![]() “There could be many instances characterized by a deep lack of clarity, charged with ambiguity,” Mr. Katznelson said the university was not opposed to arbitration on its face, but that because graduate student workers are considered both students and employees at once, it would be difficult to determine when an arbitrator should be brought in and what evidence should be considered. ![]() These workers were generally afraid to come forward and file a report out of fear of repercussions, they said, or they felt that the university would only give faculty members a slap on the wrist. ![]() Union members said they had heard several stories from student workers about harassment or abuse from their advisers. In March, Ira Katznelson, who was then the university’s interim provost, proposed creating an appeals board made up of higher-education officials and employment law experts not affiliated with Columbia, who would hear appeals to the university’s case decisions on a rotating basis. The administration has resisted this demand, although it has said it would be open to more negotiations about its policy during mediation. Union members have argued that confining discrimination and harassment complaints to an internal review process overseen by the university creates an inherent conflict of interest when evaluating a student’s case against faculty members or advisers. Graduate student workers are the only campus workers without the option of third-party arbitration for discrimination and harassment. Neutral arbitration would allow students claiming they experienced harassment or discrimination to hire investigators or lawyers who are not affiliated with Columbia, outside of the university’s internal review process for complaints. One of the union’s biggest priorities is getting more third-party protections for students making discrimination and harassment claims - also known as neutral arbitration. The union is asking for a $45,000 wage floor for doctoral students on one-year contracts, with yearly increases of 3 percent in the second and third years. Student workers are calling for the university to pay them higher wages, provide dental and vision health coverage, and allow neutral third-party arbitration for cases of discrimination and harassment. The university has said it believes a strike could have been avoided, and that negotiations should be allowed to play themselves out. With a mostly new bargaining committee in place, the union voted to authorize a second strike in early November after members expressed renewed frustrations over the slow negotiation process. In May, all 10 members of the bargaining committee stepped down. But the agreement was rejected by union members amid reports of internal tension and dissatisfaction with the union’s bargaining committee. The first strike this year, which began in March and lasted more than a month, ended after the union reached a tentative agreement with the university. What’s the difference between this strike and the earlier one? Members said most of those classes are mandatory undergraduate core classes, of which there are about 300. Union members have estimated that about 130 classes have been canceled for the rest of the semester because of graduate instructors going on strike. The university declined to comment, referring instead to statements made by the administration and distributed campuswide. It’s one of a growing number of student worker unions striking for better working conditions across the country, including at New York University, which reached a contract after striking in the spring, and Harvard University, where a three-day strike ended in late October and a second strike was narrowly avoided this month after a tentative agreement was reached.Ĭolumbia University has indicated that it will only consider significant concessions through mediation, which began on Monday. The Student Workers of Columbia, a United Auto Workers Local 2110 union with about 3,000 graduate and undergraduate students, have been picketing to secure greater worker protections and higher wages since the beginning of the month. Frustrated over slow-moving contract negotiations, Columbia University’s graduate student workers are on strike for the second time this year, with a labor contract and the university’s fraught relationship with its graduate students on the line.
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