The strike began at 8 AM on March 6, 2024, after 94% of student workers agreed to a strike authorization

With the deadline of March 6, 2024, the strike is a response to The New School’s last and allegedly “insulting compensation offer,” and will go ahead until the school returns to the table. The strike vote garnered 94% in agreement and 77% member participation. 

Based in New York City, The New School comprises around 900 student workers, who fix printers, produce social media content, keep workshops open, and are the first contacts for dorm emergencies — services students claim are often underpaid, paid late, or go unpaid. 

Represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW), teaching fellows, assistants, course and research assistants, and tutors at The New School are seeking higher wages and improved healthcare, plus access to a childcare fund and better support for international students. 

This comes six months after the New Student Workers Union (NewSWU) filed a representation petition to create a worker union — on which they are still awaiting a ruling from the National Labor Relations Board — and after the school’s part-time faculty (PTF) went on strike for 25 days in 2022. 

“Bargaining on Tuesday with SENS (Student Employees at The New School)-UAW Local 7902 continued into early Wednesday morning, and the university and union have agreed to resume bargaining on Thursday, March 7th,” said Sonya Williams, the school’s Vice President for Human Resources.

“Given the recent progress and productive dialogue at the table, the university again asked the union to put off the strike and agree to bring in a neutral mediator. The union declined these requests and instead indicated they will strike beginning at 8:00am today,” Williams continued.  

“The university worked very hard to avoid this outcome, and we will continue to do everything we can to reach agreement with SENS-UAW and to minimize disruption to our community, academic mission, and operations. During sessions this week, the university and union moved closer to agreement on the full range of non-economic and economic issues. We will return to the table tomorrow to continue our discussions.”

According to the UAW, academic student workers constitute 6.5% of the total workforce at The New School; their requests for compensation and healthcare would allegedly “be worth less than 1% of the university’s operating budget.”

The UAW claims the university’s latest offer for compensation “is for less than what New School executives made in bonuses alone in 2022.”

“At a university founded on progressive values, and once a sanctuary to scholars fleeing the spread of fascism in Europe, the union believes that The New School can do better not just for its academic student workers, but for its workforce and student population as a whole,” wrote the UAW. “Academic student workers are merely picking up where their professors left off. Barring an acceptable offer from the university, the workers will strike for higher wages and for the betterment of the university community as a whole.”