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BIG CONGRATULATIONS to all Columbia graduating students! Seeing you on campus on the Commencement day was 🤩🤩 Wishing you all the best and all the success you deserve in any path you will choose! During the event, we extended our congratulations, handed out flyers and informed graduate students about unionized institutions they could consider during their postdoctoral work. In our contract negotiation with Columbia’s administration, we are advocating for a more favorable agreement for Postdocs and ARSs who struggle to meet their needs while maintaining the highest quality of their research.

At our 4th bargaining session our Bargaining committee have presented all our non-economic proposals and now it is in the Administration’s court to respond how much are they willing to spend on supporting postdocs/ARSs. Despite us repeatedly saying that we want a compensation proposal for the next session they just replied with vagueness that we may get one on May 23rd. We may need to increase the pressure! Join the sessions – Witness the negotiation as it unfolds! Join the Organizing Committee and our slack for live updates and commentary during the bargaining sessions. Click to read reports of all the Bargainig Sessions. 

At 10 am we and the American Association of University Professors delivered a petition to reimburse the retirement contributions that were frozen in 2021 due to pandemic-related financial decisions. 800+ signatures were delivered to the Provost’s office!  There was no financial hardship for CU Admin during the pandemic >> see the financial report for Columbia University! 🔥🔥

CPW-UAW members funded an investigation of Columbia’s finances jointly with the Columbia chapter of AAUP, the American Association of University Professors. On May 2nd heard from Howard Bunsis, an institutional finance expert and professor of accounting at Eastern Michigan University who has examined the publicly available financial data for several universities, including Johns Hopkins, and Rutgers. This has allowed researchers at these institutions to contradict claims of institutional poverty and highlight management bloat. Want to know how much money the university has made from your research? Want to know how much of that money is going towards raises for top administrators? Click to watch the meeting and/or read the report

While bargaining was happening, union members had the chance to present their amazing scientific work at the postdoctoral research symposium – and showed their support for the ongoing bargaining! The symposium was a chance to catch up on the latest research news and simultaneously, exchange ideas on bargaining. 40 out of 57 posters displaying flyers in support of our Union. THANK YOU to everyone who is showing us their solidarity, appreciation, and gratitude to what the CPW is doing. It’s been very fulfilling. We couldn’t make it without your support. 🤓✊

After our 3rd Bargaining Session we gathered at Lamont for an update on negotiations with coffee, T-shirts and the lovely Lamont campus vibe. We discussed why we need a fair contract that includes improvements in our contract demands!

10 am, collective walking to Studebaker building and bargaining table formation. We filled the room and put forward our proposals. [Click to read more]

We discussed the process and agreed to close the feedback period for members to submit final edits to our contract in three days. Click check our presentation from the April meeting

In anticipation of our upcoming negotiations, the Bargaining Committee emailed a package containing a description of our bargaining goals and the changes we propose to our contract and some guidelines on negotiation parameters and modalities between our two bargaining committees including hybrid bargaining. [Click to check our Proposed Contract Changes and our Proposed Rules for Bargaining]

We discussed the process and agreed to close the feedback period for members to submit final edits to our contract in three days. Click check our presentation from the April meeting