Columbia's Student Workers, University Reach Agreement

A tentative contract agreement between student workers at Columbia University and school officials ended a 10-week strike by graduate instructors and others, and could also conclude a long and fractious bargaining tug of war.

If ratified by the rank-and-file in a vote later this month, the four-year deal would give workers increased wages, enhanced workplace rights and protections, improved health benefits and increased child-care subsidies.

Rejected Deal Last Spring

Significantly, the agreement grants students neutral, third-party arbitration to resolve harassment, discrimination and other complaints, a provision the student workers had long sought but which the university had declined to include in any previous agreement. That stipulation was not included in a tentative deal reached last spring following mediation, and likely led to its narrow defeat and to discord between the bargaining committee and the student workers being represented.

The defeat led to a revamping of a bargaining committee and, eventually, the walkout that concluded Jan. 7, the day after the two sides reached agreement. The union, the Student Workers of Columbia, is in the midst of a 15-day discussion period. A five-day voting period beginning Jan. 22 will follow. 

Among the agreement’s highlights are immediate raises for PhD students of at least $3,000 a year, retroactive to August. Student employees doing instructional or research work now making $15 an hour would earn $21. Improved health and other benefits would include a 125-percent increase in child-care subsidies for some PhD students. 

'A Challenging Period'

The two sides agreed on a non-discrimination and harassment provision that provides access to neutral, independent, third-party arbitration on any grounds. The university agreed to bolster its equal-opportunity and affirmative-action investigative and appeals process, which was also among the union’s cornerstone demands.

The agreement would also recognize all student workers who provide instructional services as part of the unit. They include teaching assistants, graduate research assistants, departmental research assistants, teaching fellows, readers, graders and others.

“We are thrilled to announce that we have reached a tentative agreement with @columbia. This is a historic moment for labor in higher ed, and it is just the beginning. We look forward to getting back to work and compensation for our back work,” the union tweeted.

Organizers did not respond to an interview request. 

Columbia’s provost, Mary C. Boyce, said the deal would allow the Ivy League university to begin its new term Jan. 18 on sound footing.

'A Challenging Period'

“There is no doubt that this has been a challenging period for the University, yet all who were involved in collective bargaining shared the common goal of creating a stronger Columbia for those who teach and learn, conduct research, discover and innovate, work and study here,” she said in a statement. If ratified, the agreement “would make Columbia a leader in higher education on a long list of issues affecting student employees,” said Ms. Boyce, a Professor of Mechanical Engineering, said. 

The contract would cover about 3,000 graduate-student workers, including Teaching Assistants, Graduate Research Assistants and departmental Research Assistants. It would come about five years after the student workers organized, and nearly three years since bargaining began. 

The graduate-student workers first walked away from their research, teaching and administrative jobs March 15. 

As do research universities throughout the country, both public and private, Columbia leans heavily on graduate-student workers to teach, grade papers and conduct research. 

The unionization effort at the Morningside Heights institution reaches back at least two decades, but was held back for years by a 2004 National Labor Relations Board decision that graduate workers at private universities were primarily students and therefore not entitled to collective-bargaining rights. The NLRB overturned that finding in in 2016, giving the grad students the right to once again bargain collectively.