NYU contract faculty union threatens strike vote

Nearly two years after New York University’s full-time contract faculty overwhelmingly voted to unionize, the group is still without its first contract and is escalating negotiations.

Leaders and rank and file members of the NYU Contract Faculty United-UAW met with Ariel Ennis, the private research university’s senior advisor for presidential priorities and initiatives, on Dec. 16 at the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library in Greenwich Village to deliver a letter calling on the administration to agree to a “fair contract” with its elected bargaining committee. If the administration doesn’t and “continues to delay,” the union will ask its bargaining committee to call for a strike authorization vote.

Contract faculty leaders in every school and almost every department at the university signed the letter. The NYU chapter of the American Association of University Professors also delivered a petition that more than 250 tenured and tenure-track faculty signed in solidarity with the CFU.

Clinical associate professor of real estate Dustin Jones said contract faculty teach the majority of classes and students, but don’t enjoy the same job security as tenured faculty. 

“We’re really looking for the university to see us as equals with our tenured faculty, to give us that respect within the university,” Jones told The Chief. “One of the big things is also compensation, but more importantly, shared governance, to have a seat at the table in seeing the future of the university and protecting the future of the university.”

New York University did not respond to a request for comment from The Chief about the negotiation process.

Job security, compensation and academic freedom are key issues for the union. This process comes as The New School, a fellow Manhattan private university, faces widespread cuts that could threaten hundreds of positions. The Trump administration has also waged a pressure campaign on higher education, which many have said endangers academic freedom.

Jones said academic freedom is very sacred to the union, but contract faculty don’t have as strong protections as other faculty. 

“By organizing as a union and bargaining collectively, we secure those rights,” he said. “Academic freedom is critical to this, to be able to speak and teach.”

Paula Chakravartty, a professor at NYU and the president of the NYU chapter of the AAUP, said labor protections for the CFU would protect everyone and thinks administrations at private universities currently “feel empowered to just take an axe to not just faculty governance, but faculty themselves.”

Zachary Samalin, the vice president of the NYU chapter of the AAUP and an associate professor of English, said contract faculty, adjunct professors, graduate workers and tenure-track faculty are closely watching the cuts that The New School is facing.

“We are on alert for similar austerity attacks on our university,” Samalin said. “I think that obviously having labor protections for our contract and other contingent faculty is just extremely important in that environment.”

A strike is “the last thing” the CFU wants

The CFU is the largest union of full-time, non-tenure track faculty at any private university in the nation. It won its representation with a voluntary election agreement by an 89 percent vote in February 2024 and its bargaining committee has been negotiating with the NYU administration since Nov. 1, 2024.

Next steps in the strike process include the union’s bargaining committee calling a formal vote by union members to authorize a walkout. If two-thirds of the electorate vote yes, the bargaining committee will set a deadline for the administration to agree to a contract, or the union will strike.

Jones said he didn’t think the union thought it would take so long to negotiate its first contract with the university and that many faculty are now concerned about the university’s speed.

Matthew Rohrer, a clinical professor, said a strike is “the last thing” the union wants and ideally wouldn’t have to strike, but it’s part of the reality of the negotiation process.

“We’re here because our students, we love them. I love my creative writing students and we don’t want to cause troubles with them, in terms of their grades and graduation,” Rohrer said. “But a strike is the last case scenario, and it’s the worst one, but it is something that has to be talked about if it seems like the administration is just not going to meet us.”