The History of Student Workers of Columbia Strikes & The Demand for Labor Rights by Dahlia Soussan
T
his year’s Student Workers of Columbia union strike takes place in the crucible of a Pandemic-fueled labor revolution. Theorists have coined the massive worker shortage in food service, hospitality, and other low-wage industries a “Great Resignation.” The economic cushion brought by COVID-era unemployment benefits, coupled with a cultural expectation for wage growth, has disincentivized many American laborers from returning to pre-pandemic occupations marked by pay and benefits incommensurate with the demands of their jobs. As laborers hold out for more enticing positions, employers face unprecedented pressure to offer better compensation to their workers. However, academia is a trickier beast to pin down which may explain why the second-largest strike in the nation is taking place at Columbia University this November. In recent years, universities like Colum-
bia have come to rely on graduate student workers for their undergraduate and research operations. Students, in turn, gain coveted teaching experience and work in partnership with professors, but at a severe cost. Seldom does the $6,000 to $19,000 Columbia pays grad workers constitute a living wage, forcing many students to live in relative poverty. The conditions are only exacerbated for grad workers supporting
will self-arbitrate investigative proceedings, intent on protecting its own reputation.This structure is prone to systemic power abuses and perpetuates graduate worker victimization at the hands of powerful university officials. According to the Union’s website, “In recent years, an instructor was sexually assaulted by a professor and the University failed to hold him accountable. Sadly, these events are not uncommon.”
spouses and children on measly salaries. Further, the benefit package for workers neglects coverage for basic health services, like dental care.
While state labor boards protect student unionization at public universities, grad workers at private institutions face more obstacles. Unless the university agrees to recognize the union of its own volition, students must follow a path laid out for private companies and petition the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), an independent entity under the federal government’s auspices, for recognition.
When grad workers—whose livelihoods rely on hard-to-come-by opportunities from one or two professors—are exploited by their direct employers, the university
In recent years, the NLRB’s position on graduate students at private universities unionizing has fluctuated with the shifting political leanings of its board members. In Disclaimer: The Bulletin does not own the images on this page.
THE BULLETIN
-
36
-
NOV/DEC 2021
