1/22 GBM Report Back, Contract Campaign Process, and Open Spring Meetings
Hello from your Bargaining Committee (BC)! We hope you had a restful break, and a good first week back. This message is a bit long, so here’s a quick TLDR:
Drafts of proposed bargaining goals and demands, as developed by working groups, were presented at the most recent GBM.
BC is developing a structure for ongoing synchronous and asynchronous feedback to refine proposals before we collectively determine our final bargaining demands.
Join the BC meetings Thursdays at 4 p.m. in-person or on Zoom to discuss bargaining strategy with us! You can find meeting details (room number and Zoom link) on the SWC Calendar.
Please see our more thorough update below!
Thank you everyone who attended our first General Body Meeting this semester, where we discussed the bargaining process, various contract proposals members have shaped through working groups, and what next steps for collectively shaping our contract will look like.
For those who were not able to make it, here is a quick update of what was discussed:
Basics of Bargaining: Rank & File democratically shapes demands, decides on contract proposals, and the BC sits at the table with the university to negotiate those demands. The BC works for you!
Contract Draft Proposals from Working Groups: Each working group presented a high-level overview of their current draft proposals for contract language, all of which is a work-in-progress. We want your input, and are excited for you all to get more involved!
Next Steps: We briefly discussed next steps for getting involved in the contract process, including an upcoming feedback form, the BC email, to look out for future town halls, and to join a working group on a topic of interest or concern.
To elaborate on the next steps, we want to emphasize that the proposals for contract articles presented at the GBM are the beginning and not the end of collectively forming demands to bring to the university, and that no contract demands have been decided on. Every demand in our contract will be voted on by membership with room for debate, amendments, and feedback both in meetings and asynchronously. Information on a proposal for a more specific process for what this will look like, in particular the asynchronous feedback and voting procedures, will be coming shortly. Being involved in a contract campaign does take engagement, but it is our commitment as a BC committed to rank & file unionism that members are able to have their voices heard even if they cannot commit to significant time in membership meetings.
As BC, our role is primarily to bring the contract collectively developed by the membership to the university for negotiations. We are committed to bringing a contract that represents the rank & file demands of our union. One aspect of that work is synthesizing input from members and presenting it to the wider unit as we discuss our demands, including divergent options.
During the GBM, we presented several numbers for a potential cost of living adjustment (COLA) derived from the COLA Working Group’s deliberations. Though the working groups are composed of members who have committed themselves to careful thought in crafting initial contract proposals for discussion, votes of working group members as well as the BC all hold the same weight as every other member. The entire unit will collectively decide the salary we fight for, just as we will collectively decide on all of our demands. We will be discussing more on this at the Cost of Living town hall on Jan 28, at 6 PM in the International Affairs Building, Room 406. Please come through as every voice counts!
We are excited to continue talking about our contract draft proposals and bargaining strategy at our upcoming February GBM and to continue forming a bold and strategic contract together—a contract we can win and that we deserve.
As we announced last semester, all BC meetings are open to membership. We meet every Thursday at 4 p.m. in Philosophy 302 and on Zoom. Starting next week, the first 15 minutes of the meeting will be specifically dedicated to questions and feedback from members. You are welcome to bring any topic of discussion, though for next week BC would love to hear thoughts from members on bargaining strategy. We hope to see you there!
In the meantime, you can continue to send questions or feedback to us at bc@studentworkersofcolumbia.com (which we check daily!).
Solidarity forever,
Johnson Dalmieda (he/him), PhD student in Chemistry
Dylan Felt (she/her), PhD student in Sociomedical Sciences
Adithya Gungi (they/them), PhD student in Physics
James Heard (he/him), PhD student in Architecture
Aaron Kidane (he/him), PhD student in Physiology and Cellular Biophysics
Conlan Olson (they/them), PhD student in Computer Science
Vayne Ong (she/her), PhD student in History
Sohum Pal (he/they), JD-PhD student in History
Jonathan Pankauski, PhD student in Mechanical Engineering
Kayla Pham (she/her), BA student in Chemistry and Human Rights
Frank Tavares (they/she), PhD student in English and Comparative Literature
Ari 雅莉 (Ya-Li) X (they/them), BA student in Ethnicity & Race Studies and English