Bargaining Committee Vacancy Election

Please join us at the next online CPW Local 4100 membership meeting this Friday evening, 10/30 at 6pm. The Bylaws Committee will present an updated draft of bylaws for our Local Union, in response to the comments and feedback you all have provided about the initial draft.

The Bylaws Committee is still accepting additional feedback on the initial draft of our bylaws through this online form until this Thursday, 10/29 at noon. After the Bylaws Committee presents the updated draft at this Friday’s meeting, the membership will vote online on whether to approve the bylaws for three days through November 2nd.    

RSVP for the Membership Meeting

In order to attend the membership meeting and provide feedback, please sign up before the meeting here.

In solidarity,

CPW-UAW Local 4100 Executive Board

Click here to read the initial draft of our Local Union bylaws.

At our membership meeting on Monday, our Bylaws Committee presented an initial draft of bylaws for our Local Union. The Bylaws will provide the democratic governance structure for our union and establish the rights of union members in that structure. As a member of our local union, your active participation in the formation of these bylaws is highly encouraged – please read through the draft and offer whatever feedback you may have to the Bylaws Committee.

The Bylaws Committee will be accepting feedback on the bylaws through Thursday, October 29th at 12pm. Click here to submit feedback on the draft.

Based on this feedback, the Bylaws Committee will develop a final draft which will be presented at a membership meeting on October 30th, followed by an online vote to approve the bylaws through November 2nd.

Support Researcher Parents during COVID-19

Columbia introduced a temporary childcare subsidy during July and August addressing urgent problems with scarce and increasingly expensive childcare during COVID-19. However, these problems continue to exist. Furthermore, the partial re-opening of schools, and increasing infection rates across NYC, have only added to the uncertainty and stress we all experience.

Our newly-formed Parents Working Group is continuing the fight for a more inclusive and equitable Columbia by calling on the university administration to extend the emergency childcare benefit for parents during COVID-19.

Please, regardless of your parental status, add your name to the petition to support parents in our unit and across the broader Columbia community.

CPW-UAW Local 4100 Executive Board

This is a reminder that we will be holding an online membership meeting this evening, 10/19 at 7pm. As the primary agenda item, the Bylaws Committee will present an initial draft of bylaws for our Local Union, as well as answer questions and collect feedback about the draft. The Bylaws will provide the democratic governance structure for our union and establish the rights of union members in that structure. If you would like to review it before tonight’s meeting, you may read the initial draft of our bylaws here.

After the meeting, the Bylaws Committee intends to allow 10 days for members to provide additional feedback through this online form. Based on this feedback, the Bylaws Committee will develop a final draft. We will have a second membership meeting on October 29th to present the final draft. The membership will vote online on whether to approve the bylaws for three days between Friday, October 30th, to Sunday, November 1st.

RSVP for the Membership Meeting

In solidarity,

CPW-UAW Local 4100 Executive Board

Submit a comment on Trump’s new xenophobic visa restrictions!

As many of you know, the Trump administration recently proposed new rule changes for F and J visas. These changes would dramatically shorten the length of time international students and scholars may remain in the U.S. before having to apply for a visa renewal. UAW academic workers across the country are submitting comments on the proposed changes. The more comments we generate, the more we can delay the new rules going into effect. The deadline to submit a comment is October 26th. Click here to submit your comment on these changes in just a few minutes with an online template.

These proposed rule changes are just the latest in a sequence of attacks on immigrants that included the recent visa revocations from over one thousand Chinese students and scholars. Sign our petition against unfair visa revocations here.

Please let us know if you would like to get involved with fighting for international researcher rights.          

In solidarity,

CPW-UAW Local 4100 Executive Board

RSVP for our October Membership Meeting!

Our next CPW-UAW Membership Meeting will be held on October 19th, at 7pm over zoom.

At the meeting, our Bylaws Committee will present an initial draft of a set of Local Union Bylaws, which will provide a governance structure for our union, including voting procedures, electing representatives, standing committees, and other topics. The Committee will use feedback from the discussion to produce a final draft which will be put to a vote by the membership. We will also discuss updates on organizing, working groups, and progress with implementing our contract.

Best,

CPW-UAW Local 4100 Executive Board

Tell Columbia to extend the COVID-19 Emergency Childcare Benefit!

