Call it a lesson in labor: The faculty at NYU is moving closer to a possible strike after its union said on Monday it would soon open a strike authorization vote after contract talks with school leadership stalled.
Contract Faculty United-UAW (CFU-UAW) said it would open the strike voting on Feb. 9, with balloting continuing through Feb. 20. The union represents close to 950 full-time non-tenure track professors and librarians across 12 New York University (NYU) schools, accounting for roughly half of the higher-education facility’s full-time faculty.
The union’s demands focus on compensation, job security, academic freedom, AI and workload.
The announcement to authorize a vote came just days after the union’s 23rd bargaining session with the school’s administration on Jan. 30.
Benedetta Piantella, an industry associate professor in the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, is a member of the union’s bargaining committee. She said school leadership has been “claiming recently that it is eager” to come to an agreement with the union.
“Going into Friday’s session, we were hopeful that the administration would make real progress on compensation and retirement, agree to protect and defend our non-citizen colleagues, and guarantee that faculty will retain a shared role in academic decision making at the university, especially in appointment, reappointment, and promotion decisions,” Piantella said. “Unfortunately, we were wrong.”
This is the first contract the professors would have since they unionized in Feb. 2024. CFU-UAW and management have held 23 bargaining sessions so far.
Bargaining committee members have said that the union’s wages lag far behind those of its tenured colleagues. They are asking for a fairer compensation structure that addresses salary compression and corrects inequities to match the city’s cost of living.
Professors in universities across the nation have described higher education as being under attack in terms of academic freedom, having the liberty to express ideas without interference.
“With higher education under attack, we have repeatedly offered the administration opportunities to show they understand the stakes of this moment and that they stand on the side of academic freedom and free speech,” Elisabeth Fay, a clinical associate professor in the Faculty of Arts and Science said.
The union does not want the school administration to significantly curtail the faculty’s participation in academic decision-making.
“Our students need to know that their education is in the hands of faculty experts, not over-reaching administrators, donors, or politicians,” Fay said.
Meanwhile, NYU leadership said the university wants the union to meet with a third party to work out a deal for its contract.
“For over 3 months, NYU has been urging CFU to agree to an impartial mediator to help us reach a fair contract,” Joseph Tirella, an NYU spokesperson said. “At a time of real financial uncertainty across higher education, NYU has made generous proposals that would place NYU’s unionized contract faculty at or near the top of what unionized contract faculty are paid at other institutions. Both sides owe it to NYU’s students, and to the faculty themselves, to try mediation now and work toward a fair agreement without unnecessary disruption.”
Meanwhile, the UAW (United Auto Workers) constitution requires that strike authorization votes be passed by a two-thirds majority. If the measure passes, the bargaining committee will be authorized to set a strike deadline and, if necessary, call a strike, committee members explained to amNewYork.
The union said it would set up a strike deadline after a vote, aimed at giving the administration time to respond.
