Union

The cast of characters at bargaining meetings between the Graduate Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers and the Columbia administration is almost always the same. Ludda Ludwig, a second-year doctoral candidate in earth and environmental science and a bargaining committee representative for GWC, listens patiently to yet another explanation of why Columbia believes that health benefits are outside the scope of a collective bargaining contract. Bernie Plum, the University’s outside counsel tasked with delivering these arguments—he previously represented Disney, the NBA, and the New York Times in their negotiations with employee unions—looks downward toward his screen as he speaks, glasses perched at the end of his nose.

In front of an array of posters emblazoned with red and black slogans, the Columbia-Barnard Young Democratic Socialists of America mounted a rally in support of its tuition strike. The rally began with a press conference in front of University President Lee Bollinger’s 60 West Morningside Drive home and culminated in a march to the steps of Low Library.

Earlier this semester, we wrote both an op-ed about why undergraduates should support the strike authorization vote and a petition in support of the graduate workers, which was signed by 250 students. Needless to say, a lot has changed since then. Although the strike authorization vote was a resounding success with 96 percent of the Graduate Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers voting yes to authorize a strike in early March, the strike’s momentum has been severely disrupted by the escalation of a global pandemic that has thrown all of our lives into crisis.

Columbia has temporarily provided 10 paid workdays, on top of the city-wide 40 hours of sick paid leave, for emergencies that may arise due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Members of the Graduate Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers have voted 1,833 to 77 in favor of authorizing a strike in response to what union members have labeled as the University’s unsatisfactory approach to negotiating key bargaining points.

While many undergraduate students may remember the tremendous struggle it took to finally get the Columbia administration to bargain with graduate workers, fewer know what has been happening at the bargaining table since then. As organizers with Student-Worker Solidarity, Barnard and Columbia’s United Students Against Sweatshops local, we have consistently collaborated and organized in solidarity with the graduate workers’ union.

As postdoctoral and associate researchers at Columbia, we know firsthand how inadequate compensation can undermine the quality of our work and inhibit the development of a truly equitable, qualified, and inclusive research community.

Following almost two decades of back-and-forth for union recognition, Columbia announced its decision to negotiate with the Graduate Workers of Columbia in November 2018. Negotiations started in February 2019, proceeding the creation of a 10-point outline of the conditions for collective bargaining. Notably, the bargaining framework includes an impending deadline: a clause that prevents the union from striking until April 6, 2020.