The press release further points out that the Tentative Agreement includes some impressive firsts, “such as the first codification in a labor agreement in the United States of protections for trans and reproductive rights.” And, in a first for the New School, the administration has agreed to the “first ever childcare fund for the benefit of all parents and families in the university community.”

At the beginning of the unionization campaign, “the university was far behind in standards for graduate worker employment compared to similar institutions of higher education, and this agreement goes a long way towards making these workers whole.”

ACT-UAW Local 7902, which represents over 5,000 part-time and adjunct teachers, student educators — including tutors, teaching assistants and fellows, research associates and assistants, course assistants and health care workers at the New School and nearby New York University, has no intention of resting on its laurels. It plans to continue organizing other units of students.