The School of Visual Arts has become the latest New York union campus, after 1,200 lecturers voted to vote 77% for joining United Auto workers last week.
The bargaining department, the SVA Faculty Federation, now joins Columbia University, NYU and Parsons along with the same labor umbrella and will seek its first contract this summer. On May 23, the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission in Manhattan evaluated the vote.
Part-time teachers form most of the teaching army of SVA. According to the labor organizer he talked to Allergic, The news was first reported, and the auxiliary model eroded financial security and morale. SVA takes stagnant wages, heavier course loads and loss of retirement donations and paid leave as reasons for union.
In comparable art and design schools across the country, working artists take additional roles as teachers to supplement their income, which is usually funded by tuition. As of 2024, 26% of school tuition income goes to teachers’ salaries.
A spokesman for the SVA told the News that the government “encourages all eligible teachers to participate in the election” and promises “sincere” bargaining during contract negotiations.
SVA, which oversees approximately 4,000 undergraduate and graduate students, is the latest art school in the United States, pushes union efforts after waning student enrollment gradually weakens.
Enrollment at the school fell by 8% between 2018 and 2022, according to the publicly available SVA financial report. Across the country, in Calarts, the number of students enrolled fell by 11% between 2019 and 2023. The West Coast School reportedly voted to pass the league with a 71% majority in November 2024.
Negotiations expected to take place in the summer will focus on baseline wages, workload restrictions and resumption of retirement games. Any agreement requires approval from the union and the SVA board of directors.
Now, UAW counts more than 50,000 academic workers across the United States as members, and as universities become increasingly dependent on part-time labor, they are eager to gain a foothold.
