Mondays Are for Workers Getting the Goods
A strike ends, capping a momentous year of labor action in NYC, and other links to start your day.
9:35 AM EST on December 12, 2022
The picket line at the New School last week. (Hell Gate)
Over the weekend, the New School adjunct faculty workers of ACT-UAW Local 7902 reached a tentative agreement with their employer, ending a 25-day strike that put almost all classes at the New School on pause. Workers had been pushing for pay raises, more job security, and better health benefits. The strike saw escalating tactics on both sides—as New School management moved to cut off health benefits from strikers, students in solidarity with their professors stormed into University Center, occupying the building during the last days of the strike. The New School, which runs its operations almost entirely on the backs of adjunct, part-time professors, finally buckled over the weekend, agreeing to the demands of higher wages, paid family leave, compensation for prep work and grading done outside the classroom, and back pay for work done during the pandemic.
Despite quoting academics who would almost certainly be against every action they took during the strike, New School management found themselves increasingly isolated—as parents, students, and their own full-time faculty rose up against them—and facing the prospect of an unfinished semester. The victory by the strikers follows on similar gains by adjunct professors at New York University (who authorized a strike, but eventually reached an agreement).
The actions at the New School capped a year of fervent labor activity in New York, focused primarily in non-industrial sectors. From dozens of Starbucks, to the shocking Amazon warehouse victory on Staten Island, to the New York Times, and even climbing gyms and safe injection sites, workers in New York are leading the way in union activity, joining unions at ten times the rate of the national average.
Still, a long road lies ahead for many of these unionizing groups—the New School workers had already secured a contract, and were fighting for a new, better one. But workers at places like Amazon JFK8, VITAL climbing gyms, and Starbucks, are now fighting for their first contracts, something management seems dead set on still stopping—no matter how illegal it might be. And with an understaffed and underfunded National Labor Relations Board trying to keep management from infringing on workers' rights, workers will have to keep fighting well beyond their union elections. For inspiration, they could ask the part-time faculty at the New School if it was all worth it.
Some winning links for your morning:
On Saturday, the New York Young Republicans Club held its annual gala and it was a who's who of the far-right.
And it seems Queens Councilmember Vickie Paladino had a good time.
Is that Vickie Paladino embracing Steve Bannon I'm seeing? https://t.co/qPtivg7lK5 pic.twitter.com/PVik91o1IS
— Chris Sommerfeldt (@C_Sommerfeldt) December 11, 2022
In somewhat related news, as COVID cases (and the flu, and RSV!) once again are surging, the City's health officials are now "strongly urging" New Yorkers to mask up when indoors as well as in crowded outdoor settings. Good luck with that, truly.
Rikers Island has claimed another victim:
BREAKING🚨: Edgardo Mejia, 39, died at the Rikers Island jail complex at about 5 pm today becoming the 19th person to die this year after being held in the city's jails. Detainees notified officers that he was unwell. Narcan was administered. He had been at the jail for 2 months.
— Jan Ransom (@Jan_Ransom) December 12, 2022
Would it surprise you to know that the City is not enforcing a 2020 law that requires drivers who repeatedly break traffic laws to take a safety course, nor is it taking away the cars of people who are ordered to take the course but do not?
Our austerity mayor hates libraries: "New York City's public libraries may have to cut staff, hours, branches and programming as they face potential multi-million-dollar budget cuts in Mayor Eric Adams' plan to curtail city spending."
In legal weed news, everyone is confused, maybe because the state's Office of Cannabis Management keeps on changing its rules.
Upper East Side residents are not happy that their neighborhood is getting a bunch of Link5G towers.
Elon's trying to make sure this doesn't keep popping up on Twitter.
The plan to redevelop Governors Island clears a legal hurdle.
And finally, BIG TREE ALERT.