The New School’s Student Workers Forge A New Union

The inception of New SWU marks a pivotal moment in The New School’s history, advocating for fair wages and safety.

By Aarya Kini, Emily Li, Eva Porter, and Cooper Sperling, Z Network

Following the whirlwind of the 2022 ACT-UAW 7902 Part-Time Faculty strike at The New School, Aarya Kini and Emily Li have had their hands full with a burgeoning new union: New Student Workers Union (New SWU). Li and Kini were the co-founders of Student Faculty Solidarity (SFS) group that organized from January to December 2022 on behalf of the Part-time faculty, educating students around the faculty’s struggle against the university and all various union-busting tactics used against them.

“New SWU is a group of student workers from across The New School working collectively to form a wall-to-wall student worker union. We seek to represent all student workers, regardless of where they work on campus (Federal Work Study, On-Campus Student Employment, and other positions).” At the end of the day, The New School runs as it does because of all the people, staff and students, who work tirelessly to provide for the community. Some of the demands made by New SWU include: livable wage set against the backdrop of New York City’s increasing rent prices, workplace health & safety protections, fair treatment such as “just cause” protection, benefits, and much more.

Cooper Sperling speaks with Li and Kini about their international experiences with labor organizing , tales and tips from SFS, the latest with New SWU and its motivations, and the importance of cross-issue solidarity moving into the future of the labor movement.

Edited by Eva Porter

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COOPER SPERLING:

Can you both briefly share your journey to becoming involved in labor organizing at The New School?

AARYA KINI:

Work is so deeply connected to the quality of your life and the working conditions of those at our university greatly impacts other people. Eventually, you realize how many other factors in your life can be improved or completely destroyed by the kind of work environment you have to deal with. It would be a disservice to not take advantage of the rights we have in this country to make our workspaces better for ourselves and our peers.

EMILY LI:

I would say the start for me was doing a lot of organizing in Hong Kong. That was kind of when my political consciousness awakened. I think just knowing what revolutionary action can look like, especially seeing that in practice at a young age and being a part of that is incredibly important. It started so many things for me, in terms of feeling activated, feeling like I wanted to do something or fight for something or someone. And, frankly speaking, union work, labor organizing, the kinds of stuff that we were advocating for for the part-time faculty (LINK) and what we’re advocating for now as the New Student Workers Union still holds true throughout. One of the most actionable things we can do for ourselves in the society we live in is to form a union.

COOPER SPERLING:

As international students, how do you perceive the unique challenges faced by student workers from abroad?

AARYA KINI:

There’s so many layers to that, but the most obvious one is the fact that on-campus jobs are the most accessible forms of employment for student workers. We are not allowed to work off-campus until we’ve spent at least a year in the US. Because of that, it’s easier for us to be employed at universities, and have a stable form of employment for international students. It also doesn’t eat into the time you have on your visa for post-grad job searches. So, they are clearly a lot more valuable to international students or FAFSA students than they are to other Americans who do not have obligations to the institution or the government. That being said, it is one interest group we focus on, given the challenges are more unique compared with most of the other student population.

EMILY LI:

Adding to that, understanding what you look like in the context of the labor system today has never been more clear to me. When I have a passport or a visa, or when I am not a permanent resident, the state is effectively taking a chance on you to work or get out. Starting to learn about the United States and how they treat labor is important for my own engagement in local politics.

COOPER SPERLING:

You both were very dynamic and kick-ass in the part-time faculty strike with the lovely SFS. How did that experience of forming student faculty solidarity and working with ACT-UAW influence your involvement with the strike? How did it prepare you to undertake what you are doing here at the New School?

AARYA KINI:

First of all, there are a lot of practical skills you gain, right? Understanding how to communicate with large groups of people, how to canvas effectively, what the structure of our institution looks like, how to conduct research within a university. Those are all very tangible practices that I think you need when trying to form a union, especially in its early stages. It was definitely an advantage for us to have been involved with SFS before coming into working in the New School. Apart from that, it teaches. I mean that it immediately teaches you the value of community and the importance of reaching out to different groups of people. For myself, one of the things we could have done better as SFS was reaching out to a more diverse group of people to get their input on how we could effectively collaborate. And you know, you make mistakes when you’re learning new things. I don’t think we shou;d be mad at ourselves about that, but it was definitely a huge thing that we wanted to focus on from the beginning with the New School. Like I said, there are a lot of people who cannot be involved in this kind of activity for a whole host of reasons, but that doesn’t mean that their input isn’t valid or important in building the foundation for how we want to move forward as a union. Knowing where we could have done better in terms of campus organizing and applying those ideals we have as a union was a valuable experience for me.

