FAQ

Collective bargaining is a process that equalizes the power relationship between employees and their employer. With collective bargaining, we elect representatives to negotiate with NYFA’s administration to put the terms of our employment into a legally-binding agreement that we vote to ratify before it goes into effect. Without collective bargaining, NYFA’s administration retains the unilateral ability to make changes without our consent, and we have few avenues to pursue necessary improvements. 

We are the union for faculty and staff at NYFA. Our objective is to establish recognition of our union and collective bargaining with NYFA’s administration. To get more involved in our effort, contact us.

The first step is building strong support and securing recognition. A majority of NYFA faculty and staff have to sign a card to form a union, and we are continuing outreach to ensure that everyone has a chance to be heard and get involved. Strong majority support gives us more power to get our union recognized and begin the collective bargaining process. 

Under collective bargaining in the UAW, faculty and staff fill out bargaining surveys to articulate priorities for a contract. We also elect representatives, fellow faculty and staff, to a bargaining committee. Guided by the feedback in the bargaining surveys, the elected committee develops bargaining goals that we vote to approve, before sitting down with the administration and negotiating contract proposals. Once a tentative agreement is reached, faculty must vote to accept or reject the contract before it goes into effect.

Hundreds of faculty and staff at NYFA New York recently formed a union with the support of UAW. Additionally, thousands of faculty and staff at Universities such as the University of Southern California, NYU, New School (Parsons), Columbia, and Barnard have won strong union contracts and are represented by UAW.

A majority of faculty and staff at NYFA need to sign cards in support of forming a union. Then, NYFA’s administration can choose to respect our collective decision to form a union and agree to recognize ATS LA-UAW. If NYFA’s administration does not agree to recognize our union, we will file a petition seeking an election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). A majority of NYFA faculty and staff participating in the election will need to vote in favor of forming a union in order for the NLRB to certify our union. This is how faculty and staff at NYFA New York, cinema adjuncts at the University of Southern California, adjunct faculty at NYU, part-time faculty at New School (Parsons), staff at Barnard, and staff at Columbia University successfully formed their unions.

At NYFA New York, the administration met with faculty and staff and reached an agreement to hold a NLRB election. The administration also committed to remain neutral during the election process. We hope NYFA Los Angeles will follow New York’s lead and allow workers to decide for themselves if they would like to form a union.

The Association of Teachers and Staff Los Angeles – United Auto Workers (ATS LA-UAW) seeks to include all faculty and staff at NYFA’s Los Angeles Campus. International faculty and staff have the same legal right to join a union as US citizens. If you have a question about your eligibility or want to sign up, please contact us.

UAW is the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW). UAW has historically been one of the largest and most diverse unions in North America. In recent decades, 140,000 employees in higher education have joined, making UAW the single largest union of higher ed academic employees in the US. Academic employees from the University of Southern California, University of California, Harvard, New School, Barnard, Columbia, University of Washington, and many more have found that joining UAW has allowed them to democratically determine priorities as a workforce and dramatically increase power to win improved rights and benefits through collective bargaining.

We reached out to UAW to help us successfully form a union at NYFA because it has expertise in bargaining under the National Labor Relations Act (the law which makes it possible to collectively bargain at private universities) and their track record of success. Faculty and staff at NYFA New York and adjunct faculty in the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California recently, overwhelmingly voted to form a union with UAW. Additionally, adjunct faculty at NYU, part-time faculty at the New School (Parsons), support staff at Barnard, and staff at Columbia, are a part of the UAW and recently negotiated strong, precedent-setting contracts. 

We hope that by working together with our colleagues at NYFA New York, USC, NYU, the New School, Barnard, and Columbia, we can have a greater impact at institutions of higher education and in society more generally.

Membership dues are important because they provide the resources necessary for effective representation. As part of the UAW, we would not pay dues until we have gone through the bargaining process and voted democratically to approve our first contract. Dues are critical for providing us with independent resources that are not controlled by the school: we use them to ensure we have appropriate legal, bargaining, community and staff support to represent adjuncts. UAW membership dues are currently 1.44% of gross monthly income and can only be increased by membership action (the membership in a few local unions, for example, have voted to increase dues above 1.44% to have more resources).

