Clinton, Schumer Support TA Union

Senators urge Rupp to allow union representation election at Columbia

By Amba Datta

Summer News Editor

Columbia Daily Spectator

June 13, 2001

 

As the movement to unionize the University's teaching and research assistants prepares to enter its fourth month since Columbia's Graduate Student Employees United (GSEU) filed in March for union representation with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), more parties are weighing in with their opinions on what the University's proper response to unionization should be.

In a letter sent recently to University President George Rupp, New York Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Charles Schumer (D-NY) said they supported an NLRB- supervised secret ballot election on the Columbia campus, which would determine whether GSEU, which is affiliated with the United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2110, would be the bargaining agent for Columbia's teaching assistants (TAs) and research assistants (RAs).

"We believe that if Columbia University teaching and research assistants choose to unionize, they should be allowed to do so without interference from the administration," read the letter. "We ask you to allow this election to move forward, and to adopt a position of neutrality in the election."

David Carpio, a graduate student in the Biological Sciences Department and GSEU organizer, commented that "This is really big news. We are all very excited about the support Senators Schumer and Clinton have shown our campaign."

Rupp said that he preferred to keep details of any correspondence private, according to Alan Stone, vice president of the University's Office of Public Affairs.

Stone said that the University was not revising its position on unionization. The University challenged the right of its graduate students to unionize at NLRB hearings that started in April and will continue its oppositional stance at the hearings, which are scheduled through the end of June. The University maintains that graduate students are primarily students and not employees, and that a potential union should represent all graduate students at Columbia.

At a town meeting in April on unionization, Interim Dean of the Graduate School of the Arts and Sciences Gillian Lindt, who will be succeeded on June 15 by recently named successor and Professor of Mathematics Henry Pinkham, said that the Administration is concerned with the impact a union might have upon the faculty-student relationship and academic issues, and with the possibility of strikes.

The University's position has come under fire from other groups recently, including its own faculty. Clinton and Schumer's letter follows hard on the heels of a letter written for the Executive Committee of the Faculty of the Arts and Sciences (ECFAS), a committee which helps to set priorities and resource allocations for the departments in the School of Arts and Sciences, by ECFAS chair and Professor of Astronomy David Helfand. A recent statement signed by 75 faculty members also questioned the University's course of action with respect to unionization.

Although he has not responded publicly to the Senators' letter, Rupp's response to Helfand's earlier letter outlined the Administration's position.		 "Our position is straightforward," said Rupp in his letter. "While we endorse the role of unions in representing employees...we do not consider it appropriate for students who do some teaching or conduct research in the course of their degree programs to be unionized."

In a departure from the tone of Helfand's letter and the faculty statement, neither of which took a stance upon the desirability of a union for TAs and RAs at Columbia, Clinton and Schumer's letter urged the University "to build a bridge between the worlds of academia and labor."

The letter continued, "We urge you to embrace this opportunity and work with the UAW to develop a resolution that will benefit both the student employees and the University."

Said Carpio, "They [Clinton and Schumer] repeat what we've been saying all along, that together, the administration and the union can vastly improve graduate employee working conditions and the quality of education here at Columbia."

Professor of Psychology David Krantz, who helped to organize the faculty statement, said that, although the statement on unionization did not take a position on the issue, he believed that "most signers were making a general gesture of support toward the union movement."

Clinton and Schumer's letter also urged the University to follow the precedent set by the NLRB decision granting graduate students employee status in the case of New York University (NYU), which recently became the first private university to grant recognition to its graduate student union.

"We believe the NLRB will use the NYU case as precedent for future decisions," the senators said in the letter.

In his response to Helfand's letter, Rupp stated, "Many of us deem that decision to be wrong on the merits and extremely adverse to the prospects of the relatively few private universities likely to have a union for teaching and research assistants." Clinton and Schumer could not be reached for comment.

Stone said that the University had received other correspondence on the issue of unionization. Carpio confirmed that the movement to unionize Columbia's graduate students has received the support of many politicians and that "a full list" of those supporters would be released in the near future.

"This overwhelming and widespread support is thrilling, and the university community will be inspired by the number of local and national politicians who are standing behind Columbia's graduate employees," said Carpio.

In another show of support for the union, the AFL-CIO has designated the Columbia campus as one of its stops for "Seven days in June," an annual event in which politicians, community activists, and religious figures visit union organizing sites around the country. Tomorrow, Thursday, June 14, a rally will take place at noon near the 116th and Broadway gates. Both University support staff, who are about to begin new contract negotiations, and graduate students are expected to attend.