Starting Positions Vote, BC Office Hours, and the Fight for Open Bargaining
Hello from your Bargaining Committee (BC)! Today’s edition of the Bargaining Blog has three updates: 1) voting on our Bargaining Starting Position and BC Office Hours; 2) progress towards our first bargaining meeting; and 3) checking in about the current political climate. As always, if you have any questions or want to discuss any of the issues in this blog update, please shoot us an email at bc@studentworkersofcolumbia.com or join our weekly, open meetings on Thursdays at 4pm, either via Zoom or in person!
Voting on our Bargaining Starting Position and BC Office Hours
Last week, a poll went out to members to vote on our bargaining starting positions as we move closer to starting formal bargaining with the University. Your responses—including your written comments on each item— allow us to collectively determine what we want a just contract to look like, and to shape both the content of the articles we bring to the table and our strategies for winning the workplace conditions we deserve.
The voting period will be open until March 1. To answer any questions you may have about the vote, particular demands, next steps, or anything else, BC will be hosting open office hours on Wednesday, February 26 at 5pm in Philosophy 302 and over Zoom. Please come by! We are more than happy to answer any questions, take feedback, and discuss your thoughts on particular demands!
Progress Towards our First Bargaining Meeting
We are excited to formally announce that we have tentatively scheduled a first bargaining session with Columbia University for March 14 at 1:30pm! The plan is for bargaining to take place in Studebaker 469. All members of SWC are invited to join in person to observe bargaining and participate in caucusing. Unfortunately, Columbia has not committed to ensuring access over Zoom for member observers.
Bargaining transparency is enshrined in our union bylaws and is a hallmark of our unit’s commitment to democratic decision-making. As such, the BC is committed to ensuring that open bargaining includes access both over Zoom and in person to allow our full membership—regardless of what campus they are on, if they are on field work, live in another borough, or any other access issues—to observe the bargaining process with Columbia University. We believe this is essential for rank & file democracy and full transparency in the bargaining process. It is especially important because caucusing—when the BC pauses negotiations to confer with the wider membership—is how we make democratic decisions during negotiations. Caucusing works best when members are able to observe the negotiations themselves and collectively make decisions on next steps the BC can then take back to the table.
Columbia has expressed that they are concerned that having a membership presence over Zoom would distract from negotiations. We firmly disagree, and have made clear to the University that Zoom access has numerous practical benefits for both sides, streamlining caucusing and responding to the University’s proposals, and thus hastening approval of a successor contract. We have asked the University to explain how Zoom will distract from negotiations, and have emphasized that we believe a process characterized by equitable access and transparency is mutually beneficial and desirable. We also emphasized that the University had previously favored hybrid bargaining during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In other words, both SWC and the University know that hybrid bargaining works!
We are committed to not discussing contract articles with the University until they ensure we have hybrid Zoom and in person access for member observers during negotiations. We are hopeful the University will also commit to an open, transparent, and equitable process and we can begin negotiations on March 14. We will keep you updated on how these discussions progress. Regardless, we ask those who are able to join us in person at 1:30pm on March 14th in Studebaker 469!
The Current Political Climate
Since our last update on January 30th, the larger political climate within the United States—with severe impacts across the planet—has intensified. Fascist overreach from the executive branch, the implementation of aggressive and violent anti-immigration policies, explicit and dangerous transphobic policies, and the continued degradation of legal systems domestically and internationally have resulted in a difficult, painful, and angering past month. The BC is aware we are entering into contract negotiations with the University under this broader climate, in which academic institutions and the project of intellectual inquiry are under threat, and the livelihoods, basic rights, safety, and dignity of significant portions of our membership are under attack.
The solution to these compounding crises is not despair or capitulation, but unwavering solidarity, strategic organizing, and communal courage. Through democratic and collective decision-making, combined with an understanding of how our labor gives us a central place of power within the operations of the university, we are capable of being agentive actors in this moment, of enacting change within our workplace and beyond. The contract campaign is only one part of the broader struggles taking place on our campuses, the local communities we are also a part of, and at the national and international scales. Within the scope of our work as a labor union, your BC is committed to meeting this moment as best we can alongside all of you. When we fight together, we can win!
As always, please feel free to reach out at bc@studentworkersofcolumbia.com. We hope to see you at our office hours on Wednesday!
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 X (they/them), BA student in Ethnicity & Race Studies and English