GSSC Bureau Chief Olivia Mitchell gives you a quick guide on the history of the Graduate Workers of Columbia, the rumors of an upcoming strike, and the union’s official stance on the matter.

History of the Union

The Graduate Workers of Columbia – United Auto Workers (GWC-UAW) Local 2110 officially began in 2016 when the regional National Labor Review Board (NLRB) voted in favor of establishing the union, and graduate workers voted overwhelmingly to join. The university filed an objection to the NLRB’s ruling to the establishment of the GWC-UAW in 2017, which was subsequently overruled. The Graduate Workers of Columbia previously went on strike from April 24th – April 30th, 2018 due to the university’s refusal to recognize and bargain with their union, despite the NLRB’s ruling. The union’s ultimate goals are to “ensure livable wages, adequate benefits, clear workload expectations, and consistent and transparent employment policies,” enhancing “[their] conditions and [their] work – and ultimately, Columbia.”

In November 2018, after an announcement that the union was preparing to strike indefinitely, the university proposed a framework for bargaining with the union, the Framework Agreement, which stated that the university would recognize and bargain with the GWC-UAW and the CPW-UAW (Columbia Postdoctoral Workers) in exchange for a no-strike clause that would expire on April 6th, 2020—although union members and leaders say that this agreement was made secretly without their knowledge by UAW Region 9A Director Beverly Brakeman and Columbia provost John Coatsworth.  The union agreed to the proposed framework with roughly 59% of the vote (1,035/1,755) and have been bargaining with the university ever since.

Ahead of the April 6th deadline, which has now passed, the union officially announced its intention to strike, following a previous union-wide vote on March 2nd, where 96% of the union (1,833/1,910) voted to strike. Months prior, graduate students expressed their concern with the current bargaining process, claiming that the university was failing to address core issues and dragging their feet in negotiations, while Columbia itself claimed to be working dutifully to get to a point of agreement with the union before the deadline.

The Union’s Stance

However, as a result of the current COVID-19 pandemic and the university moving online, the union has officially come out and stated that despite their original vote, they will not be engaging in a strike. According to union representative Katherine Zheng, the union feels that due to the current state of the university and the pandemic, they do not find it appropriate to be striking at this time. Zheng continued, explaining that while the union itself is not holding an official strike, there are individual graduate student workers and departments who are choosing to strike, which they hope the university will respect. Instead of a strike, the union will be holding days of action with open forums and petitions. Their current petition calls for the university to cancel evictions and summer graduate housing rent, freeze graduate housing rent for the upcoming academic year, ensure full health coverage, reduce student financial burdens, protect international and immigrant students, and commit to anti-racism in COVID-19 proceedings, among other things, to support graduate students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bwog has reached out to Columbia for a comment. We will update this article with their stance.

Campus Rumors

Despite the union unofficially stating that they would not be officially striking, rumors of a strike continue to rumble throughout the university. Numerous informative flyers, articles, and social media posts have been made in support of a strike, explaining how graduate students can strike and how undergraduates can support their TAs (teaching assistants) and RAs (research assistants) at this time. Columbia for Bernie recently posted an informative flyer to their Instagram, where it explains an upcoming work-strike and rent-strike that some graduate students are engaging in, although where this flyer originates is unknown. Student-Worker Solidarity (SWS) has also been posting about a possible upcoming strike, explaining how undergraduate students can stand in solidarity with graduate student workers. Several members of SWS wrote an op-ed for the Spectator that was published Thursday morning, explaining why grad students are striking in the first place.

Some students have received information from their TAs regarding the strike while others continue to be kept in the dark. An anonymous source explained to one Bwogger that it’s a faction within the union that is preparing to strike, and that language classes are either stopping soon or previously stopped Friday and that people are striking for different reasons. Some graduate student workers remain undecided, the source explained, on whether or not to strike, and that other subgroups within the union, separated by field/subject, are still in discussion on whether or not they will join the strike.

Overall, it’s unknown how the majority of graduate student workers will proceed in these coming weeks and how this possible, decentralized, disorderly strike will affect the union’s goals. Nevertheless, the union will continue to proceed in the interests of the Columbia community and its graduate students, but how that will manifest–more days of action, a larger strike, continued negotiation with the university– remains to be seen.

Editor’s note, 4/26/20, 12:30 pm: The title of this article has been changed to more accurately reflect the status of the graduate workers’ strike.

Spring 2018 grad workers strike via Bwog Archive