Bargaining Committee Vacancy Election

You are invited to this year’s 29th UAW Annual Civil and Human Rights Awards Ceremony, which will be held tomorrow (Thursday), February 4th at 7pm over zoom. Each year, UAW members in our region gather to celebrate achievements in fighting to expand our collective rights. This year’s keynote speaker will be Rep. Stacey Abrams, who will be presented with the Phil Wheeler Social Justice Award.

RSVP to join tomorrow’s event with fellow union members!

Over the course of her career, Stacey Abrams has founded multiple organizations devoted to enlarging civic engagement, voting rights, training and hiring young people of color, and tackling social issues. Most recently she has played a critical role in massively increasing voter turnout before the US Senate elections in Georgia, particularly among Black voters.

Best,

CPW-UAW Local 4100 Executive Board

P.S. – To stay informed about our union, make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook!

At this moment, the members of Teamsters Local 202 at Hunts Point Distribution Center are entering day 6 of their strike for a fair contract in the Bronx! The Hunts Point Produce Market supplies 60% of all produce in NYC, processing $2 billion in sales every year. Now the 1,400 frontline workers whose work provides the food that we eat are striking for a $1/hr raise—which management refuses to give them.

RSVP HERE TO JOIN TEAMSTERS 202 ON THE PICKET LINE! 

We know how hard it is to win a fair contract with a multibillion dollar institution. That’s why UAW members from across NYC are organizing to support our union siblings on strike outside the Hunts Point Produce Market at 772 Edgewater Rd, Bronx, NY 10474 this weekend (exact location here). 

There will be be UAW contingents at the following times:

• Friday, 1/22 @ 6pm
• Sunday, 1/24 @ 12pm

If you can’t make it to the picket line, you can still support our union siblings:

• Community strike fund: If you can’t make it, an additional community strike support fund has been organized by NYC-Democratic Socialists of America. Funds will go towards buying materials like food, coffee, and firewood for strikers. You can donate to the fund here: https://cash.app/$NYCDSATreasurer
• Social Media: Share your support for the strike on social media! Please use #HuntsPointStrike & tag @TeamstersJC16 in any posts that you make!

Let us know if you have any questions or thoughts about ways we can support fellow union members!

Best,

CPW-UAW Local 4100 Executive Board

P.S. – To stay informed about our union, make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook!

This is a reminder that we will hold our January membership meeting tomorrow (Thursday), 1/21 at 7pm. Please click here to RSVP for the meeting.

Among other topics, we will be voting on a calendar of Membership Meetings through April, 2021. Click here to let us know what times work best for you.

Other topics on the agenda:

• Progress towards majority membership
• Updates on setting up our local union (including deduction of union dues)
• The start of our university-wide committee on bullying
• Progress towards a second emergency childcare benefit
• Political advocacy and solidarity efforts

Please let us know if you have any questions or thoughts.

CPW-UAW Local 4100 Executive Board

P.S. – To stay informed about our union, make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook!

Today, January 18th, we celebrate and honor the legacy of civil, labor, and voting rights’ champion Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King’s non-violent movement transformed our society in a profound way, and his heritage still resonates today. 

Last year was beset with many unsettling events that shook our consciences and underlined the need to commit to progressive, anti-racist policies. The brutal killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and too many other Black americans at the hands of law enforcement agents, the devastating and racially unequal effects of the coronavirus pandemic in black, indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) communities, the disturbing attempts to suppress black and latinx voters’ rights in the general election, and most recently the white supremacist mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6th,  added to the systematically imposed burdens people of color face daily. It is clear that democracy, equality and secured civil rights can not be taken for granted and must be firmly protected with the utmost determination.

As scholars at Columbia University, we play a central role in the development of policies, research projects and studies that will have a huge impact in education, healthcare, and social justice. MLK’s fight for civil rights was inherently connected to his fight for social justice and labor rights. His teachings can guide us as academic unionized workers to blend the fight against racism and discrimination with the fight for workers’ rights and economic justice. 

