A Christmas Eve Mediation Recap

Hi everyone,

Last night we had a mediation marathon with the university, mediating from 4:00pm-11:30pm. The university came prepared with a counter-proposal. The package includes: post-doc language for real neutral arbitration, pay parity for Social Work and Mailman in year 1, stop the clock for parents, and 75% dental premiums for all PhD students (both on and off appointment). Crucially, Columbia left out the core demand for full recognition as defined by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which they agreed to in 2018. After several hours in caucus and in working groups, we voted on how to proceed, opting to go all in on recognition. 

Columbia can end the strike very easily: if they agree to the NLRB language on recognition, in addition to a few other minor changes that we do not expect to be controversial, we will refer the offer to the unit for ratification. Without recognition, though, we cannot accept this proposal: we will not exclude fellow student workers from this contract.

Tell Columbia to stop trying to exclude members of our union!

Why is recognition so crucial? Full recognition deeply impacts both hourly workers and student workers on appointment. Columbia’s proposal would only allow union membership for hourly workers who average more than 15 hours per week or have completed 250 hours of instructional work. These hourly requirements would strip union eligibility from many who have been on strike with us and leave them without any contract protections against discrimination and harassment, late pay, and unjust termination. Columbia’s article also opens the door for the university to shift current appointment positions to non-union hourly jobs. We cannot afford to let Columbia cut any of our striking coworkers out of our union. Harvard Graduate Students Union warned us of this, and we cannot allow Columbia a means to erode our union as the Harvard administration has attempted since they signed in 2019. This is not a hypothetical concern: Columbia already pursues unit erosion as a tactic against clerical workers on campus.

You can read our full counter-proposal, sent to Columbia this morning, which adopts most of the university’s proposals and includes our recognition language, here.

We hope you’re taking some time to rest and have the happiest (and healthiest) of holidays. We’ll see you after Christmas - keep an eye on your inboxes as we schedule another joint session with the university, but in the meantime close your laptops and relax a little. We got this.

In solidarity,

Your bargaining committee