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Our Bargaining Committee joined  Presbyterian Hospital nurses on their picket line as they fought for a fair contract.

Columbia, in accordance with the agreement, requested withdrawal of the request for review of our union, which was granted by the National Labor Relations Board on December 4th. Now that a majority of Postdoctoral Researchers have filled out the Union Bargaining Surveys we are getting ready to start Bargaining soon!! The bargaining survey allows everyone to democratically shape what improvements our union bargains for. Having a majority of postdoctoral researchers fill out the bargaining surveys will allow our bargaining committee, to be in the best position to negotiate a strong contract.

As a result of all of our hard work over the last few years and GWC’s  strike (the Grad Union) Columbia University proposed a framework agreement to recognize and bargain with both Unions. Postdoctoral researcher voted 95% in favor of the agreement which also was approved by the Grad workers. We keep moving towards bargaining no later than February 25th 2018!!

After holding Town Halls across campuses discussing about the best composition of our Bargaining Committee to ensure we can win a first strong contract, we elected seven of our peers (plus an alternate) to represent us in the bargaining table with Columbia.

Columbia launched another effort to avoid bargaining with our union by filing a “request for review” asking the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Washington, DC to reverse the recent certification of our union by the regional NLRB in New York City.  In the mean time our historic election in the first private university in the country gained national press attention as well as support from elected leaders right here in New York City.

We joined Ben Kallos in delivering a letter signed by 18 members of the Progressive Caucus of the New York City Council to President Lee Bollinger urging the University to respect our 68% mandate for collective bargaining and to bargain with the GWC-UAW Local 2110 Graduate Workers of Columbia.

Leading to the election we hold Town Halls and hundres of conversation across campus and finally on October 2nd and 3rd we voted by an overwhelming 68% (729-yes to 339-no), in favor of Columbia Postdoctoral Workers-UAW as our union.

The regional NLRB rejected Columbia’s attempt to deny more than 1,000 of us the ability to vote at all, and further agreed with our proposal for Postdoctoral Research Scientists/Scholars/Fellows and Associate Research Scientists/Scholars to vote on and be represented together in the same union

Two postdoctoral researcher witnesses give testimony about their experiences at Columbia showing  the common conditions and nature of our work whether we are classified as Postdoctoral Research Scientists/Scholars, Postdoctoral Research Fellows or Associate Research Scientists/Scholars.

Columbia attempted to schedule additional hearing time to put on evidence and testimony to support their argument that Postdoctoral Research Scientists (PDRS) and Postdoctoral Research Fellows (PDRF) are not employees and should be denied the right to a union.