This year, more than ever, we would like to encourage postdocs and ARSs to observe this federal holiday that has been deemed a national day of service and find ways to educate ourselves, engage in acts of service to the community and pledge to fight against racial injustice and support BIPOC communities. We won the right to paid holidays in our contract. If you have to work today, you also have the right to receive an alternate day off (Article 11).

We also encourage direct engagement with grassroots organizations including ones led by and serving the BIPOC community. These connections should be ongoing and a cornerstone of our pledge to fight against racial injustice. Together we can support our diverse neighbors in Upper Manhattan and beyond.

Finally, if you are interested in joining a working group aimed at starting a conversation on how we, postdocs and ARSs, can work through our union to make academia a more diverse, equitable and supportive environment for BIPOC researchers, please sign up here.

In solidarity,

CPW-UAW Local 4100 Executive Board

We will hold our January membership meeting next week on Thursday, 1/21 at 7pm.

Click here to RSVP for our January membership meeting.

Per our bylaws, at this meeting we will vote on a proposed schedule for upcoming membership meetings in February, March, and April. Please fill out this poll to provide your availability for upcoming meetings.

Other topics on the agenda:

• Progress towards majority membership
• Updates on setting up our local union (including deduction of union dues)
• The start of our university-wide committee on bullying
• Progress towards a second emergency childcare benefit
• Political advocacy and solidarity efforts
• Discussion of recent events

In order to have the power to enforce our contract and make improvements on issues like bullying, childcare, and more, it’s important that we reach majority membership as quickly as possible. The more of us helping talk with colleagues about signing up, the faster we will reach our goal. To talk with a steward or union leader about how you can help, click here.

Please let us know if you have any questions or thoughts.

CPW-UAW Local 4100 Executive Board

P.S. – To stay informed about our union, make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook!

Our stewards elections period is now over and we are happy to announce our first ever CPW stewards team! Click here to see who your stewards are. 

Your stewards are here to discuss and help with any concerns or questions you may have, whether specific to your workplace, funding, benefits, or more general thoughts about the current moment. With the ratification of our first union contract, we now have a process to help you advocate for yourself by enforcing workplace protections. Whenever you have questions or doubts arise, do not hesitate to reach out to your steward. 

We are still accepting nominations for stewards in multiple districts. So, if you don’t see your district represented yet or know that your district needs more than the current amount of stewards, please consider becoming a steward and reply to this email to learn more. The more stewards on the team, the better organized we will be for the year ahead. 

We are very excited to organize alongside the stewards! 

Solidarity, 

CPW-UAW Executive Board

At last week’s membership meeting, on Tuesday, December 15th, we heard updates on and discussed a range of topics and held several votes. Below you can find more details and ways to get involved to continue building our voice as postdoctoral researchers.

Anti-Bullying Committee and Working Group

We discussed implementing the committee we negotiated in our contract to develop recommendations on a university-wide bullying policy. The committee will likely begin early in the new year and will have representatives from different campus groups. We are committed to fighting for a strong policy that builds on our contract campaign to win real protections against bullying and power-based harassment. If you would like to participate in building this campaign, please join the Anti-Bullying Working Group.

Academic Workers’ Open-letter to President-elect Biden

We also discussed and voted to endorse an open letter addressed to President-elect Biden, drafted by our unionized graduate employee colleagues at the University of California, UAW Local 2865. You can read the letter here. It calls for a range of demands to support workers, including reforming our immigration system, public funding of universities, rolling back the Trump administration’s policies on sexual harassment, and universal healthcare, among other topics. Members voted overwhelmingly to sign onto such a letter along with our union colleagues. 

If you would be interested in joining a national, cross-union working group on one of the topics covered in the letter, please fill out this survey.

Columbia Tuition Strike

We heard from one of the undergraduate students organizing the tuition strike at Columbia. Over 3,000 students at Columbia are currently participating in order to protest increasing tuition costs alongside other demands, including bargaining in good faith with unions at the university. Members at the meeting voted overwhelmingly for the E-Board to draft a letter of support for the tuition strike. You can read their tuition strike pledge here: bit.ly/tuitionstrike and the letter from the E-Board here.

