With our June 30 deadline looming, we have been tirelessly negotiating with Columbia to resolve our differences and come to a fair agreement (There’s still time to sign the open letter demanding a fair contract).
After substantial effort to find workable compromises on protections against discrimination and harassment, Columbia again took a hard line on timeliness, continuing to present a major obstacle to finishing a contract article critical to an overall fair agreement. In the last few days, we have made essential progress on discrimination and harassment protections. For example, the University has now agreed that all discrimination and harassment complaints may be appealed to a neutral arbitrator, despite concerns regarding the Trump administration’s new Title IX regulations. However, Columbia again rejected our proposal to have the right to appeal unresolved non-Title IX complaints to arbitration after 60 days. The University has acknowledged that historically, the majority of complaints have been resolved in 60 days, and that this is the timeline the Columbia EOAA office aspires to. We have even agreed to grant University requests for an extension where warranted. We believe this is a very reasonable timeline. But the administration team still insists on an additional automatic extra 30 days. A fair process takes time, but an untimely process can never be fair. We continue this fight tomorrow and will keep you posted. This is a high priority for protecting researchers across campus.
In solidarity,
CPW-UAW Bargaining Committee