EMILY LI:

Fuck yeah. I think that’s a really good way to put it, and student faculty solidarity was a gateway for me into understanding the ecosystem of the campus. Getting a grasp of the lay of the land. Those were incredible skills and obviously politically active in some ways. I remember, and I’ll tell people this all the time, I did not know what a union was until the part time faculty strike really started becoming a thing. So that I think already shows this idea that you know throughout that we’re building this knowledge or understanding of how this works for our unionized adjunct faculty, and we’re saying; how do we apply this? What can we learn, what can we glean from like our mistakes or successes? Obviously that there’s a need for that on this campus. There’s a need for that all over.

COOPER SPERLING:

You guys are obviously no strangers to university resistance. What do you think has been the most significant challenge in organizing New SWU, as of late?

AARYA KINI:

That’s a tough question. I think I would say in my experience, or in the way that I’ve perceived all of the work that New SWU has done so far, and in the way we talked to so many other unions in the beginning about other student worker unions, how their unionizing process was, what challenges they face– I think we knew from the beginning that the university was going to be resistant. You know, that’s just the job of an institution in the world that we live in, to fight the kind of solidarity we’re trying to have. I just don’t think we pay attention to that resistance too much, I think the value of focusing on building community is a lot higher. Responding to the kind of resistance that the university is going to give you is more effective  if you have enough support from within. It is your community of interest, I think, that far outweighs whatever kind of powerful thing you could say in response to the university. There’s obviously been practical hurdles you know, we tried to shoot for new trial neutrality in the beginning, and that didn’t really work out. But I don’t think we spent a lot of time worrying about it, and even in that process we are clear from the beginning that if we’re not getting the kind of agreement that we need out of this, we’re just going to move on because it’s it’s not worth our energy to be fixated on the university not giving us what we want when there’s like clear channels to achieve what we want otherwise. I just have never felt like we’re that hung up on the university like not being on our side all the time.

EMILY LI:

Yeah, I think maybe. I was inspired by the question of union organizing and what that looks like. Specifically the student worker union in the landscape that we have right now, we’re in for the long haul. I think everyone can acknowledge that this is a long haul. I mean, this is still a relatively unprecedented event that we’re trying to pull off, so holding onto that hope while recognizing the timeline of it all is something that I have started thinking about more broadly, especially as we continue to get older. It chugs through our two degrees, the both of us. There’s a sense of time patience. Consistency keeping it up. Just kind of acknowledging that you both are getting closer to graduating.

COOPER SPERLING:

I’m curious about when building a union from the ground up. Have you guys had any conversations about when you both graduate, or how that might look as new students come in? That was definitely one of our concerns. Or a concern I had for sure, but if you guys had any conversations about that or any thoughts on how to effectively keep it moving.

AARYA KINI:

Yeah, absolutely. First of all, Emily and I are by no means leaders of this whole operation or anything like the whole. A point of our internal structure, I think, is that we have community agreements around quorum and everything like that, and our whole goal with the structure is that. We want to get new people coming in as much as possible, being engaged with the work as much as possible, and even if some members are absent, decisions can still be made and we trust that everyone in the organizing committee is making decisions. And the interests of the group. So I don’t necessarily feel like either of us is worried about what’s going to happen to us, who wants to graduate because there’s already a lot of people. Freshmen and people in years below us that are doing the same work, and doing it with passion and consistency. I also wanted to mention the previous question, to the resistance. It is not just on the administrative level, as there are faculty who don’t necessarily agree with what we’re trying to do, and there’s other students. Some at the university don’t necessarily feel like we need a union, and that’s just part of the process, there’s never any kind of organizing campaign that doesn’t have those people. Those that don’t really like what they’re doing. That’s why I think we have such an emphasis on building communities for both of those reasons. It’s a much more valuable use of our time to get new people in and to keep the interest going. By virtue of doing so, we’re making sure of the needs of a future that lives beyond the academic careers of all of the people that are involved in it right now.

