ALL workers need contract protections
SWC-UAW has agreed to compromise with Columbia on almost all outstanding issues (including dental and vision insurance, compensation, summer stipends, childcare subsidies, and ICE/NYPD off campus). Without recognition, which is the backbone of any agreement and is a cost-free amendment to the current proposal, we cannot move forward with accepting this package or ending the strike.
We are asking for Columbia to use the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) certification language verbatim (not their interpretation, or ours) as the Recognition article. If the university would like a contract that lasts for 3 years or any longer, full recognition is not negotiable.
Why is recognition so critical?
This affects everyone. Full recognition stops the University from converting student worker appointments to hourly or “casual” positions that do not come with union protections and rights. In the absence of such an article, student workers, graduate or undergraduate, risk being expelled from the bargaining unit through a simple change in job title while continuing to do exactly the same work.
Columbia has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness and intent to exclude unit members from protections they need. Since Columbia began including hourly minimums in its proposals last year, positions have been arbitrarily changed from salaried to hourly classifications. Many of these workers have received pre-filled timesheets logging a fixed number of hours a week regardless of their actual working hours. These efforts by Columbia mirror larger transformations in higher education, including the replacement of tenure track with adjunct positions. A strong and broad recognition article defined by job responsibilities rather than titles or hours worked guards against the casualization of academic labor. All the protections enshrined in the contract are meaningless if workers can simply be excluded from the bargaining unit through a change in job title.
Full recognition means no academic student workers are left behind–many of whom have sacrificed pay for over 50 days for something that has already been decided by law. According to the NLRB, these fellow student workers have long been included in our unit.
SWC’s definition of the unit defers to the NLRB’s 2017 certification decision to determine who is eligible to receive the Union’s workplace protections. The NLRB ruled that the Union represents all student workers who provide instructional and research services. This decision has been the status quo since 2017, and Columbia explicitly agreed to it in 2018.
We cannot allow Columbia to implement a two-tier system of student worker protections.
SWC’s position maintains that hours worked should not affect whether an employee receives workplace protections. These entail health and safety protections; protections for international students; protections from late pay; protections against discrimination and harassment; protections against unjust disciplining or discharging; and access to workspaces and services required to perform assigned duties. Expanding who receives these protections costs the University absolutely nothing.Recognition is now or never. Unlike economic articles, the scope of the unit is not negotiable in future contracts. If we do not include the entirety of our union’s membership in our first contract, there will be no safeguard against Columbia’s attempts to reclassify our job titles or mass casualize the student-workforce.
Recognition has been and continues to be one of the Union’s core issues. This has been repeatedly emphasized in bargaining for years. Columbia’s team knows that we can’t accept a contract that excludes any of our members.
For a more detailed explanation and response to the latest proposal and message by the University, please see this response to Boyce’s 12/26 email.
The Columbia community refuses to leave workers behind. Tell the Columbia administration to agree to full recognition and end the strike.
Best wishes,
Student Workers of Columbia
“All student employees who provide instructional services, including graduate and undergraduate Teaching Assistants (Teaching Assistants, Teaching Fellows, Preceptors, Course Assistants, Readers, and Graders): All Graduate Research Assistants (including those compensated through Training Grants) and All Departmental Research Assistants employed by the Employer at all of its facilities, including Morningside Heights, Health Sciences, Lamont-Doherty, and Nevis facilities, but excluding all other employees, guards, and professional employees and supervisors as defined in the Act.”