The Three-Year Contract Includes Significant Pay Increases and Funding for Flexible Spending Accounts

Fordham University and SEIU, the union representing many of its part-time and full-time non-tenure-line faculty, reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract when the University accepted the union’s most recent offer on January 18. The agreement must now be ratified by the union’s membership at Fordham.

“Together Fordham and SEIU face a frustrating academic marketplace, increasingly divided by status and
compensation—but the University has made it a priority to do significantly more to correct these
imbalances,” said Tania Tetlow, Fordham’s president. “We are grateful to the union leadership and our
colleagues for the power of their moral arguments and above all, for their contributions to our students.”

The new agreement will provide salary increases for all members of the union, which are retroactively
effective as of August 1, 2022, and will be paid upon ratification of the contract. In addition, the contract
will provide part-time members a new employer-funded flexible spending account which can be used for
paying medical expenses.

The University has been negotiating with SEIU since March 2022—the current contract extension runs
through the date of the ratification vote, with an extension through February 28 if the agreement is not
ratified—and worked with a federal mediator since December to help us reach an agreement. In
negotiating the contract, Fordham sought to balance the needs of the adjunct instructors who fulfill the
University’s mission against the costs to students and their families. Within those constraints, common to
any non-profit institution, Fordham has worked hard to express its values.

Contact: Bob Howe: 212-636-6538 O | 646-228-4375 M | [email protected]

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