Seeking Better Pay and Health Benefits, Fordham University Non-Tenure Track Faculty Vote to Strike Effective January 30

As a worker organizing wave continues to sweep the country, Fordham University instructors are joining the ranks of educators and students challenging the status quo in higher education. Recently, an overwhelming majority of the school’s non-tenure track faculty voted in favor of striking (90% of those who voted), if necessary, starting January 30.

The Fordham Faculty United / SEIU Local 200United members, who teach the majority of the courses offered at the Bronx-located college, have been in negotiations with school administrators since March. They are fighting for a pay increase for all members, pay parity between departments and a health benefit for the most vulnerable adjunct faculty who are paid on a part-time basis and currently receive no benefits. Union members agreed to two contract extensions during COVID–viewing that as a down payment of goodwill for current negotiations.

The union has been shocked with the administration’s indifference to the need for wage adjustments and healthcare benefits amid rapid inflation and the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit the faculty community and NYC particularly hard.

"I support the strike because the university has not listened to us at the bargaining table,” said Fordham Faculty United Co-chair and Departments of Sociology and Anthropology Adjunct Diane George. “They do not truly understand how their practices affect our lives and they have not shown any commitment to Fordham's social justice mission. They disrespect those who most carry out that mission, adjuncts in Social Services and Religion, by paying them thousands less per course. And they refuse to provide a living wage or any form of health benefits to adjuncts, who teach the majority of students. This is not ‘cura personalis.’ If I can't afford health care, I can't take care of my students.”

Read more here, follow the union on Twitter, and click here for details about a rally planned for Thursday, January 19!