NYU Contact Faculty Strike Ends is Less Than 48 Hrs. with Tentative Deal
“We won in the last four days more than what the administration had agreed to in the previous 17 months.” —CFU-UAW Photos/Steve Wishnia
By Steve Wishnia
Less than 48 hours into their strike, New York University contract faculty reached a tentative deal for their first union contract.
The proposed five-year agreement, reached about 2 a.m. on March 25, will raise salaries for the about 950 professors and others who work on contracts at NYU by at least $14,000 by September, with $6,000 of that coming this academic year, the Contract Faculty Union-UAW said in its announcement. It also includes what the union called “a meaningful salary decompression adjustment,” one-time raises for longtime faculty who are paid less than more recent hires.
“We won in the last four days more than what the administration had agreed to in the previous 17 months,” the CFU-UAW said. “We did that because contract faculty across the university signed up for picket shifts, got themselves ready, and then joined an enormous, joyous picket line for two days.”
The contract faculty, who teach more than half of undergraduate classes at NYU, walked out at 11 a.m. March 23 and returned to work after the tentative agreement was announced. The union is recommending that members ratify it.
“I don’t think they [the administration] understood how many of our members were committed to striking, how organized we were. When we showed them, they moved.”
“The University has worked in good faith to recognize the important contributions these faculty members make to our community, and to ensure a sustainable and fair agreement. This deal provides meaningful raises and comprehensive benefits that will improve the lives of every member,” NYU chief communications officer Wiley Norvell said in a statement. “We are grateful to both bargaining teams for their significant efforts to reach an agreement. We also appreciate the constructive role played by the Mayor’s Office with both parties during negotiations.”
The deal will set minimum salaries at $91,000 for assistant professors and $110,100 for full professors, the highest minimums for full-time unionized contract faculty at any university on the country. They will receive 3.5% annual raises beginning in 2027.
It includes a key job-security clause: If faculty members have already had their contracts renewed twice, their future renewals will be “presumptive,” meaning they must be renewed unless there is “just cause” not to, such as unsatisfactory performance, misconduct, or dire financial situations. For someone who worked on three-year contracts, that would apply after nine years on the job.
CFU-UAW members say they were forced to go on strike by an administration that wasn’t negotiating in good faith.
Applications for renewals and promotion will be reviewed by an advisory committee elected by contract faculty in the department, which will then make recommendations to the dean. The administration had proposed limiting the faculty’s role to individual members sending letters of recommendation.
The tentative agreement also sets maximum workloads, generally limiting teaching to six courses per year. It does not include an allowance for housing, something the union had sought.
“It’s a very strong first contract. I’m so proud of our bargaining committee,” said Sarah Ema Friedland, one of a few dozen CFU-UAW members clustered in the crowd at the annual Triangle Fire memorial at 11:30 a.m. The fire’s site, at Washington Place and Greene Street, is on the university’s Washington Square campus.
Friedland, who has taught documentary filmmaking for the last four semesters, said one reason she took the job at NYU was that she knew her colleagues had organized a union.
“I don’t think they [the administration] understood how many of our members were committed to striking, how organized we were,” she told Work-Bites. “When we showed them, they moved.”
Dance professor Jeremy Nelson agrees “absolutely” that going on strike forced management to take the union’s demands seriously. “We were forced to go on strike by an administration that wasn’t negotiating in good faith.”
Though “we didn’t get everything we wanted,” Nelson, who’s been teaching at NYU for 11 years, called the results “awesome” and “fantastic.”
After experiencing the support from students and the “feeling of solidarity and community” on the picket line, he says, “I felt very hopeful about the world, when there’s very little to feel hopeful about.”
The union has not yet scheduled a vote on ratification, but hopes to hold it next week, a spokesperson told Work-Bites.