After a 27-hour bargaining session spanning Sunday and Monday, NYU’s contract faculty union reached tentative agreements on issues including academic freedom, job security and retirement benefits — but key topics such as compensation and research funding are still up for deliberation.
Contract Faculty United’s 11-member bargaining committee joined around 200 union members and supporters at a picket outside the Paulson Center just before 4 p.m., rallying demonstrators before they dispersed for the rest of the day. Union representative Jacob Remes told the crowd that CFU proposed a full contract proposal at around 2 p.m., which NYU’s lawyers are currently reviewing, according to a source familiar with the negotiations.
“In some areas, we have won the best contract in the country,” Remes said. “In other areas, we have not.”
Remes told WSN that members of the union — which represents around 950 full-time faculty — initially thought they were close to reaching an agreement Monday morning, leading them to extend the 8 a.m. strike deadline by three hours. But after receiving the university’s proposal just before 11 a.m., the bargaining committee decided to take the day to draft a counter proposal.
Compensation — one of the union’s most contentious bargaining topics — is being debated, with CFU requesting a $94,640 base salary for assistant positions, $104,104 for associate and $114,514 for full rank. NYU initially proposed $92,700, $101,970 and $112,167 for each position, respectively. The union also requested an annual increase of 4% each year, alongside a 1% longevity increase rewarding long-term professor retention.
Administrators emphasized that NYU’s proposal offers the largest contract faculty salaries in the country, as well as average $10,000 raises and health benefits on-par with those of tenured faculty. President Linda Mills reiterated in a universitywide email that classes will continue with substitutes, and the university has launched new Brightspace modules for some courses.
“We respect our unionized contract faculty, but this strike is fundamentally unnecessary,” NYU spokesperson Wiley Norvell wrote in a statement. “We have a collective responsibility to our students, and the union owed it to them to pursue every option at the negotiating table before disrupting their education. They haven’t.”
Multiple contract faculty told WSN that the day’s biggest win was an agreement on job security. The new contract stipulates that after two reappointment cycles — which take place every three years — union members will not have to reapply for their position, unless NYU is facing serious financial hurdles or the faculty member caused serious issues at the university.
Contract faculty are still asking NYU to provide union members with housing on the same terms as tenured faculty, including rental opportunities and mortgage assistance. CFU filed an arbitration for unfair labor practices earlier this month, claiming the university illegally refused to negotiate mandatory topics — allegations NYU is challenging, maintaining that it is not required to bargain over housing.
“The CFU has threatened a strike — and disruption to students’ education — over issues that aren’t even required to be on the negotiating table,” Norvell wrote the week prior to the strike. “The union is free to make demands, but accusing the university of ‘unfair labor practices’ is just a pretext for a strike, and is both misleading and deeply unfair to our students.”
Another contested issue still on the table is intellectual property status, which allots money for faculty research. In the contract NYU proposed Monday morning, professors reportedly did not receive money to conduct research while teaching, which the union said it will continue to push for.
“Our bosses have no idea what our jobs are. No idea,” Remes said. “They don’t understand that we do research. They don’t understand that we are artists. They don’t understand what professional development is and why we need sabbaticals.”
The two parties did come to an agreement on the union’s medical, dental and tuition remission benefits, as well as retirement contracts — something the university had previously refused to negotiate on, according to Remes. NYU agreed to provide eligible contract faculty with the same retirement plan available to tenured faculty, professional research staff and administration. The policy deposits 5% of a faculty member’s annual compensation into their retirement account for non-elective contributions.
Around 20 minutes after CFU announced the strike at 11 a.m. Monday, around 300 union members and supporters formed a picket line outside the entrance to the Paulson Center, with plans to continue throughout the week if they do not reach an agreement with NYU’s lawyers. Throughout the day local politicians, student organizers and other university unions spoke to the crowd, expressing support for CFU.
The strike comes after union members spent NYU’s spring break negotiating, with sessions held last Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Union members reached tentative agreements on protections for international faculty, artificial intelligence usage and professional development funds, among other issues, but negotiations picked up significantly late Sunday night.
In a Dec. 16 letter, contract faculty initially threatened to strike if NYU did not meet their demands for compensation, job security and family support. The union advocated for increased bargaining sessions, which the university agreed to in January. A month later, two-thirds of the union voted to authorize a strike, and since then CFU held a march and led a workshop to teach students ways to support them. It also received several letters of support from the adjunct faculty union and Tenure/Tenured Track faculty senators.
“The only thing I know is that if we have not settled tonight, we will be back picketing tomorrow,” Remes said.
Contact Natalie Deoragh and Dharma Niles at [email protected].