Over the weekend, the New School adjunct faculty workers of ACT-UAW Local 7902 reached a tentative agreement with their employer, ending a 25-day strike that put almost all classes at the New School on pause. Workers had been pushing for pay raises, more job security, and better health benefits. The strike saw escalating tactics on both sides—as New School management moved to cut off health benefits from strikers, students in solidarity with their professors stormed into University Center, occupying the building during the last days of the strike. The New School, which runs its operations almost entirely on the backs of adjunct, part-time professors, finally buckled over the weekend, agreeing to the demands of higher wages, paid family leave, compensation for prep work and grading done outside the classroom, and back pay for work done during the pandemic.
Still, a long road lies ahead for many of these unionizing groups—the New School workers had already secured a contract, and were fighting for a new, better one. But workers at places like Amazon JFK8, VITAL climbing gyms, and Starbucks, are now fighting for their first contracts, something management seems dead set on still stopping—no matter how illegal it might be. And with an understaffed and underfunded National Labor Relations Board trying to keep management from infringing on workers' rights, workers will have to keep fighting well beyond their union elections. For inspiration, they could ask the part-time faculty at the New School if it was all worth it.
BREAKING🚨: Edgardo Mejia, 39, died at the Rikers Island jail complex at about 5 pm today becoming the 19th person to die this year after being held in the city’s jails. Detainees notified officers that he was unwell. Narcan was administered. He had been at the jail for 2 months.
Would it surprise you to know that the City is not enforcing a 2020 law that requires drivers who repeatedly break traffic laws to take a safety course, nor is it taking away the cars of people who are ordered to take the course but do not?
Our austerity mayor hates libraries: "New York City's public libraries may have to cut staff, hours, branches and programming as they face potential multi-million-dollar budget cuts in Mayor Eric Adams’ plan to curtail city spending."