TA Union Supporters Turn Out For Rally

Union rally demonstrates support for graduate union on national level

By Amba Datta

Summer News Editor

Columbia Daily Spectator

June 20, 2001

 

Members of Columbia's Graduate Student Employees United (GSEU) have protested the University's oppositional stance to the unionization of its teaching and research assistants at public forums and are continuing to oppose the University's position at National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) hearings that have been underway since April. Last Thursday, however, GSEU found a new forum for protest outside Columbia's 116th Street and Broadway gates as they joined over 300 students, community members, and union activists for a rally at noon as part of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organization's (AFL-CIO) annual union organizing recognition campaign, "Seven days in June."

Chanting slogans like "Union power in the ivory tower!" and "Columbia works because we do!" participants marched in what was an overwhelming demonstration of support for graduate student unionization at Columbia, both on a local and on a national level.

This year, Columbia's graduate student unionization campaign was one of the many stops on the AFL-CIO's tour scheduled for June 9 through 16 --- which included among other events a fast and vigil in Washington D.C. in honor of Justice for Janitors day --- that was meant to "join [unions] together to expose employers who block our freedom to join a union," according to the AFL-CIO website.

"It was very prestigious for them to choose Columbia," said David Carpio, a graduate student in the Department of Biological Sciences and GSEU organizer. "It shows that we're receiving national attention."

The purpose of the AFL-CIO tour was to unite community activists and central labor councils. In that spirit, rally speakers included President of the New York City Central Labor Council and President of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 3 Brian McLaughlin, New York State Assemblyman Ed Sullivan, New York City Council Member A. Gifford Miller, Northeast Regional Director of the United Auto Workers (UAW) Phil Wheeler, and UAW Local 2110 President Maida Rosenstein.

The rally was not attended by members of the Columbia administration.

All of the speakers, who demonstrated their support for the Columbia organizing campaign in the context of a larger labor movement, said that a union representing teaching and research assistants at Columbia was inevitable and had harsh words for the University, which continues to oppose the graduate student unionization movement.

Saying that the labor council had chosen Columbia as a rallying spot because of the University's denial of its graduate students' right to unionize, McLaughlin commented that, "Columbia really is at a crossroads. Columbia has the opportunity to be a good neighbor, to be part of New York City, to recognize the graduate students who work [and] who provide a service as employees of the University."

Miller said, "If they [the graduate students] want to be represented [by a union], and apparently they do, then the University should recognize that as does every other employer in the country."

Wheeler criticized the University's stance towards Local 2110, which represents clerical workers and support staff at Columbia as well, saying, "It's a shame to think that this 'progressive' university is again taking tactics against us that they used against the clerical staff --- that they are playing that game again is really disgusting."

Columbia clerical workers and support staff have gone on strike in the past during contract negotiations. UAW 2110 walked out of negotiations in 1997. The union is on the brink of negotiating a new contract with the University.

If the labor board certifies a secret ballot election on the Columbia campus, Columbia University could potentially become the second private university in the country to recognize a graduate student union, following New York University (NYU), which did so last year under pressure of a threatened teaching assistant strike.

GSEU members looked to NYU for inspiration in the unionization campaign at Columbia and share, with NYU's union, affiliation with UAW Local 2110.

"NYU's been a real model for us," said history graduate student Beverly Gage after GSEU filed with the NLRB for union representation at the end of March.

Kimberly Johnson, an NYU graduate student and union member who was present at the rally, commented on the precedent set by the NYU case, which Columbia opposes.

"Columbia is waiting for the courts to change in hope of getting a different ruling," she said, "and NYU is trying to stall [in contract negotiations] as well, but enough people are willing to fight, and we will have unions on campus."

Rosenstein commented on the hearings as well, which are currently focused upon the scope of the union bargaining unit. NLRB hearings supervisor Rhonda Gottlieb ruled in April that the University's primary argument for contesting its teaching and research assistants' employee status --- a line of reasoning commonly called the "educational relatedness" argument --- would not be a consideration in the Board's decision.

"Columbia is trying to revisit exactly what was already litigated at NYU," said Rosenstein. "It's a waste of money, and undergraduates and faculty should join us in outrage that the University should use so much money and resources on this fight."

A statement on the unionization of graduate teaching and research assistants was released by the University and distributed at the rally last Thursday.

The statement said that, while Columbia "is not opposed to unions," the University "thinks that, as a matter of educational policy, graduate student assistants should not be categorized as employees."

The statement referred to University concerns with a potential union's impact upon the faculty student relationship --- an issue that then Interim Dean of the Graduate School of the Arts and Sciences (GSAS) Gillian Lindt confirmed was a concern at a forum in April.

"Transforming the relationship between faculty and students into one of management and labor may create an adversarial form of communication, one that must necessarily be standardized and is frequently carried out through intermediaries," read the statement.

The statement echoed a letter circulated by University President George Rupp at the end of April in response to a letter authored by Professor of Astronomy and chair of the Executive Committee of the Faculty of the Arts and Sciences David Helfand, which urged the University to allow its students to organize an election without taking a position on the desirability of a graduate student union.

Recently, New York Democratic Senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer also wrote to Rupp, urging that the University end its oppositional stance to the union. Unlike Helfand's letter and a recent faculty statement signed by 75 professors, both of which maintained a neutral stance, the senators said that that they supported the union.

The recent statement by the University differed from Rupp's earlier letter in that it directly stated, "Columbia does not think that teaching and research fellows require a union to improve the support they receive from the University."

According to the statement, nearly 80 percent of the entering students doctoral students in GSAS are fully funded.

When asked about difficulties Columbia might have in increasing funding for GSAS students, Miller said, "As with any business, collective bargaining takes into considerations what resources are available."

GSAS' resources are currently directed towards implementation of the 1997 Graduate School Enhancement Plan, also called the Macagno Plan, after former GSAS Dean Eduardo Macagno, which seeks to increase the number of fully funded graduate students and equalize funding of graduate students in the humanities and social sciences with funding for students in the sciences. Full implementation of the plan will move GSAS towards the model of a smaller school with fully funded students.

The statement also said that the University questions whether undergraduates should be included in the bargaining unit for a union, although it is arguing that all graduate teaching and research assistants should be members of the bargaining unit. Currently, UAW argues that all teaching and research assistants on the Morningside campus should be represented by a union, which would effectively make undergraduates eligible to vote in a union election at Columbia. Since undergraduates were not part of the bargaining unit in the NYU case, there is no NLRB precedent for their inclusion in a teaching and research assistant union at a private university.