Columbia grad students strike

Columbia University graduate students who work as teaching or research assistants went on strike Monday (April 19) to protest the university's refusal to recognize them as a union.Meanwhile, some 100 blocks downtown, officials at New York University (NYU) were bracing for a strike of adjunct faculty starting today over alleged labor law violations and stalled negotiations over a new contract guaranteeing part-time teachers increases in pay and benefits. The strike was averted when negotiators came to an agreement at 6:40 this morning, according to a message on the answering machine of the union representing the adjuncts.At Columbia, teaching and research assistants have been asked to stop teaching classes, including sections and labs. They also no longer assist professors, grade assignments or exams, or work in labs. They will continue to attend class and study.Last month, a majority of Columbia teaching assistants (TAs) and research assistants (RAs) elected to join a union by signing membership cards. The card count was certified by New York State Senator David Paterson. However, Columbia has refused to recognize the results of the count, arguing that TAs and RAs are students, not employees, and are therefore not eligible to join a union, according to a statement. Graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania struck for 2 days in February for the same reason.David Wolach, a fifth-year graduate student in the Columbia philosophy department and member of the union, known as Graduate Student Employees United (GSEU), said the first day of the strike was marked by picket lines, marching from building to building, and a noontime rally held under university president Lee Bollinger's window. He said that he was joined by many graduate students in the life sciences and heard stories of classes being cancelled and labs being emptied because of the strike.For many students, the GSEU offers a way to have a say in their working conditions, such as salary and health benefits, Wolach said. For instance, he noted that Columbia graduate students are currently paid $4000 less than those at Harvard and significantly less than students at Yale, both located in cities with a lower cost of living than New York.David Carpio, a former graduate student in biology at Columbia and now a full-time employee of the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW), the union the GSEU elected to join, told The Scientist that Columbia student workers first held a vote about unionization 2 years ago. However, before the ballots could be counted, the university appealed, and the ballots were impounded.Carpio argued that TAs and RAs are not just students and that it is unfair to classify them that way when they routinely perform research that brings the university grants and prestige. To call them nonemployees “is a real insult to the work and the contributions we make to the university,” he said.Carpio added that the strike was the “last thing” the GSEU wanted to do, but that members were prepared to continue until the end of the current semester and resume in the fall, if needed. “The university could end this strike at any moment,” he said.Maris Zivarts, a graduate student in biology at Yale and a member of the Graduate Employees and Students Organization—which also seeks to be recognized as a union—told The Scientist that he joined Columbia students on the picket line Monday afternoon and said that the event probably got the university's attention. “It would have been hard to have missed it,” he said.NYU spokesperson John Beckman told The Scientist yesterday (April 20), before an agreement was reached, that in the event of a strike, classes would go on as scheduled and the administration would work to make sure that students' work is evaluated and that they can graduate on time. “The university will remain open,” he said. “It is our hope that we achieve a contract that honors the contributions of the part-time faculty and that benefits the university,” Beckman said yesterday.During the possible strike, part-time NYU professors who are members of the Adjuncts Coming Together–UAW (ACT-UAW) union would have been asked by the union to stop teaching classes and grading student work and to participate in picket lines.Some professors had contingency plans in place. History professor Daniel Walkowitz said yesterday that he had no plans to cross the picket lines and had scheduled his classes to meet off campus in the event of a strike. “I suspect [the strike] will cause more [disruption] than the administration acknowledges and less than the unions would like,” he said.Martha Bordman, who has been an adjunct at NYU for 20 years, said that if the last-ditch negotiations failed, she would stop teaching her classes, which might have been covered by a full-time faculty member. But she told The Scientist that, ideally, it wouldn't come to that. “We're hoping that they'll come to their senses,” she said yesterday.

Columbia grad students strike

Strike of adjunct faculty averted at the last minute this morning at NYU

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