Letter to The New School on Faculty Strike

Dear President McBride and Provost Wright:

We stand with the nearly 1,700 part-time faculty members at The New School (“TNS”) who are fighting for a fair contract that provides a meaningful wage increase, no cuts to healthcare, and third-party protection from harassment and discrimination. We are disappointed to hear that TNS has held up negotiations and is refusing to bargain fairly, according to reports we’ve received.

We are especially saddened given the sacrifices that part-time faculty made throughout the pandemic. As you well know, part-time faculty pensions were frozen and they haven’t received a raise in four years -- resulting in a drop in real earnings of 18%. It is our understanding that by claiming poverty, TNS is offering only a 3.5% raise as their final offer. It appears that TNS is shortchanging part-time faculty while maintaining a generous administrative budget, over twice as large as that at comparable schools.

Although built as a progressive institution, we believe this position goes against the century-old values TNS was founded on. The refusal to consider the union’s proposal for third party arbitration in instances of harassment and discrimination likewise demonstrates an unfortunate shift. This grievance procedure would protect the rights of women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ faculty at a time when those populations are being increasingly threatened. We believe that part-time faculty, who comprise 87% of the instructors at TNS, deserve better after faithfully serving TNS and their students in their time of greatest need.

We believe that the union’s demands are just and we stand with part-time faculty in their fight for a fair contract. We offer this statement of support in the hope that it will help bring the TNS administration back to the table. The union’s demands are reasonable and we expect TNS to consider the needs of their workers in good faith.

Please contact any of us should you have any questions about this important matter.

Sincerely yours,

Brad Hoylman, State Senator
Jessica Ramos, State Senator, Chair of the Senate Labor Committee
Liz Krueger, State Senator
Jerry Nadler, Congress Member
Mark Levine, Manhattan Borough President
Linda Rosenthal, Assembly Member
Harvey Epstein, Assembly Member
Shaun Abreu, Council Member
Erik Bottcher, Council Member
Dick Gottfried, Assembly Member
Carlina Rivera, Council Member