Bargaining Session 6
On Wednesday, February 11, the University and the Student Workers of Columbia union (SWC) met for the sixth time, in person at the Interchurch Center, to negotiate the terms of the union’s successor contract. A range of topics were discussed and proposals exchanged, though the parties remain far apart on virtually all issues, including fundamental questions such as the definition of a workplace and what constitutes an employment matter subject to collective bargaining.
During the session, SWC reiterated the position it expressed at the last meeting that the 2018 Framework Agreement between the union and the University—which limited collective bargaining to terms and conditions of employment and preserved academic and operational decisions exclusively for University and faculty control—does not apply to the current negotiations. Now explicitly backed in this position by its parent United Auto Workers (UAW) union, SWC continued to make proposals that would nullify this critical distinction between employment conditions and academic and operational matters and intrude on the faculty’s academic decision-making and Columbia’s exclusive right to manage the institution consistent with its educational and research mission.
The University shared a revised article on Child Care in response to SWC’s counterproposal. The union put forward new proposals on Travel, Training, Workspace and Materials, Vacation, Transportation, and Workweek, as well as new proposed articles on Relocation Assistance, Retirement Benefits, and Artificial Intelligence that were not part of the prior contract. The union also proposed a new article on Transitional Funding, a topic that was acknowledged to be a student benefit in a side letter agreed to as part of the first contract. SWC indicated it will have more proposals that it will share at a later date.
In addition to the proposals that cross into academic and operational decisions, the union’s economic demands as a whole remain far out of line with benefits available to student employees at peer universities, as well as to other union and non-union Columbia employees.
The parties met for the full scheduled session and, as previously agreed, will meet again on February 27 in person at Interchurch.
The University remains committed to negotiating a fair, competitive, and sustainable agreement with SWC that benefits all of our student employees and the entire Columbia community.