New School Student Workers File for Representation with ACT-UAW 7902

Student workers from across The New School have officially filed as The New Student Workers Union (NewSWU) to become part of ACT-UAW Local 7902, which also represents Part-Time Faculty, Academic Student Workers (as SENS-UAW), and Student Health Center providers (as SHENS) at The New School, plus Adjunct Faculty at NYU.

Since last fall, NewSWU organizers have been talking to student workers across The New School's campus, collecting union authorization card signatures and learning deeply about the workplace issues that plague the university. They have now submitted these cards to the NLRB to begin a legal process to prove that members want a wall-to-wall student worker union.

The workers are moving forward with their representation petition despite the failure of New School administrators to agree to remain neutral during the process. True “neutrality” would mean that the university would refrain from interfering with the union effort both on campus and with the NLRB, allowing a timely and non-adversarial union election to take place this fall.

"In seeking union representation with ACT-UAW Local 7902, NewSWU is making powerful waves in the higher education labor movement," the New Student Workers Union Organizing Committee said in a statement posted here. "Student workers across the country are unionizing to fight for livable wages, health and safety benefits, housing and food security, protection from harassment and discrimination, and so much more. Our members’ needs are no different. We attend one of the most forward-thinking and expensive universities in the world, yet the jobs made available to us - and the only jobs many international students are legally permitted to work - don’t keep us off of food stamps or out of poverty conditions. By forming a wall-to-wall union, we are joining a path forged by many student workers before us and wish to help light the way for those to come." Read more here and follow the union on Facebook and Twitter.