This past Friday, our union filed our response opposing Columbia’s recent ‘request for review’ to National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). You can read our response as well as Columbia’s filing to the board on our website.
The university’s ‘request for review’ is yet another effort to avoid bargaining with our union after our overwhelming 68% vote for unionization. In our response, we ask the NLRB to dismiss the administration’s claims that postdocs are akin to students and not employees, and that postdocs and ARSs do not share common interests that would make bargaining a contract together appropriate.They also argue that the NLRB decision that granted graduate employees at Columbia (and all private sector universities across the country) the right to form a union should be overturned.
We are disappointed at the administration’s attempts not only to avoid bargaining with our union, but to block all postdoctoral researchers and graduate employees at private universities from having the right to form unions. We hope the NLRB dismisses their attempted delay and that the administration agrees to comes to the table and negotiate a fair contract.
We are continuing to move forward with our bargaining committee election and making sure that everyone has an opportunity to take the union bargaining survey and get more involved with the union.
Please take a few minutes to complete a union bargaining survey.
Members of the CPW-UAW Organizing Committee