On April 19, 2004, GSEU/UAW went on strike for four weeks to win union recognition. Why did we vote to strike?  Our collective decision came after years of being denied a democratic voice by Columbia's Administration.

UNION ELECTION IS THROWN OUT

In March 2002, Columbia's TAs and RAs voted in a union election supervised by the New York City branch of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).  On the eve of the election, Columbia announced that it would appeal the legal precedent granting TAs and RAs the right to hold union elections.  As a result, over 1500 ballots cast by TAs and RAs were impounded, and remained uncounted, pending a decision on the case by the NLRB in Washington.

After 2 years of delay, the NLRB issued their decision on July 13, 2004. The Republican majority of the Board overturned the NYU decision, denying union rights to tens of thousands of graduate employees across the country. Because of the decision, our ballots, as well as the ballots from union elections at Brown University, University of Pennsylvania, and Tufts University, will be destroyed without ever having been counted. Read more here.

MAJORITY SUPPORT UNION

Anticipating that the Bush NLRB would throw out our election, this past year GSEU signed a new majority of teaching and research assistants onto union authorization cards, proving once again that a majority of TAs and RAs at Columbia support having a union. These cards were counted by the office of State Senate Minority Leader David Paterson. After certifying our majority, Senator Paterson issued a letter to Columbia's President Lee Bollinger, urging him to agree to an official "card count" and recognize GSEU on the basis of our majority.

In a card count, a neutral third party counts union authorization cards to determine whether a majority of employees support the union.  Card counts are a common legal alternative to union elections, and are supported by the entire labor movement and many members of Congress. Because the recent NLRB decision denies us the right to a federally-sponsored union election, a card count is now the best way we have of demonstrating our majority and winning union recognition.

Columbia refused to agree to a card count, maintaining that regardless of whether a majority supports it, TAs and RAs should not have the right to form a union.  In the administration's letter to Senator Paterson, Provost Alan Brinkley assures the Senator that "students are free to join or advocate a union, and even to strike, without retribution, and [the administration] will work very hard to see that this remains the case." Despite the Provost's assurances, the administration's refusal to agree to a card count left the union with no other alternative, on April 15th, 2004, GSEU voted to strike. TAs and RAs walked out on April 19.

GSEU VOTES TO SUSPEND THE STRIKE AFTER A REQUEST BY ELECTED OFFICIALS 

After 4 weeks on strike, GSEU and Columbia's Administration were contacted by City Council Speaker Gifford Miller and State Senate Minority Leader David Paterson.  Both officials asked us to suspend the strike prior to Columbia's graduation ceremony, and offered to mediate between the union and the Columbia administration to discuss union recognition. As a sign of good faith, and to demonstrate our support for undergraduate students, we agreed to suspend the strike effective May 17th, and not to picket graduation.  

Read more from the Columbia Spectator here.  For an archive of news about our strike, including audio and video clips, click here.

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