Bargaining Update
On June 30, 2025, the collective bargaining agreement between the University and the Student Workers of Columbia union (SWC) expired before an agreement on a successor contract could be reached. Prior to the contract’s expiration, the University put forward a full set of economic and noneconomic proposals, to which the union has not responded. The union has also not met with the University since our opening session in March to negotiate a successor agreement and repeatedly failed to attend scheduled bargaining sessions on June 9, May 9, and April 25, and cancelled the bargaining session planned for April 14. Given the lack of progress, on July 10 the University made a proposal to the union to extend the lapsed contract for one year while negotiations continue for a longer-term successor contract.
The extension proposal includes the compensation offer the University made last month that provides PhD student employees with a competitive pay increase and pay parity between the 9-month and 12-month cohorts for the upcoming 2025-26 academic year. Additionally, if the offer to extend is agreed to by July 22, 2025, PhD students will receive an adjustment to their compensation for July and August 2025 to implement the proposed increases. The full proposal to extend the contract can be found here, and details on the University’s compensation and benefits proposals, which are designed to support the more than 3,000 student employees represented by the SWC, can be found here. While the SWC considers the University’s offer to extend the contract and implement the proposed compensation increases, the University is continuing to maintain the status quo with respect to compensation and terms of employment under the terms of the now expired contract.
The union continues to condition bargaining on conducting sessions over Zoom without limitation on attendance numbers. As the University has explained to the SWC, the union’s insistence on Zoom is contrary to laws governing collective bargaining and is not conducive to developing the good-faith dynamics that characterize successful bargaining. Not only does the practice of in-person bargaining align with how Cornell, Harvard, Penn and other universities conduct negotiations, it also promotes the development of trusting relationships; protects against doxing and mischaracterization of negotiations on social media and other forums; and encourages the candid and focused discussions most likely to produce an agreement in an efficient manner.
The union is also conditioning bargaining on the participation of its president, a former student who was expelled and banned from campus under the disciplinary process specified in the Rules of University Conduct. Although the University does not have an obligation to bargain with this individual, in the spirit of advancing negotiations and with certain reasonable conditions in place, the University has informed the SWC of our willingness to have the expelled student attend in-person negotiations as an observer at a neutral off-campus location, provided that the former student withdraws a grievance concerning this issue. The University also indicated its readiness to engage a federal mediator in the near term to serve as an impartial intermediary to advance meaningful and constructive dialogue on wages, benefits, and other employment-related issues covered by the successor contract.
Through these good-faith efforts, the University has demonstrated its commitment and readiness to work with the SWC to reach an agreement as quickly as possible on a fair and competitive successor contract that serves all students and the whole Columbia community. It is our sincere hope that the union will agree to extend the prior contract and engage in productive discussions on the comprehensive set of proposals the University has made, which will provide its members with increased wages at a time of unprecedented financial uncertainty for the University.