More than 1,000 faculty members are at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in Manhattan Officially united From Thursday 22 May, after a two -thirds majority voice in favor. Organizing under United Auto Workers (UAW), the SVA Faculty Union gives priority to planned wage increases in accordance with inflation, compensation for labor outside the classroom and protecting and expanding benefits.
“Ik zou graag willen benadrukken dat dit een inspanning van 100% grassroots was-faculteit die onszelf organiseerde om collectieve onderhandelingen te winnen, met een focus op het verbeteren van de school en het handhaven van democratische principes,” vertoonde belangrijke organisator Justin Elm, een adjunct-professor in de kunstgeschiedenis en visuele en kritieke studies die ooit een full-time rol hadden bij SVA, verteld Hyperallergic In an e -mail.
“We really believe that the working conditions of teachers are the learning conditions of students,” Elm continued. “The more security, stability and voice we have together, the more we can help improve SVA and to guarantee its strength in the future.”
Almost all faculty members at the school are planned additional employees, many of whom experience limited job security, lack of established benefits and upward mobility, lower compensation and poor administrative support. Elm explained that many of them teach at several different schools to make ends meet.
“At the most basic level we are looking for a contract that is comparable to what other deputies have fought in New York City,” said Elm, the emphasis on the need for planned salary increases that correspond to inflation.
He also noted that the faculty is not compensated for work outside the classroom, with a list of preparations for the class, preparing online course shells, assessment, mentorship and departmental meetings such as examples of unpaid work, “although it is essential for running a class.” The lessons are sometimes canceled at the last minute, he said, and there is little story to come up with the loss of income.
In response to HyperallergicThe request for comments, an SVA spokesperson said that the school “encouraged all eligible faculty to participate in the recent elections.”
“We are dedicated to the preservation and strengthening of our academic community for the coming years and look forward to negotiating in good faith with the representatives of the Facultytes Association,” said the spokesperson.
When asked how the school’s administration initially responded to the switch from the faculty to Unionize, Elm said Hyperallergic That “SVA’s public and official attitude during our organization and during the elections was an emphatic ‘no’.
Edwin Riveraarias, another important organizer and deputy professor in the Humanities and Sciences department of SVA, said Hyperallergic That the school was ‘very aggressive’ in their anti-vocational union campaign, which was ‘surprising and disappointing’ for faculty members while the school embraces liberal and progressive ideals.
On the website of the school, a Page entitled “SVA encourages all faculties to vote” Outlines various observed disadvantages of organizing. The page provides an overview of trade union rights and the possible consequences of striking and reminds the faculty that unionization does not guarantee any changes. The school also says that art institutions have suffered financially or are even completely closed after the faculty members have made trade unions. In a statement at the bottom of the site, SVA President David Rhodes eventually insisted on voting faculty members to “see that voting no is the right decision.”
Elm and Riveraarias said that the school placed the information from the webpage on different flyers and in various e-mails, which were assessed by Hyperallergic. Elm, however, noted that Rhodes recognized the profit of the Union and said that the government will honor its duty to negotiate in good faith.
