{"id":6893,"date":"2023-06-28T09:50:16","date_gmt":"2023-06-28T13:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/columbiapostdocunion.org\/?p=6893"},"modified":"2023-06-28T10:40:35","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T14:40:35","slug":"june-22nd-12th-negotiating-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/columbiapostdocunion.org\/june-22nd-12th-negotiating-session\/","title":{"rendered":"June 22nd, 12th NEGOTIATING SESSION"},"content":{"rendered":"
June 22th, 10:30 AM @ Hammer, Room LL-210<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Informal Organizing Committee notes<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Your participation in Bargaining is very much appreciated! Join us in person<\/a> or on our Slack channel<\/a> to share your opinion\/thoughts\/concerns.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Take home message<\/strong> – We have submitted an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) complaint to the National Labor Relations Board (Federal entity that mediates employee-employer relations). The reason behind this complaint is our belief that CU (the employer or management) is not engaging in good faith bargaining. While we have noticed a slight improvement in CU’s willingness to negotiate more honestly, it remains uncertain whether this will be enough to reach a fair agreement by June 30<\/em> or continue bargainig pass that date.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The CU Admin arrived at 11:05 am. To kick off the session, we requested written confirmation of the verbal offers they discussed in the last session. These offers covered Childcare, Discipline and Discharge, Bullying, and Power-based Harassment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The CU Admin took a break to consider articles where they believed agreement was possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At 12:56 pm, the CU Admin returned with an updated counter-proposal package labeled “REVISED OFFER SETTLEMENT<\/a>” (details below).<\/p>\n\n\n\n After a lunch break and caucus at 1:10 pm, we shared our ECONOMIC PACKAGE<\/a>. We made sure to simplify the language in our Compensation Article, as the CU Admin found it confusing in the previous session. Our aim was to provide clarity while maintaining our demands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At 4:24 pm, we regrouped and asked for clarification regarding their Offer of Settlement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are the changes in the CU administration’s offer, along with some of the clarifications we received from them:<\/p>\n\n\n\n ARTICLE 2: APPOINTMENTS<\/a> – <\/p>\n\n\n\n Miscellaneous in relation to ARTICLE 3: BENEFITS<\/a> – <\/p>\n\n\n\n ARTICLE 7: DISCHARGE AND DISCIPLINE<\/a> – <\/p>\n\n\n\n ARTICLE 9: GRIEVANCE AND ARBITRATION<\/a> – <\/p>\n\n\n\n ARTICLE 12: INTERNATIONAL EMPLOYEES<\/a> – <\/p>\n\n\n\n Side Letter on ABUSIVE OR INTIMIDATING BEHAVIOR AS PROHIBITED CONDUCT<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n After asking questions about their package we brought up some of the topics in which we think we are far apart: <\/p>\n\n\n\n We have confirmed with several Fellows on T32s at Mount Sinai that they receive W2, and are considered employees. We offered CU Admin that Fellows from Mt. Sinai will be happy to come to our negotiations to testify. We also reiterated our request for information, which has been ignored so far, as to why Columbia does not want to consider Fellows to be employees and receive full benefits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After the session the Administration sent us the following email stating clearly in our opinion that is not that they can\u2019t recognize Fellows as employees, it\u2019s just that they don\u2019t want to: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Email From Columbia’s Labor Relations<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n After getting an update about yesterday\u2019s session, I wanted to clear up some possible confusion as it to relates to Postdoctoral Fellows and Postdoctoral Scholars and Scientists. <\/em> It is not the University\u2019s bargaining position that Postdoctoral Fellows at some point cannot transition from a fellowship to be an employee. Rather, the University\u2019s position in response to your proposal is that it will not agree nor be restricted to classifying all Postdoctoral Fellows as employees unless the granting agency strictly prohibits it. The University is permitted to exercise its managerial rights which grants the University certain decision-making authority in areas such as employee classification, compensation, and benefits not restricted by the terms of the collective bargaining agreement.<\/em><\/strong> Furthermore, it’s important to note that the decision is not solely determined by the preference of the University. There are legal and regulatory considerations involved, and the University needs to ensure compliance with applicable laws and guidelines. Likewise, we are currently classifying Postdoctoral Fellows consistent with how other comparable institutions also treat Postdoctoral Fellows as we have noted at bargaining sessions.<\/em> The University is open to engaging in constructive dialogue on these matters and has demonstrated our willingness to work on these matters. I have included links for items that we have shared during our negotiation sessions.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you need any additional relevant information as it relates to the RFI to answer your questions, please let me know.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n After discussing their Offer of Settlement we reinstated OUR framework to settle a contract. It needs to include more movement on their side in economic articles: <\/p>\n\n\n\n As we have repeated several times, if we are going to adjust our proposal on salaries, we need to see some movement in the housing stipend and childcare.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n CU Admin responded that our offer is still unreasonable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We reiterated that in the current status Columbia is making profit from research, growing its endowment, generating operating surplus year after year, instead of supporting research and workers as other institutions in the city do (with subsidized housing or more affordable healthcare). It is Columbia’s core mission to use resources to support research and struggling postdocs\/ARSs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Towards the end of the session we informed them that we filed an Unfair Labor Practice<\/a><\/strong> (ULP) with the National Labor Relations Board (Federal entity that mediates employee-employer relations) because we believe CU is not bargaining in good faith! And this behavior is illegal (see below for details).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our case in the Unfair Labor Practice:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their response: <\/p>\n\n\n\n At 6:38 PM the session ends.<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n The ULP has made CU Admin offer us two sessions the week after to try to reach an agreement. In addition, following the session they sent us an email finally stating clearly in our opinion that is not that they can\u2019t recognize Fellows as employees, it\u2019s just that they don\u2019t want to [See above]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Read the notes from the other sessions<\/a>!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Follow our next emails with updates on future steps and debriefing sessions!!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Reach out to us to get involved!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Follow us on social media! Twitter<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, TikTok<\/a>, Facebook<\/a>, and join our and Slack<\/a>\u200b.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Share this info with your friends and colleagues!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" June 22th, 10:30 AM @ Hammer, Room LL-210 Informal Organizing Committee notes Your participation in Bargaining is very much appreciated! Join us in person or on our Slack channel to share your opinion\/thoughts\/concerns. Take home message – We have submitted<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6894,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/columbiapostdocunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6893"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/columbiapostdocunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/columbiapostdocunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/columbiapostdocunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/columbiapostdocunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6893"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/columbiapostdocunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6899,"href":"https:\/\/columbiapostdocunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6893\/revisions\/6899"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/columbiapostdocunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/columbiapostdocunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/columbiapostdocunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/columbiapostdocunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Columbia Offer of Settlement<\/em><\/strong>: <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Discussion on equality for Fellows: <\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Discussion on the economic framework<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Unfair Labor Practice<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nDO YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE?<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n