiba’s student workers included significant pay and benefit increases, and was ultimately ratified with a 97% vote in favor.
Barnard College Resident Assistants Launch A Union
In October of 2022, Resident Assistants at Barnard College launched a union. The union first asked the College for voluntary recognition. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the College refused to voluntarily recognize the union. Therefore, in November, the RAs held an election under the National Labor Review board, and over 95% of RAs voted in favor of the union. The victory of Barnard College’s RAs is part of a growing trend of organizing among undergraduate student workers across the country.
New School Part-Time Faculty Strike
ACT-UAW Local 7902 has had a busy year. The union represents both adjunct faculty at NYU and part-time faculty at the New School. Shortly after the union won big at NYU, the part-time workers at the New School were forced to go on strike on November 16. Part-time faculty, who make up some 87% of the New School’s teaching staff, had been living on what could only be called poverty wages.
The strike lasted over three weeks, and has been described as the “longest adjunct strike in US history.” Students occupied the New School’s University Center in support of the union in early December.
On December 10, ACT-UAW and the New School came to a tentative agreement, which includes concessions for the workers far beyond what the school’s administration had claimed were possible prior to the strike.
NYC Union Wins Outside of Academia
2022 was a big year for labor in NYC outside of academia as well. In April, Amazon workers in Staten Island won a historic victory, forming the nation’s first Amazon union. Throughout the year, Starbucks workers have won unions across the country, including in New York, and in December, workers at the Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Chelsea won concessions after a seven-week strike.
And just last week, on Monday, January 9, 2023, over 7,000 nurses went on strike at Mount Sinai Hospital and Montefiore Medical Center. After three days, the nurses won considerable concessions, and a tentative agreement has been reached.
