A Statement from the SENS-UAW Strike Committee at The New School
The New School administration has been unrelenting in its effort to push back against student and cafeteria workers' demands for fair working conditions and basic dignity.
Contributing author: Aman Bardia. See the first in a series of dispatches from the picket line at Public Seminar.
The New School administration has been unrelenting in its effort to push back against student and cafeteria workers' demands for fair working conditions and basic dignity. Our resistance has been threefold:
1. Students along with cafeteria workers have occupied the cafeteria which has been student-worker managed and run ever since — including hosting workshops, screening films, offering free food at all times and in general becoming a space to facilitate student-worker struggles across the university.
2. Academic workers are going on an indefinite strike this Tuesday morning at 10:00 AM. We have called for the university to entirely shut down. Most faculty are in support, have canceled classes in the university buildings, and have refused contingency plans called forth by the administration. The Teamsters, who represent clerical workers in the university, are supporting our strike as well.
3. Student advisors across departments are holding wildcat strikes in solidarity with the academic and cafeteria workers.
The cafeteria occupation and the academic workers are spearheading a collective university-wide effort to disrupt operations till the administration can come to the bargaining table with a fair contract, something which we expect to be unlikely anytime soon.
Picket lines run from 11:00-6:00 PM starting this Tuesday.