Columbia University graduate workers strike gets wide support
"April 30 marks a week since graduate workers at New York City’s Columbia University began their strike in response to Columbia’s refusal to bargain with their union, Graduate Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers Local 2110.Columbia has refused to negotiate with the union for over a year, beginning in late 2016 when 72 percent of participating graduate workers voted to unionize. The university responded to the vote by filing objections with the National Labor Relations Board. After the NLRB ruled in favor of the GWC late last year, Columbia provost John Coatsworth announced this past January that the university would still refuse to negotiate with the union, claiming that graduate workers are not employees of the university and should not be able to unionize.Columbia’s refusal to bargain with the now-certified graduate workers’ union is a blatant violation of the labor laws that workers won through struggle.The strike, authorized by a vote of 93 percent in favor, is scheduled to end April 30, the last day of classes at Columbia. As final exams approach and term papers are turned in, graduate workers are withholding their labor to make clear to the administration their status as workers necessary to the functioning of the university."Read more here.
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