No one can be required to become a member of the Union after we have a contract. In most contracts, since everyone in the bargaining unit must receive all of the benefits of the contract, non-members are generally required to pay a comparable “fair share” fee, so the cost of representation is shared equally. The inclusion of a similar provision at NYFA would be something we decide as part of our bargaining agenda, would be subject to negotiation with NYFA’s administration, and contingent on ratification as part of our contract.

Many private sector academic worker unions have such a provision in the contract because it means we have more power and more resources available to enforce our rights under our contract, campaign for the best possible future contracts, and help other academic workers form their own unions. Under the UAW, there is also a one-time initiation fee, which ranges from $10 to $50 and is determined democratically in local union bylaws approved by members.

The value of increased wages and benefits in the first contract typically outweighs the cost of dues, often leading to overwhelming majority approval of those agreements. For example, the highest paid Part-Time Faculty at the New School won a minimum raise of 9.85% for the 2022/2023 academic year, plus guaranteed increases in subsequent years.

Dues support a variety of resources that will give us the clout we need to effectively represent our members, including educational, legal, negotiating, and other membership services. Dues also contribute to organizing new groups of workers, the strike and defense fund, and some political action. Right now, the dues of other UAW members are funding our organizing campaign.

Striking is a powerful tool for workers to achieve our objectives. We would decide democratically whether or not to call a strike. Under the UAW constitution, a strike can only occur after a vote in which 2/3 of members voting authorize their elected representatives on the bargaining committee to call a strike.

It is against the law for NYFA to retaliate against an employee for exercising the right to organize and participate in union activity. Tens of thousands of academic workers have exercised union rights, including strikes, at campuses across the US from NYFA New York and the University of Southern California to the University of California, ArtsCenter, Columbia, Harvard, NYU, and the New School (Parsons). 

Thousands of academic workers have democratically decided to go on strike in the past few years to win their demands. In 2022, Part Time Faculty at the New School authorized and went on strike until reaching an agreement with administration that significantly increased compensation, established professional development funds, and more. After many months of bargaining, Graduate Student Workers, Postdocs, and Academic Researchers at the University of California also went on strike and won some of the best contracts in higher education. 

Further, it is not uncommon for workers to decide that it is necessary to prepare for a possible strike in order to convince a school to reach a reasonable agreement during negotiations. In 2022, NYU adjunct faculty with ACT-UAW 7902 voted to authorize a strike, bringing the NYU administration back to the table and winning contract terms that set a new standard for part-time faculty compensation nationwide.

Under US labor law, NYFA is required to bargain in good faith. This means that once our union is recognized, NYFA cannot make unilateral changes to the terms and conditions of our employment while bargaining is ongoing. Bargaining begins from the status quo, and seeks to secure the terms and conditions of our employment in a legally-binding contract. 

Collective bargaining creates more transparency around NYFA’s budget and gives us power to negotiate as equals. Through our union, we’re legally entitled to request information about the budget, and then negotiate fair terms that improve our conditions sustainably.

Currently, NYFA unilaterally determines how it allocates resources in the budget. While the administration might consider faculty and staff opinions on the matter, they do not have to listen. With a union, faculty and staff will have a voice in how the administration prioritizes their resources, including compensation, by negotiating a legally-binding contract. We will democratically decide what our wage and benefit proposals will be, and then sit down with the administration to negotiate an agreement that benefits faculty, staff, our students, and the institution.

Yes. International workers have the same legal right to join a union as American citizens. Visa requirements that international faculty members may only accept employment associated with the school sponsoring their visa in no way compromise the right to belong to a union. No faculty member who is part of the UAW has reported any complications arising from the dual status of being both an international faculty member and a unionized employee.

Participation in political activities such as picketing, rallies, leafleting, and demonstrations, is protected under the Constitution for those residing in the U.S. on international workers visas, just as it is for U.S. citizens.

Since its establishment in the mid-1930s, the UAW has been a dynamic, democratic organization representing a diverse array of workers, including tens of thousands of white-collar workers like technical writers, engineers, attorneys, administrative employees, academic workers, and others. In Los Angeles, UAW members include workers at nonprofits, legal aid organizations, and universities. Across the US, UAW represents over 140,000 workers at universities, and more are organizing on their campuses every day. We ARE the United Auto Workers.

As an increasingly significant part of the UAW, academic workers have joined in the union’s longstanding commitment to social justice to prioritize issues of importance to workers at US universities such as civil rights, immigration reform, access to affordable and quality education, federal funding of innovative basic science research, healthcare reform, the right to collective bargaining, and many other issues.