The Wrong Challenge

Staff Editorial

Columbia Daily Spectator

April 23, 2001

 

When Columbia University went to court last week to challenge the concept of teaching assistants as employees, it openly abandoned a position of neutrality. This lack of neutrality has set the stage for a major dispute between the University and its graduate students. The decision to fight the union effort indicates the University's desire to change an already difficult decision facing graduate students into a bitter quarrel.

Among other anti-union actions, Columbia has retained noted anti-union law firm Proskauer Rose, LLP to represent it in National Labor Relations Board hearings. Proskauer Rose says on its website, "With respect to union relationships, we counsel clients how to avoid and, where appropriate, resist union organization of employees and we handle all phases of the administrative and court proceedings that arise from union organizing efforts or unfair labor practice charges." This is not an optimistic sign. The firm's hiring indicates the University's combative stance --- one that will not be conducive to creating a good relationship with a potential union.

In a letter to faculty, Interim Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Gillian Lindt said that "as a matter of educational policy, graduate students should not be categorized as employees." In the same letter, she wrote that every member of Columbia's community should "be free to express their views on these issues." But University administrators should not try to influence any group one way or another.

The decision on unionization belongs to the graduate students and them alone. An open debate among the students is vital, but University involvement creates an adversarial situation where strength of interest may supercede logic of argument. No one on this campus wants to deal with the possible effects of a teaching assistant strike, but the University's provocative actions promise to make cooperation an arduous undertaking. Columbia University and the union --- should students choose to form one --- will need to be able to negotiate contracts and work with each other. The University should reconsider its decision to oppose the union effort. Neutrality remains the safest and most prudent course of action.