EMILY LI:

I think a part of that is also recognizing the structure inherent to labor organizing, and something we’ve learned especially since the faculty solidarity. We’re building structures that can hopefully outlive us, that’s the goal.

COOPER SPERLING:

Do you guys have a particular moment or event in this unionization process that stood out to you or was important to the group? Any one moment.

AARYA KINI:

Our pre-election hearing probably. That was a crazy fucking time. Days when you are a witness. I don’t even know if I’m allowed to talk about it. Just in general, that whole process was so exhausting, but watching other student workers testify whenever we could and hearing them kill it as a witness is just such an empowering feeling. A huge part of what we’re doing is education on what unions are, their role in the internal structure of an organized union, and it’s just so great to see how that information stuck with everybody in the group, and anytime they’re asked questions. They knew exactly what to say, they were not letting none of the witnesses let themselves be tripped up or anything like that. How often do you get to watch a trial that you’re a part of? And I should say that yes, it was really exhausting, but very invigorating and exciting, especially after we heard the university bring their witnesses.

EMILY LI:

I have nothing to add to that. I agree completely fucking crazy.

COOPER SPERLING:

What are the key motivations behind pushing for a wall-to-wall student worker union? Why is this particular model so important for The New School’s student workers?

AARYA KINI:

A wall to wall union is basically when all employees spending a specific category of worker unionize into one union. So a wall to wall student worker union means every student employed by the university is unionized with the same union. That’s important for me personally, I don’t like the delineation between academic and non-academic. I mean, even the university, their primary function is to provide education to students. And so every operation within the university caters to that to some extent. The jobs that I’m working in the dean’s office and in the design lab currently are considered non-academic, but at the design lab, we are definitely supporting students’ academic projects. It’s kind of ridiculous that it isn’t an academic, that it’s not considered academic. Even in the dean’s office, it’s programming for students. It’s attracting prospective students. It’s all serving the end goal, educating a body of students. I feel that delineation is weird and unnecessary. Also, you know, all of the student workers at TNS are engaging with each other constantly. Departments work together, students are engaging. They’re in front-facing roles, they’re interacting with other students. So it just only makes sense that we all are in the same union to advocate for each other’s needs, as there is significant overlap and grievances that people face across different shops at the university. I mean, if we’re all having the same issue, if we’re all facing the same set of issues or similar set of issues, it just makes sense that we’re all a part of the same union.

EMILY LI:

This is a guess. I would say on a really deep strategic level, wall-to-wall is the most powerful kind of composition that we could have as a unit, like as a bargaining unit. The incredible reach beyond just a specific shop, a specific work site. We’re talking about every single student worker being represented under one body. It just makes so much sense to me in the power that we have, in the bargaining power that we have, and what we’re going to face, you know. There’s all these little delineations and questions of, you know, the new age anti-labor tactic is, if you’re going to form a union, you should split. And what we’re saying to that is like, no, fuck you! For all the reasons that Arya said before, but also on the ideological level that we have more power this way, we are a huge, huge, huge faction of workers that deserve to be represented under one. I don’t know, yeah.

COOPER SPERLING:

Speaking of anti-labor and union investing and whatnot, can you guys shed some light on the university’s tactics in trying to obstruct your unionization process, the assertion that federal work study students are not employees and don’t deserve union representation? How has that experience been and what tactics have you seen them pull on you?

EMILY LI:

They pulled everything out of their little playbook. From what I’ve seen and from what I know of, other student worker unions that are trying to be in the same effort and the hearing really revealed to me that there are so many ways in which they want to fight this and they want to say no on every level. They’re contradictory in nature, they’ll recognize you but not recognize you but maybe only recognize a portion of you and not other people. I mean Arya, do you have a specific example that you can share because I can’t write?

AARYA KINI:

The university’s tactics? I don’t know man, it’s just they’re stalling all of the time, and I just don’t like paying attention to it. It’s not really a worthwhile use of our energy to be so worried about what they’re gonna do. I mean, I think they do like to spend a lot of time drawing things out. In the hearing, it felt like their lawyer was trying to trip us up and catch us and saying something that they could present as some kind of error or us not knowing what we’re talking about.

