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labor The New School union university workers

Open Letter: Support the workers and occupation at The New School

Unite!Here Local 100 New School workers strike

Dear Trusted Faculty,

Greetings from the occupied New School cafeteria. You have likely followed the situation. We want to clarify to the wider community that the workers’ demands have not yet been met. It is imperative that negotiations continue until the administration’s joint agreement with the union becomes a contract that meets all the workers’ demands. Currently, even the joint agreement is stalled—Chartwells has (predictably) refused to accept the administration’s request to extend the workers’ healthcare benefits via a contract extension. As of right now, the workers will lose their healthcare coverage over the summer, and have no legally-binding guarantee of a job. There is no need for this to happen, but we need your support to get the administration to do the right thing.

As you know, this is only one of three ongoing labor disputes at the New School. The administration also refuses to bring a proposal to the table with SENS-UAW that would allow workers to make a living wage with healthcare benefits, and also plans to cut healthcare for student advisors.

We are asking for your support to bring the administration to the table with reasonable proposals to resolve these three disputes. Please consider signing on to the letter below in support of the workers. You can add your name to at this link. We will republish the letter signatures tomorrow afternoon.

Please let us know if you have any questions!

In Solidarity,
The Occupiers
__________________


To the New School Administration:

We the faculty are deeply disappointed in the ways the administration has conducted itself at the bargaining table with the unions representing workers at this university. These failures have resulted in direct protest: an academic student worker strike, a graduate student advisor wildcat strike, and an occupation of the cafeteria this semester.

We call on the administration to repair the harm that has been done to the New School community by committing to the following:

1. Meet the remaining demands of cafeteria workers and their allies: requests for workplace democracy and stable employment and benefits in an environment free of harassment.

2. Reverse the cuts to the student advisors’ healthcare and maintenance of status fee waivers.

3. Return to the bargaining table with SENS-UAW with an economic proposal that would allow student employees to meet their basic human needs for healthcare and livable wage.

Signed,


To sign on, visit this link.