Our second session took place in a bigger room, but we still had observers lining the wall!

Our elected bargaining committee had our second bargaining session with the Columbia administration this past Monday. While we were able to make progress on two proposals the University made last session, Joint Union Management Committee and Copyright & Intellectual Property, we were disappointed to learn that Columbia’s team did not have responses to any of our proposals.

The University’s team did engage us in more discussion on our proposals. On Appointments, despite acknowledging postdoc/ARS job instability and unpredictability over this past year, the University downplayed the issue of short-term reappointments and the idea that longer renewal notices would alleviate stress among postdocs. We will keep fighting for greater stability for postdocs and ARS including basic appointment protections that exist in other NYC postdoc union contracts.

On International Employees, we were pleased to learn that the University agrees that providing the maximum DS-2019 length eases the burden on international researchers and that this is something several departments already do. They also acknowledged that 1 day leave for visa stamp renewal is insufficient, but did not counter our proposal of 15 days.

We provided counter proposals on Copyright and Intellectual Property and Joint-Union Management Committee in an attempt to make progress in the negotiations. The University had initially proposed to remove language concerning holding a meeting with our Union on IP policy. After mutually agreeing on the importance of being able to have such meetings, we proposed having the option to meet as needed.

The University also initially proposed removing the side letter from our contract that established a meeting with the Union to discuss diversity in hiring as well as bathroom equity, and adding language that would include discussion of such topics into our Joint Union Management Committee. After confirming that the University’s proposal would not limit discussion on these topics, we agreed to remove the side letter and provided a counter proposal with modified language to be consistent with our contract. We emphasized to the University that this was a big step on our part in the hope of continuing movement towards an agreement prior to contract expiration on June 30th.

Columbia’s bargaining team said they need more time to respond to our proposals but they would bring a proposal on Non-Discrimination to our next session, which you can RSVP for here. We re-emphasized the urgency of making progress in areas crucial for job stability, such as Appointments and International Employees, before moving to the economic stage of negotiations.

You can find details on the proposals and counter proposals on our Bargaining Tracker.

What are the next steps?

We will be bargaining on several more dates! Please register to join a session here:

  • Wednesday, April 29th, 1:00PM – 5:00PM, in Studebaker Building Room 469
  • Monday, May 11th, 2:00PM – 5:00 PM, tentatively at CUMC, room TBD
  • Thursday, May 21st, 12:00PM – 4:00 PM, location TBD
  • Thursday, May 28th, 12:00PM – 4:00PM, tentatively at CUMC, room TBD
  • Monday, June 1st, 1:30PM – 5:00PM, location TBD
  • Friday, June 12th, time and location TBD

We will be adding additional bargaining dates in May and June as needed to ensure we can work with management to reach an agreement ahead of contract expiration. Please join the slack channel to receive updates during bargaining sessions, and get in contact if you want to help organize for the campaign!

Solidarity,

Anna Yoney, ARS, Genetics and Development
The CPW-UAW 4100 Bargaining Committee