How We Are Working to Reach an Agreement with SENS-UAW Local 7902, Academic Student Workers
A Message from Sonya Williams, Vice President for Human Resources
Next Monday, February 26, our bargaining team will be back at the bargaining table to progress negotiations with SENS-UAW Local 7902 who represent our Academic Student Workers.
We wanted to take this opportunity to highlight what the university is doing to reach an agreement with the union that serves our valued Academic Student Workers and supports the unique student experience at The New School.
As you may be aware, SENS-UAW members are in the process of conducting a strike authorization vote. While a “yes” outcome does not mean an actual strike is planned or will occur, the university is committed to working hard to reach an agreement on a new contract as soon as possible.
Monday’s Session:
At Monday’s bargaining session, the university and the union have committed to discussing the entire range of economic issues, including wages and benefits. As a reminder, until our last session, both parties had agreed to attempt to resolve non-economic issues before moving to economic issues.
Request for longer and more frequent sessions:
This week ahead of next Monday’s session, we again asked the union to make its bargaining team available to meet for longer than the scheduled two hour blocks and for additional sessions as needed. This is important so both sides have the necessary time to make substantive progress on complex issues like wages and benefits. Future bargaining dates are planned for March 1 and March 8. The university has and will continue to ask to meet more frequently, and our bargaining team will make itself available for additional bargaining sessions to complete this important process.
A refreshed approach and some progress:
The university brought a refreshed approach to bargaining in the new year, including packaging proposals to find common ground and accelerate progress. We’ve since reached a tentative agreement on a package that included nine proposals.
We are committed to bargaining in good faith and to doing everything we can to avoid disruption to our community. We are listening. We are responding. We want to reach an agreement soon. You can sign up to receive updates about negotiations directly in your inbox on our Union Negotiations page. You can also follow @KnowOurNewSchool on Instagram and @KnowNewSchool on Twitter/X for the latest updates.