 UAW Community Action Program

One of the reasons we formed our union was to have a bigger voice in political decisions that affect us as researchers. We will soon begin discussions with our fellow UAW Locals in New York about which candidates to support in upcoming elections and which broad political goals to fight for. If you are interested in helping shape the political positions our Local Union take, send us an email at columbiapostdoctunion@gmail.com 

Progress on Steward Elections

Our Elections Committee reported the results from the stewards election. Sixteen stewards were elected by acclamation so far and there is one contested election in CUMC District 5 (which includes Allan Rosenfield Building, 60 Haven Avenue, Neurological Institute of New York, Lawrence C. Kolb Research Annex and New York State Psychiatric Institute), through this Wednesday, December 23, at 12pm (noon). If you work in this district you should have received an online ballot with which to vote. If you have not, please reach out to the Elections Committee at cpwuawelections@gmail.com. 

If you have any work-related issues or grievances, please reach out to the steward(s) from your district or fill out our workplace issue form here.

Please reach out if you have any questions,

CPW-UAW Local 4100 Executive Board

This is a reminder about our virtual December membership meeting tonight at 7pm.  We will discuss the election of Stewards and about upcoming committees with the administration regarding new policy against workplace bullying and the status of pay-direct postdocs in our unit. 

In addition, we will decide whether to support the initiative from UAW Academic Locals to send this letter to the Biden administration and the tuition strike of undergraduate students at Columbia University. [See the full proposed agenda below.]

RSVP for the meeting here

In order to vote at this meeting you must be a member of CPW-UAW Local 4100. If you are receiving this email you have not signed up as a member yet. Click here to fill in a membership card. 

Proposed Agenda

• Call to order – 1min
• Additions/changes/deletions to the agenda – 2min
• Approval of agenda – 1min
• Reading of the minutes of the previous meeting – 2min
• Election committee update about Stewards election – 8min
• Tuition strike at Columbia – 15min
• Report and discussion from UAW Academic Locals letter to Biden – 20min
• Bullying Committee – 10min
• Executive Board reports – 5min
• Update about Columbia’s COVID-19 vaccination program – 5min
• Does anyone know of a member in distress or have general announcements or updates – 5min
• Adjournment – 1min

TOTAL 1hr 15min

Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or suggestions, 

CPW-UAW Local 4100 Executive Board

Check out this op-ed by members of our union on why Columbia should support parents

We recently delivered our petition calling for an extension to the emergency childcare benefit to Interim Provost Katznelson. He indicated that Columbia was continuing to weigh its options given the fiscal constraints imposed by the pandemic. While we understand these constraints, the lack of affordable childcare imposes an unrealistic burden on parents, undermining efforts towards gender equity in academia and research progress. If you haven’t already, please sign our petition so we can continue to put pressure on Columbia: https://bit.ly/supportCUparents

Reminder: Membership Meeting this Tuesday!

As a reminder, our December membership meeting will be held on Tuesday, December 15th at 7pm. We will discuss the election of our first Stewards and upcoming committees with the administration to develop a new policy against workplace bullying, and the status of pay-direct postdocs in our unit. We will also discuss political efforts led by other academic UAW locals.

Click here to RSVP for the meeting

Upcoming COVID-19 Vaccine Seminars

The university administration has announced a set of principles for the distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine, as well as two town hall meetings to discuss its distribution plan. We encourage all Postdocs and ARS to attend a town hall to learn more about the university’s plan. You can register at the links below:

• Register here for the session on Monday, December 14, from 1:00 – 2:15 p.m.
• Register here for the session on Tuesday, December 15, from 4:00 – 5:15 p.m.   

 Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or thoughts,

CPW-UAW Local 4100 Executive Board

The December membership meeting will be held on Tuesday, December 15th at 7pm. We will discuss the election of Stewards and about upcoming committees with the administration regarding new policy against workplace bullying and the status of pay-direct postdocs in our unit. We will also discuss political efforts led by other academic UAW locals.