Dear AAUP-NYU members,

As you’ve likely already heard, our Contract Faculty United (CFU) colleagues have announced a strike authorization vote due to stalled negotiations with the NYU administration. Should the vote pass, and if NYU continues to stall, CFU’s bargaining committee may then set a deadline for a strike. They’ve asked for your continued solidarity as their union takes this important step. 

To this end, our chapter’s Executive Committee affirms that:

• AAUP-NYU stands with CFU and fully supports their fight for a fair contract. Nearly 1000 of our colleagues are demanding better pay, improved benefits, and critical academic freedom protections. As CFU clarifies in their FAQ, over half of their bargaining unit stands to receive only a 3% pay increase in the admin’s current proposal. Against the backdrop of skyrocketing costs of living, an eviscerated social safety net, and unprecedented political attacks on higher education, CFU’s demands are urgent and necessary. Meeting them will make NYU a better school and a better workplace for us all. 
• If CFU is forced to strike, AAUP-NYU will urge tenure-track faculty and other AAUP members not to do struck work. The decision to strike is the weightiest decision a union can make. If our colleagues do vote to withhold their labor, we should respect their democratic process and will stand in solidarity with them. It is NYU’s responsibility to negotiate in good faith with our colleagues, and we should not let the consequences of the administration’s failure to do so fall upon tenure-track faculty. We note, too, that third party mediation is not a substitute for a meaningful negotiation process. If, after the university makes substantial proposals, negotiations remain at a standstill, then there may well be a need for mediators.
•  We call upon the NYU administration to stop stalling and settle a fair contract now. The recent communication from President Mills and Provost Dopico egregiously mischaracterizes as excessive our colleagues’ demands for fair pay. They point to financial uncertainty “and other headwinds affecting higher education.” However, nothing about NYU’s recent financial behavior suggests an inability to pay our colleagues a competitive wage. Despite an announced administrative hiring freeze, the NYU administration continues to swell its own ranks with highly compensated positions. The more than $150 million price tag on NYU’s new London site speaks to a willingness to find capital for some kinds of growth, but not for others. For over 20 years, NYU has chosen to grow its contract and contingent faculty at an unprecedented rate. Paying those colleagues the salaries they deserve, so that our university continues to function, should be the administration’s top priority.
• The NYU administration must recognize our contract faculty colleagues’ academic freedom demands. Though President Mills and Provost Dopico do not mention academic freedom in their recent communication, CFU’s demands for formal academic freedom protections are not an afterthought. We are living through the most intense assault on higher education since the McCarthy era, and the risks fall disproportionately on faculty without tenure protections. In order for our university to continue to function as a site of intellectual risk-taking and critical thought, academic freedom must be distributed equally across all faculty. 

We call upon the NYU administration to negotiate in good faith with CFU. By stalling for over a year, our administration has shown a reckless lack of regard, not just for our CFU colleagues, but for the whole NYU community. AAUP-NYU supports CFU as it continues to seek a fair contract. We are one faculty, and we stand together.