Latest from Labor Relations

January 29, 2024

Progress on Bargaining with SENS-UAW Local 7902, Academic Student Workers

A Message from Sonya Williams, Vice President for Human Resources

On Friday, the university bargaining team and SENS-UAW Local 7902, the union representing our Academic Student Workers, met for our second bargaining session this month in our negotiations for a successor collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

As a reminder to the community, at our first bargaining session on July 17, 2023, the university put forward an initial comprehensive package of enhancements that includes a proposed 29% pay increase over the life of the contract, as well as pay for necessary training, competitive health insurance options, sick leave, and subsidized paid family leave premiums. Over the past few months, we’ve had substantive discussions with the union to better understand what matters most to them and have modified a number of our proposals to reflect that input, including clarified and accessible information related to intellectual property, increased meeting space to facilitate the union in representing members, and increased frequency and expanded reporting related to bargaining unit information, also to facilitate the union in representing their members. 

With the new year, the university communicated a desire to refresh our approach to bargaining to accelerate progress. As part of that refreshed approach, the university came to the table Friday with three package proposals addressing 15 outstanding non-economic issues, reflecting our discussions with the union. Building on the progress made at our last meeting, we have reached tentative agreement with the union on one complete package that included nine proposals: Meeting Space, Management Rights, Academic Student Worker Rights and Responsibilities, Expense Reimbursement, Health and Safety, Space and Equipment, Labor Management, Academic Freedom, and the ‘Entire Agreement’ (carrying over from the last CBA a provision which confirms that the final CBA is the parties’ complete agreement).

The two other packages we presented Friday were discussed in depth, and we look forward to making further progress at the next bargaining session scheduled for February 9. We are eager to continue this momentum so that we can reach a new agreement that will provide our valued academic student workers a strong collective bargaining agreement with excellent benefits and pay increases.

Future bargaining dates are planned for February 9, February 26, March 1, and March 8. 

You can sign up to receive updates about negotiations directly in your inbox here. Links to observe bargaining sessions will continue to be posted on our Union Negotiations page prior to each session. You can also follow @KnowOurNewSchool on Instagram and @KnowNewSchool on Twitter/X for the latest updates.