On May Day, dozens of students at the prestigious university, The New School, in the heart of New York City, descended upon the cafeteria to defend the rights of cafeteria workers. The New School has a plan to replace unionized cafeteria workers with low-wage student-workers. The cafeteria workers would lose their jobs, pensions, and healthcare if the administration were to get their way.
Under the slogan “All of us or none,” undergraduate and graduate students plan to occupy the cafeteria until every single cafeteria worker is guaranteed their job. Many are moving sleeping bags into the cafeteria.
DEFEND EVERY JOB#AllOfUsOrNone #OccupyTNS pic.twitter.com/uKeRGFr4TT
— new school communist group (@NewSchoolReds) May 1, 2018
In addition to fighting to defend the jobs of the workers, the occupation calls for higher wages, tuition vouchers, worker- student control of the cafeteria, as well as the resignation of Steve Stabile, who is responsible for the layoffs.
This comes on the heels of teacher strikes in West Virginia, Oklahoma, and now Arizona. Additionally, in New York City, graduate student workers at Columbia University just ended a strike, while The New School plans to go on strike next week. Likewise, the CUNY Graduate Center voted to strike if adjuncts do not receive 7k per course.
Please follow this occupation on twitter at: @newschoolreds #occupytns #allofusornoneofus
Occupying to sustain the core values of the new school @TheNewSchool @DavidVanZandt #occupytns pic.twitter.com/K8cl3Mnotj
— emma mclaughlin (@pizzaree) May 1, 2018