Medical Center contract negotiations intensify

Columbia University Medical Center workers are pulling an all-nighter this evening, but they most certainly will not be studying.

The administration of the Washington Heights medical campus and the local 1199 Service Employees International Union are nearing the end of intense, drawn-out contract negotiations, and the battling parties recently set this Friday as the final opportunity to reach an agreement.

The last two weeks, according to both sides, have been productive in bringing the unions and the University one step closer to a workable compromise. But spokespeople for the1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, mainly representing campus clerical workers and technicians, said ongoing negotiations over spring and summer have been fiery—in some cases, mirroring the heated health care debate that is now exploding across the nation.

The previous contract for these workers expired at the end of March, and since then, they have been temporarily renewing the same agreement on a month-to-month basis until the union is satisfied with a new negotiated contract, which would be effective for the next two years.

According to Victor Rivera, president of the Supporting Staff Association˜ for 1199 SEIU, the major issues of debate—that have made this negotiation one of the most difficult he has ever seen—have concerned serious concessions requested by the University in areas of childcare subsidies, job security, tuition exemption, and medical, retirement, and health care benefits.

Bennet Battista, an organizer for the workers, and Rivera both said that though they had to withhold specific details due to the sensitivity of the ongoing negotiations, the University was initially requesting that the union accept a new health care plan that would require employees to pay out of their own pockets. This is virtually the opposite of the recently expired contract, which included fully subsidized health benefits.

Further, the University was initially reluctant to accept the union’s request for a new job security clause. Just two weeks ago, uncertainty also loomed about the future of tuition exemption for employees, which has historically been a major benefit of the job for students and workers who have college-bound children.

Since March, Rivera said that it has been a back-and-forth of revisions, but after several months of being ignored, he helped organize a rally of over 300 workers in August, along with a lunch break protest into the dean’s office.

The approaching all-nighter, during which both parties will not leave until a contract is written or a strike-vote is decided upon, is going to be a lot shorter than it would have been a month ago or even two weeks ago, Rivera said, because they are much closer to a sound agreement.

“It was shock,” Battista said two weeks ago. “People aren’t making a ton of money and they could not afford to pay what the University was asking.”

But two days before the all-nighter, Battista said the University has recently listened closely to their demands. Most notably, he said, they have agreed to take the non-subsidized health plan off the table, a huge feat for the workers.

Though he acknowledged that the Medical School has struggled financially during the recession, “the University didn’t put a halt on the Manhattanville project,” Rivera said. “They are starting it with full force, which means they have the money.”

Rivera added that during a lot of the negotiations, he felt the administration was attempting to balance its budget on the backs of the workers. But in an interview on Wednesday, with a more optimistic tone, he said, “I’m really glad to report that the University is listening and we are hashing out our differences.”

Rosemary Keane, Chief Communications Officer for the Medical Center said in e-mail on Tuesday, “Although as a matter of practice CUMC does not comment on the substance or specifics of any ongoing negotiations, we can say that these negotiations have been productive.” She declined to comment on any other specifics of the process.

Most workers in these clerical jobs, though, are not convinced.

“We are only asking for our rights,” said Leugim Varagova, a technician who has been managing mice cages and other animal care equipment for nine years at the Washington Heights campus. “We don’t want to become poverty-bound, and it is not fair,” she said, adding that though her father worked for Columbia for two decades, this has been the most threatening negotiation process she has witnessed.

Varagova said that any requested concession would be adding insult to injury, because she felt that her wage was already lower than it should be, a sentiment echoed by several workers.

Another technician who requested anonymity to protect her job said that the negotiations have been nothing but a slap in the face. “I’m 38 years old and I have been working all my life, since I was 18. I am a single person, renting a room, and I am working a second job just to make ends meet.”

With her Con Edison bill up six percent and her cost of living on the rise, this Bronx native said that some of the initial proposals of the University—such as the loss of health benefits, which has since been rectified—could have been the tipping point for serious financial turmoil.

“We’re labeled ‘entry level,’ like we are nothing. But they tell us we are the backbone of this facility, that we keep it going,” she said.

Then, she added, “they should treat us like that.”

news@columbiaspectator.com