Late last month, teachers from the New York School of Visual Arts formed a union representing its 1,200 lecturers. The union joined others recently formed in peer institutions, the result of two years of continuous organization, according to The Arts newspaper. Colleges are increasingly among politicians, art schools are particularly vulnerable, and observers meet SVA teacher organizer Mike Cavallaro, who is a cartoonist and artist who can hear more about the new alliance in addition to being a teacher.
Congratulations to your new union. How did it happen?
SVA lecturers have to do several hours of unpaid labor to prepare for our courses and provide feedback on assignments, scoring work, etc. During the pandemic, many of my coaches and I had to do a lot of extra work, not a lot of work that would have already had. Not only is there no compensation recommendation to meet other requirements, but in fact, benefits such as 401(k) contributions and leave are suspended. From this, some of my colleagues have seen the achievements made due to the 2022 new school strike, and many of our own teachers have also taught – they have begun to turn our lack of consent with SVA with the consent of teachers from almost any other similar school in New York City. The most common question is: “How did we not do this?” It is obviously time to organize.
What are the key issues you have about gatherings around colleagues?
Apart from what I have already mentioned, the lack of any security or continuity in general is the primary concern for teachers. Many people don’t know if they have courses to return a few weeks before the semester begins. The procedures for improving one’s own situation, whether it’s a paid or a benefit or otherwise, are not clear. If you are a lecturer, you have some sort of dispute with the government itself and no one can turn it. The HR department works for them, not us. Who has our support? No one.
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For me personally, the idea that I did not participate in the negotiation was to continue working under the idea of not working in conjunction with the agreement. In my career as a cartoonist, I wouldn’t put pens on paper without an executable contract, and I wouldn’t work for anyone who wouldn’t negotiate with me respectfully. When the “take or leave it” deal appears, I leave. So, why am I tolerating here? What are the teachings of future professionals with me in class? It was disrespectful to me after I literally designed the course and the damage to my students.
I know that building a union can be a subtle and complex ordeal. What are some of the unique challenges of SVA around this process?
SVA teachers are very isolated. Most of us teach only once a week and with very few exceptions we don’t focus or really know anyone outside our department. To this end, many coaches say they don’t know anyone else in the department either. So removing these barriers – building a support community that spans all departments and connects with faculty and staff who previously didn’t know they existed with each other – is the Titanic effort. As it continues, I start to feel that whatever happens, creating a community itself is transformative, even if we fail to achieve the alliance. Now that we have won our vote, I think this sense of community will prove to be one of the most important things we have achieved.
You are allied with United Auto Workers, which is probably the union that takes up the most space in the public’s imagination. Why are unions important to academic and creative workers?
Because we are watching schools become the frontline in various battles including basic labor rights, but not limited to that. In schools like SVA, with a large number of foreign students, these debates include topics of culture and immigration. The school (both both a workplace and center for sharing cultural and educational experiences) is currently the center of the large tug-of-war competitions in which the country participates.
United Auto Workers now represent educators at New York University and Columbia University School of Design. How do you view the recent wave of unions in universities?
I can finally give you a short answer. I think it boils down to “Manchester United stands, splits us falls”. Education and labor rights in this country cannot be degenerated.
Campus in particular seems to have become a link to national politics. Can a union like yours help universities avoid us seeing headlines about Columbia and Harvard?
I think that’s it. I certainly believe that the people of us who interact most closely with students have the best opportunity to appreciate and be relevant to their attention. I always say that teaching is a two-way street. It’s an exchange of ideas, not a firefight blowing in one direction. If you want to be an effective teacher, you must listen. And avoiding the various situations we see at Columbia and Harvard also requires the government to show courage and backbone to stick to the gradual ideals they often talk about in emails and dispatches. If they can do this, they will find that teachers and students are ready to stand together, and the people who stand together win.
What’s next for your new union?
The next step in tradition is to have teachers elect a bargaining committee from their own hierarchy to start an enforceable coalition contract with government representatives, so we are currently involved in the early stages of the contract.