Columbia introduced a temporary childcare subsidy during July and August addressing urgent problems with scarce and increasingly expensive childcare during COVID-19. However, these problems continue to exist. Furthermore, the partial re-opening of schools and increasing infection rates across NYC, have only added to the uncertainty and stress we all experience. 

Our newly-formed Parents Working Group is continuing the fight for a more inclusive and equitable Columbia by calling on the university administration to extend the emergency childcare benefit for parents during COVID-19.

Please, regardless of your parental status, add your name to the petition to support parents in our unit and across the broader Columbia community. 

In solidarity,

CPW-UAW Local 4100 Executive Board

Click here to RSVP for our first membership meeting!

We will be holding our first membership meeting this Thursday, October 1st at 7pm via Zoom. Some of the topics we hope to discuss at our first meeting are:

• Building to majority membership and a strong Local Union
• Fighting back against Trump’s attacks on Chinese researchers and visa-holders
• Winning more support for parents at Columbia during COVID-19
• Potential initiatives to support underrepresented groups in Academia
• Reports from our Bylaws and Elections committees
• Progress with enforcing our contract
• Working with other unions in NYC
• Other concrete next steps in building our local chapter.

And tomorrow at 12pm EST, we’re co-sponsoring an info session with other UAW academic workers on the Trump Administration’s new visa rule proposals. Join to learn how the changes, if accepted, would affect J and F visa-holders and how we can fight back. Click here to register for the event.

We won a historic first contract by actively participating in our union. Sign up as a member today so we can keep building researcher power at Columbia.

Sign a Membership Card!

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or thoughts,

CPW-UAW Local 4100 Executive Board

Please join us for the first membership meeting of the CPW-UAW Local 4100 union on Thursday, October 1st at 7pm via Zoom. Topics covered will also include our short- and long-term visions for the union, and concrete next steps in building our local chapter. We will discuss specific ways in which we all can support workers in our unit, other unions affiliated with Columbia University, and other academic unions across the country. Most of all, we are excited to introduce ourselves as your new Executive Board and hear any questions and ideas all of you may have about the future of our union.

If you have not already signed a Membership Card, please do so [here https://columbiapostdocunion.org/get-involved-form/online-membership-card/] – REMINDER, even if you signed a support card before or during contract negotiations, you MUST sign our new Membership Card in order to be considered a member of the union.

Below is a Zoom link for the membership meeting; we look forward to seeing you there!

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYvd-Cgpj8qEtbVz2_3XOJKIgcvPUO1CzXw

Best,

Your newly elected CPW-UAW Local 4100 Executive Board  

Sign our petition calling on Universities to protect international researchers!

In reaction to reports that the Trump administration has revoked the visas of more than 1,000 Chinese students and scholars, we are joining academic workers from UAW unions across the US in calling on our University administration to take steps to protect international researchers. From the details that are available, it is clear that the Trump administration’s enforcement of this rule is more about targeting and scapegoating international scholars than protecting sensitive intellectual property.

All affected individuals deserve due process. This is why we are calling on Columbia to to:

• Continue paying targeted individuals despite their visa revocations, so they are not harmed financially by allegations that might be political.

• Provide legal resources so our colleagues can adequately defend themselves.

• Create a rapid-response task force composed of international students and scholars to support international employees and advise the university administration.

If you are affected by these latest visa revocations, please reach out by replying to this email. UAW academic workers are committed to protecting each other and sharing information and resources, and we will assist you with any issues or grievances that you may have. Please take a moment to sign this petition to the Columbia administration, calling on them to protect and support affected Chinese students and scholars.

In solidarity,

CPW-UAW Local 4100 Executive Board

The nomination period for the election of the CPW-UAW Local 4100 Executive Board closed on September 12, 2020 at 5:00 P.M. At the close of the nomination period, the number of candidates did not exceed the number of positions. Therefore, these candidates are elected by acclamation to their respective positions, and there will be no election. The results are as follows:

President: Cora Bergantinos-Crespo

Vice President: Melissa McKenzie

Financial Secretary: Pierre-Jacques Brun

Recording Secretary: Medini Annavajhala

Trustees: Panos Oikonomou, Tulsi Patel, Andrew Zaharia

Sergeant in Arms: Álvaro Cuesta-Domínguez

Guide: Nicholas Tay

Congratulations to these candidates! These results will also be posted on the CPW-UAW Local 4100 website (columbiapostdocunion.org)

Best,

CPW-UAW Local 4100 Elections Committee