Strike looms tomorrow at NY’s New School

Teaching assistants at The New School have set a March 6 strike deadline after voting 94% in favour , in a 77% turnout.

Press release:
After more than six months of bargaining their successor contract, teaching
fellows, teaching assistants, course assistants, research assistants, and tutors at The New
School, represented by United Auto Workers (UAW), will go on strike this coming
Wednesday. Having authorized their strike with 94% voting yes, and a historic 77% of
members participating, academic student workers have a powerful mandate for its work
stoppage. For over half a year the workers have bargained continuously and in good faith
with The New School. The university, meanwhile, has dragged its feet, and offered insulting
poverty wages in a time of skyrocketing inflation. The strike will proceed unless the
university comes back to the table before March 6 with an acceptable offer.
Less than one year after their professors walked off the job for 25 days, academic student
workers began negotiating the terms of their new union contract. The workers are asking for
higher wages and improved healthcare, alongside workplace and standard of living reforms
like access to a childcare fund and better support for international students. Unlike many
graduate students in the U.S., most at The New School pay tuition and do not receive
stipends. The average academic student worker makes about 11K per year and none make
more than 24K. This is a special hardship for international students who are restricted from
most forms of off-campus work. Academic student workers do not earn a New York City
living wage and none make enough to afford even a shared apartment within a 90-minute
commute from campus. To be an academic student worker at The New School is to be in a
state of near constant financial anxiety.