An Update on SWC Negotiations

Dear Colleagues,

As we approach the expiration of the University’s current contract with our graduate and other student employees, we are writing to recap the bargaining process to date and preview the developments we hope for in the coming days. 

We enter this phase of the process at a time when the University’s faculty, postdocs, and students are navigating, and making painful decisions in, a vastly changed funding landscape for Columbia and higher education institutions throughout the nation. This context for bargaining, while difficult, makes us hopeful that this is the moment for the union and the University to come together in a spirit of collegiality and seriousness to negotiate and agree on a successor contract that benefits our student employees and our community as a whole. 

The successor contract must ensure that we can attract the best young talent in all fields and secure the future of the research mission for the next generation. It also must provide the conditions to support the well-being of all of the more than 3,000 diverse student employees the Student Workers of Columbia union (SWC) represents who teach and conduct research, no matter the field.

We have sought to keep you informed about the University’s approach to and the progress of negotiations, including through updates on April 28 and March 26. The SWC recently shared information about the status of contract negotiations that is both inaccurate and incomplete. Since our last update, the SWC failed to attend a third consecutive scheduled bargaining session on May 9, a full description of which can be found here. The University has made repeated good faith efforts to engage the SWC since February, but the union has refused to come to the table and bargain in good faith.

At this point, here are the important facts to know about these contract negotiations:

• The University has provided the union a complete set of non-economic contract proposals and proposals on benefits. The SWC has not responded to these proposals and has not offered any proposals of their own, though we understand from their statements that they have articles prepared. You can find more details on the University’s proposals here.
• We are ready to move to the most substantive elements of the contract – the total compensation and wage rates for student employees.
• Wages, benefits, and the other terms and conditions of employment that affect all student employees are the subjects of the University’s contract with the SWC (and all labor contracts). The SWC has been focused on issues that cannot be appropriately addressed in this contract. These issues – such as supporting international students, staff, and faculty as federal immigration policies are rapidly changing – are very important to all in our community. The union, like other individuals and groups, is free to speak and to advocate in relation to them, but these subjects are independent of terms and conditions that are the subject of labor bargaining. Our student employees share the need for fair compensation and support as they grow in their professional work. 
• Since March, the SWC has been preoccupied with process, centered on two particular issues: Zoom or live-streamed bargaining, and the inclusion of their president in negotiations – a former student expelled after full disciplinary processes. The University will not meet with a particular representative where, as here, that individual’s past conduct makes good faith bargaining impossible, and the law does not require that we do so. Nor are we required to open negotiations beyond the bargaining committees that each side has designated; in the current social media environment, live-streaming and Zoom bargaining encourages performance rather than productive conversation.
• The University has offered nine dates in June for bargaining sessions. The SWC has tentatively accepted only one of them. The union accepted only three of the 15 dates the University offered in April and May, canceled one of those sessions shortly before it was scheduled to begin, and failed to attend the other two. 
• We are open to finding a mutually workable location for in-person bargaining and welcome collaborative conversation on that topic.

SWC members already are speaking publicly about a strike next fall, before the union has put forward a single contract proposal. Rather than threatening to disrupt the education of our undergraduate students, we hope the union will come to the table and work with us to reach a fair, competitive, and responsible successor agreement that we can put in place on July 1. 

The University is committed to working in good faith with the union to reach such an agreement, and we will continue offering fair and competitive proposals on the issues that affect all student employees and the functioning of Columbia during this critical time. We hope the union will come to the table in good faith at a time when our campus must come together to ensure the future of the teaching and research that we exist to foster. We hope they will agree to meet in person or at least engage on substantive proposals. The Columbia community deserves to know that all parties are working constructively on their behalf.

We will continue to keep you informed on these negotiations. Additional updates and information are available under the Current Negotiations tab of the Student Benefits website. Thank you for your continued dedication to our students and student employees. 

Sincerely,

Amy Hungerford, Dean and Executive Vice President, Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Cas Holloway, Chief Operating Officer