EMILY LI:

Yes, like in this idea that we’re young, that we’re new, I think it’s something that they’re really trying to capture in a way that is meant to be intimidating for us, is meant to serve as a sign of ‘you kids don’t know what you’re doing’, but we absolutely do. It doesn’t take a fucking lawyer and it doesn’t take a fucking degree, MBA degree, or whatever, to realize that you’re like full of bullshit. And this is something that we have a right to. And oh, fuck, I could go on and on about that, but I won’t. Yeah, I’m good.

COOPER SPERLING:

New SWU expressed solidarity with the Students for Justice in Palestine regarding the occupation of Palestine. How do you see the intersection of local labor struggles with international movements?

AARYA KINI:

Yeah, I mean, I think first and foremost, it’s important to acknowledge that the context of all of our work is pretty limited in the grand scale of things. We’re in a singular institution in downtown Manhattan, and maybe we have some connections with labor unions. But really, nothing that we say as like as a union is going to change anything in like with what’s happening in Gaza. I think for us, the focus is more showing that we’re here for the community that we’ve built. I think they’re very much alike in all senses, I think there’s very much a lack of communal space at The New School where people can feel free to be there for one another in a physical and real sense. So I think the best that we can do is just offer support on any level that we can. That’s just by saying we’re here for you. And we’re there to support you in whatever way we can. I think something that’s come up in our conversations around this in our OC meetings is that we’re representing a very like news who represents students from a whole host of different backgrounds who are facing political struggles in many different parts of the world. What is the value of the community that we build like hundreds of student workers if we don’t use it to support one another? That’s kind of the crux of it, I think that kind of support and solidarity for us just extends beyond what’s just in the news, you know, you could be having problems in like a single neighborhood in New York and we want to be there to support you, and that’s why the focus of the work we’re doing is making sure that there’s more emergency funds available for student workers, making sure things like the food pantry stay open when students really need it. We’re working in a kind of microcosm of the world when we’re on the college campus. So I think we start by showing support to people in that environment and hopefully that empowers them to do work that extends beyond the campus.

EMILY LI:

I feel like there’s always going to be something that we could be doing. So if they accepted all of our demands for student workers, if we were a union on campus, we were being paid well, our working conditions were safe, we felt secure in our jobs, then the next thing would be institutional policies, you know? Yes. There are so many things that could be different about the way that our institution is run. The work will never end, in my opinion. You know, we can always perpetually be getting better with the whole host of issues that universities across America have… Yeah. I mean, that’s, to me, that’s the obvious next step.

COOPER SPERLING:

Where do you see the labor movement for higher education headed in the next decade, both at the new school and nationwide, with the last couple of years of really big strikes and everything? What do you guys think?

AARYA KINI:

I wrote an article about this a minute ago and I mean, we’re getting really close to a kind of revolution in higher ed. Political support for student workers unionizing is very much at a high right now, as most people across both sides of the political spectrum in the US are in support of student workers forming unions. There is a very widespread perception amongst workers that unions are effective and useful. And in an ideal world, unions are meant to keep employers in check and the employers bureaucratic processes exist to keep the union in check. In an ideal world, there is a symbiotic relationship between an employer and a union. I also think that the student workers that are to form unions on their campuses have some part of them that is going to want to keep doing so wherever they end up working. Hopefully at the rate at which student workers are unionizing right now, we see a glorious upheaval of what labor looks like in America and everyone is unionized and is able to collectively advocate for their rights and their freedoms. The better part of me sees that as a vision for the future.

COOPER SPERLING:

How can other students, faculty and staff support your efforts?

AARYA KINI:

Spread the word. If you can try to come to the events, learn a little bit of what we’re about, grab some free pens and zines and spread the word. Even if you aren’t working on campus, most of our events are saying something about the history of our institution, which is valuable regardless of whether you’re working here or not. It’s good to know your positioning within like the legacy of the institution that you’re at. I think it is really helping us. I mean, there are people already doing this, but the best way to support is to help build the community, keep people talking about the work and about why it’s necessary and why it’s important.

COOPER SPERLING:

You two are both brilliant examples of this, so what advice would you give to other young labor organizers starting their journey in the world of unionization and workers’ rights?

AARYA KINI:

Find good friends to do it with.

EMILY LI:

Holy shit, that was so beautiful.

Throw yourself into it. The younger the better.

COOPER SPERLING:

Okay, anything else you guys want to plug or anything that we didn’t cover?

AARYA KINI:

Just go follow us @newstudentworkersunion on Instagram.