After reaching tentative agreement with University, SWC has voted to end strike

Upper West Side NY

07 January, 2022

5:13 PM

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Columbia Daily Spectator BY TALIA TRASKOS-HART • JANUARY 7, 2022, 1:36 PM After extended bargaining sessions earlier this week and reaching a tentative agreement late last night, 93.5 percent of voting members of the Student Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers union voted to end their strike at 12 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 7. This vote comes after two months of striking for increased compensation, expanded workplace protections, and access to neutral arbitration in cases of discrimination, harassment, and Title IX. As the union and the University entered mediation and sought agreement on these issues, striking student employees held major picket lines and protests. The final negotiations produced agreements on protections for casual workers and back pay for made up work after the strike. "I am very happy to see an agreement forged between UAW Graduate Student Union and Columbia that secures fair wages, benefits, and working conditions," Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer said in a press release today. As was the case with the tentative agreement presented to union membership in spring 2021, a vote on the agreement will be held among union membership. However, unlike last Spring, when the unit narrowly voted to reject the tentative agreement, the present agreement more fully includes the union's central demands. Joanna Lee, a third-year doctoral student in the department of East Asian languages and cultures, sensed excitement among union membership regarding the agreement. "I think everyone's really celebrating," she said. "It's been 10 hard weeks. There's been a lot of personal sacrifice that people made for the greater good." Both the Union and the University hope that the learning and financial loss experienced in the fall semester can be made up. In a statement made Jan. 6, the University bargaining committee highlighted that the University "has robust plans underway to ensure that all students whose education was disrupted by the strike will complete their academic work consistent with University policy and state and federal guidelines. We will be inviting student employees who have been on strike to engage in that work, and they will be fully paid for the work that they perform." Lee explained that ensuring striking workers are able to make up for lost paychecks remains a priority. "We're starting a new campaign to try and make sure that no worker gets left behind and that all the workers that lost wages during the strike are able to get as many paychecks back as possible over the next few weeks as they do makeup work," she said. Bargaining sessions leading up to the agreement centered largely around the inclusion of casual and hourly workers into the unit, which has been a major divide between the union and the University. The past few weeks have seen community organizing over protections for casual workers, including a letter of support from the Columbia community that amassed over 1,600 signatures. The tentative agreement covers all casual and hourly workers as defined by the National Labor Relations Board. The SWC maintains that this definition will protect a broader swath of student workers through including "All student employees who provide instructional services, including graduate and undergraduate Teaching Assistants … All Graduate Research Assistants … and All Departmental Research Assistants." Community members hope that the reaching of a tentative agreement and end to the strike will lead to a more stable spring semester. In an email to the Columbia community on Jan. 7, Provost Mary C. Boyce wrote, "I am optimistic that when the new academic term begins on January 18, Columbia will fully return to the normal rhythm of academic life." Some union members feel that the week-long delay of registration to Jan. 10 was an administrative attempt to ensure that striking workers could return and fill their teaching posts for the spring semester. On the issue of student worker replacement, the agreement stipulates that, given the timely nature of the union vote, "Student Employees will be placed in the positions for the upcoming semester that they would have held had there been no strike." If ratified, the tentative agreement will span four-years and provide student workers with increased compensation, more routes to legal recourse, and some expanded health protections. Doctoral candidates on appointment will receive raises measuring 7 percent for 12-month appointments and 11 percent for nine-month appointments, retroactive to Aug. 1, 2021. Doctoral student pay increases will grow over the length of the contract. Hourly workers will also see raises over the course of the contract, resulting in a wage of $22.50 by August 2024. The agreement also grants student workers broader access to neutral, third-party arbitration. Students may now seek arbitration in cases of discrimination and harassment, and in cases of Title IX after the completion of the EOAA appeals process. The right to arbitration has been a major sticking point in past negotiations. Disputes over the fairness and neutrality of internal routes to recourse has made the right to arbitration a major priority among SWC members. Union members have feared that without neutral arbitration, decision makers could be biased towards the University. In addition, the agreement will expand health protections for many student workers by establishing a student health fund worth $300,000 in the first year of the agreement and covering 75 percent of dental for Ph.D. students and qualifying dependents. This outcome comes after broad organizing in support of the union's goals. On Dec. 8, New York-area Reps. Jerrod Nadler, Adriano Espaillat, Grace Meng, and Jamaal Bowman wrote a letter to University President Lee Bollinger urging him to "recommit to negotiations in order to work out a fair deal." Both union members and the University have expressed the belief that this agreement represents progress on worker rights across higher education. In its Jan. 6 statement, the University bargaining committee emphasized that the agreement "would make Columbia a leader in higher education on a long list of economic and non-economic issues affecting student employees." "We really set a new standard for higher education," Lee said. "I think that this is a huge win not only for us as a union but for the labor movement." Founded in 1877, the Columbia Daily Spectator is the independent undergraduate newspaper of Columbia University, serving thousands of readers in Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and beyond. Read more at columbiaspectator.com and donate here.