The NYU Unit represents all NYU adjuncts who teach either 40 contact hours of class time per year or 75 hours of individualized instruction (i.e. private music instruction) in one semester.

Under our historic contract negotiated in Spring 2004, NYU adjunct faculty now receive some of the highest rates of pay for part-time academic work in New York City. We also won employer-subsidized healthcare coverage for most of our members. This is the first time adjunct faculty will have real healthcare opportunities at NYU. The contract contains a strong grievance procedure, pension benefits in future years, and new continuous appointment protections. This contract was achieved by NYU adjuncts coming together and building a strong UAW union.

In 2000, NYU's graduate student workers won a landmark victory by overturning decades-old prejudicial laws with respect to the collective bargaining rights of graduate student employees.

Inspired by the gains graduate students made, we adjunct professors also affiliated with the UAW and formed our own union, Adjuncts Come Together (ACT-UAW). On March 20, 2002, we filed a petition for a representation election with an overwhelming number of adjunct signatures at the National Labor Relations Board. Labor Board hearings began in late March to determine the ground rules for the election. By late May ballots were sent to almost 2,700 members of the adjunct faculty. Those ballots listed three options: UAW representation, AFT representation, or no union representation at all. Over fifteen hundred adjuncts voted for union representation, and after a final run-off election in early July, the UAW became the sole representative bargaining agent for the adjunct faculty at NYU.

We began bargaining for our first contract with the University on September 10, 2002. We reached a tentative agreement in April 2004, which our members accepted in May 2004. The contract went into effect in the Fall 2004 semester, and will remain in effect through academic year 2009-2010.