Path to Resuming Work
Last night, Student Workers of Columbia came within inches of making an agreement with the University on a package. The University accepted our supposal of having full NLRB recognition and open shop with a four year contract duration. We are pleased that we were able to find acceptable, common ground on these core demands after months on strike and years in negotiation.
However, the University rejected our proposal to restore lost pay with make up work. There remains an enormous amount of struck work, which we cannot perform without compensation. We have initiated that process and are working to reach a fair agreement that includes restoration of student workers’ compensation, including docked stipends. Many on strike, especially caregivers, are in severe debt. Our unit is unable to accept an agreement that leaves many workers with more than $8,000 below the proposed compensation offered in this package
The University has already budgeted to pay all of us 100% of our total compensation this year. Unfortunately, Columbia is blocking a smooth transition into the Spring semester by refusing to restore lost pay. SWC members are eager to come to an agreement to restore lost wages, including through backwork. As a result, we await a further commitment from the University to restore lost income before our members elect to resolve the strike.
SWC-UAW wants to salvage the fall semester and support students
We are committed to serving the best interests of our students and their education, which Columbia’s stalling tactics have seriously disrupted. Columbia's refusal to settle this last, minor issue could compromise the education of hundreds of undergraduate students at a time we should be preparing for spring semester. We have detailed plans to grade assignments, provide additional office hours, and run catch-up sessions. SWC-UAW has offered solutions to issues of accreditation that have emerged during this strike, to make sure all students receive academic credit in a timely manner. It is in the University’s best interest to allow Instructors of Record, Teaching, Grading and Research Assistants to get back to work.
Columbia responds with further delays
At last night’s session, the University rejected our call to discuss plans for salvaging the semester. The mediator repeatedly prompted the University to consider the ramifications of leaving work uncompleted, but the University’s outside counsel refused to engage. Columbia’s refusal to restore lost wages and consider plans for make-up work deprives undergraduates of crucial pedagogical support and places the onus on faculty to mitigate the impact of the strike without student workers. It is in the University’s best interest to restore lost pay to student workers, which they have already budgeted for, and finally restore a sense of normalcy to our shared community.
Detrimental community impact
One of the core reasons workers went on strike was to fight for a living wage. Finishing the strike with less than the limited wages we’ve struggled to live on will have detrimental impacts: students renting in Columbia housing could be evicted because of rent owed; those same students in debt to Columbia will have registration holds that prevent Spring registration; some will no longer be able to live in NYC and will have to move; others will simply have to cut their losses and drop out of their program, thereby decreasing graduate program sizes and the graduate labor pool in future semesters. These material impacts of Columbia’s continued refusal to negotiate over this issue will hurt the overall well-being of the Columbia community.
Back pay and reaching settlement in the education sector
The University has an established precedent of restoring back pay at the end of a strike. When we broached the subject yesterday night, the University’s outside counsel feigned outrage, acting as though the ask was unprecedented. This is untrue. Settling backpay for backwork is a typical final step of negotiations in the higher education sector. Many of you may remember the very recent precedent from the Spring 2021 strike, when the University developed an attestation portal to give strikers full recompense for lost pay.
Restoring student workers’ stipends is particularly urgent, and could not be settled until a contract proposal endorsed by both bargaining teams was on the table. Columbia’s contract asks us to drop our three open Unfair Labor Practice charges (ULPs), including one concerning the University’s unilateral restructuring of our pay schedule, that left several of us already in debt at the start of the semester, so that they could dock our stipends to try to break our strike. It is important that we negotiate the restoration of lost pay if we are to agree to drop these charges. The true act of bad faith is that Columbia insists on SWC dropping all ULP charges as part of this proposed package while withholding the stipends that should have been disbursed to us at the start of the semester.
The University and the Union have come a long way and overcome countless disagreements over the past two years, and especially in the past ten weeks. We urge the University to put an end to the chaos it has brought upon the Columbia community, reach an agreement with us on restoring lost pay, and finally end the strike.
Best wishes,
Student Workers of Columbia