BC Response to HR Email

Tonight we received an email from HR threatening to withhold some appointment letters for the Spring semester if we do not end our strike by December 10th. Make no mistake that this threat is a form of retaliation and intended to break the power of our strike. This threat is illegal, and it demonstrates that the university is bargaining in bad faith. It also shows that our strike is working and the university is desperate to end it.

Ultimately, this threat is intended to cause panic within our ranks. However, it is not a threat management can easily execute or a move that would benefit them. Management will have a very difficult time finding and processing the hiring of hundreds of scabs before the spring semester begins, let alone hiring enough scabs to fulfill the grading and make up the missed class time for this semester. They have already struggled to fill appointments at the beginning of this semester without a strike. 

Additionally, we are participating in an ULP (unfair labor practice) strike, which legally protects us from permanent replacement (see here for compensation freeze ULP charge and stipend disbursement schedule change ULP charge). If the University doesn’t withdraw its threat, we will be filing a third ULP charge for their numerous attempts at unlawful retaliation. 

It appears that this decision also caught some department heads by surprise. Email your department chairs and advisors and blast this retaliatory action on your social media. We will not let Columbia get away with this.

We know this can be an incredibly anxiety-provoking email to receive, and that is management’s intention. This is a last-ditch effort to sow panic and break our strike at the height of our leverage right before we settle the contract. If you are concerned about this threat, reach out to department organizers, your coworkers, and us. We are all in this together.

Our strength is in our collective power, and it is critical that we hold the line.

We’ll see you both on the picket line AND at mediation tomorrow. Mediation starts at 10:30am, and as always, we’ll have a caucus at 10:00am. Join mediation here and caucus here. Channel your energy into the picket line from 11:00am-3:00pm at Morningside. (We will be serving Roti Roll.)

Get some rest, our strike is working.

In solidarity,

Your bargaining committee

From the NLRB (https://www.nlrb.gov/strikes):

Unfair labor practice strikers defined. Employees who strike to protest an unfair labor practice committed by their employer are called unfair labor practice strikers. Such strikers can be neither discharged nor permanently replaced. When the strike ends, unfair labor practice strikers, absent serious misconduct on their part, are entitled to have their jobs back even if employees hired to do their work have to be discharged. 

If the Board finds that economic strikers or unfair labor practice strikers who have made an unconditional request for reinstatement have been unlawfully denied reinstatement by their employer, the Board may award such strikers back pay starting at the time they should have been reinstated.