10 • December 16, 2021 - December 22, 2021
THE NEW YORK AMSTERDAM NEWS
Union Matters Columbia graduate students call university’s bluff, strike marches on By STEPHON JOHNSON Amsterdam News Staff
willingness to negotiate certain issues. It rendered bargaining useless in their eyes. In November, in a letter to members of the Columbia University community, Mary C. Boyce, provost and professor of mechanical engineering, stated that the workers were offered what they thought was a fair deal. “As you may be aware, these talks are progressing more slowly than either side would like and we face the very real possibility of a strike…,” wrote Boyce. “I believe that a strike is unnecessary and avoidable, and that the priority right now should be to allow negotiations to play out.” According to the university, they offered a $42,766 salary for PhD students on 12month appointments, $32,074 for students on 9-month appointments with 3%. For graduate students, they offered an immediate compensation increase of 5% with a 3% increase and a minimum increase of $21 an hour after three years. The deal also included the doubling of the school’s annual childcare subsidy and a support fund for reimbursement of out-ofpocket medical expenses. Last week, Columbia University Director of
(Photo courtesy of peterspiro via iStock)
Columbia University graduate workers remain unafraid. This week marks the group’s sixth week of its strike against the university after the university threatened them with losing their current gigs and replacing them leading up to the end of the school year. Student Workers of Columbia-UAW 2110 officially went on strike on Nov. 4 calling for better wages, a neutral third-party arbitrator, and a comprehensive health care Columbia graduate students continue plan with vision and dental to strike for better wages and benefits. coverage. Specifically, they want $26 an hour minimum wage with a yearly increase by $1.50 along Graduate workers have complained about with dental and health coverage. working overtime to complete work and feel Eduardo Vergara, PhD candidate, de- like they’re being used as cheap labor for the partment of Latin American and Iberi- Ivy League institution. an cultures, told the AmNews recently, “I Last week, the AmNews obtained an email would have found a job there and tried to that Columbia University Vice President of continue with my dissertation. What about Human Resources Dan Driscoll sent to stuthe next few years? No idea.” dent workers telling them that the university Tamara Heche, PhD candidate, department of intended to permanently replace their labor Latin American and Iberian cultures, added that post-Dec. 10. “thesethreatsareevenmoreconcerninganddamWhen the strike began in November, gradagingfortheacademiccommunityasawhole.” uate workers pointed to the university’s un-
Media Relations Caroline Adelman stated: “A recent message to the union bargaining committee explaining the University’s approach to spring appointments and teaching assignments was necessary to sustain the academic progress of our students, particularly undergraduates whose classes are disrupted, and also to ensure that students who are working receive their spring assignments on time…” University officials didn’t respond to requests for comment this week. But graduate students have other organizations on their side. In an emailed statement, State Senators Jabari Brisport and Julia Salazar, New York City Council Member Tiffany Cabán, the New York City Democratic Socialists along with a slew of New York State Assembly Members, called on the school to end its threat against its graduate workers. “Low wages and inadequate healthcare have long acted as barriers which keep working class students, students of color, and many others from pursuing graduate education,” read the statement. “Columbia, which has elsewhere expressed a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion should act on this opportunity to make graduate education accessible to students from a variety of backgrounds, rather than maintaining the de facto exclusion which is the result of compensation that falls far below the cost of living and the failure to provide insurance which meets basic needs, such as dental care.”
CUNY students/unions march for a new deal By STEPHON JOHNSON Amsterdam News Staff City University of New York (CUNY) students, faculty and staff have clamored for an increase in their budget. Last weekend, they took their grievances to the streets. Both groups, along with elected officials, marched in Queens calling on the New York State government to fully fund their budget request and embrace CUNY’s “New Deal.” Nearly 1,000 CUNY students, faculty and staff and elected officials marched from LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City to the CUNY School of Law and ending at Court Square Park. Marchers wore masks that read “#APeoplesCUNY” and red shirts stating, “Everybody Love Somebody at CUNY.” New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams joined the protesters in Queens and said that the well-being of the students is CUNY’s key to success. Faculty and staff are the door. The university is ignoring it at their peril. “I’m a proud CUNY alumni twice over, and as CUNY continues to be the path to higher education for so many, especially immigrant, low-income, Black and Brown New Yorkers, it is completely unacceptable that its per-student budget has plummeted in the last 15 years,” stated Williams. “The current tuition hikes, lack of sufficient mental health counselors, and deteriorating infrastructure show a failure to prioritize affordable public education, or support students and staff alike. Albany must fully
fund CUNY with a new Deal for CUNY is common sense (Photo courtesy of Professional Staff Congress (PSC-CUNY) deal that prioritizes smart fiscal policy and I’m ready to equity, so that the opporfight for it in 2022.” tunity that I and so many Earlier this spring, PSC-CUothers had for a high NY helped launch campaign ads quality CUNY education that ran on New York, Long Island, is accessible to all New Albany and Westchester broadYorkers.” cast and digital media, calling for CUNY’s New Deal rean end to tax breaks for the rich quests an increase in (money that could be used to infunding which, according crease CUNY’s budget) and to emto the Professional Staff brace the new deal. Congress (PSC-CUNY), One CUNY alum whose name has fallen at CUNY senior has been one of the topics of pocolleges by 38% since litical conversation, spoke and re1990 and 18% since 2008. minded the state that supporting With the addition of “inCUNY is supporting the people. flation, leading to tuition “As a proud CUNY graduate, hikes, reduced services, I know firsthand the power of a over reliance on under- CUNY faculty, staff, students, and elected officials demand a “New Deal.” CUNY education and the opporpaid adjuncts and shorttunity it provides to so many New ages of full-time faculty and staff.” sandra Biaggi, Brian Benjamin, Jamaal Bailey Yorkers who might otherwise not have According to the PSC-CUNY, the univer- and Jabari Brisport—stated that any budget access to higher education,” said New York sity is asking for an operating budget in- would need to show love to CUNY because Attorney General Letitia James. “But there crease of $313 million to hire more than it’s an important part of the road to upward would be no CUNY without the dedicat1,000 full-time faculty in addition to new mobility for disadvantaged New Yorkers. ed professors and faculty and staff behind mental health counselors and advisors and “CUNY is the pride of NYC. Most CUNY it, and we must give them and our students a tuition freeze. Champions of the bill want students stay here after graduating and con- the support they need to keep this system a $5.8 billion increase in capital reserved for tribute billions of dollars to our economy,” running. That means ensuring fair staffing CUNY for the next five years. said Gounardes. “As we look for ways to re- ratios, providing adequate mental health CUNY officials declined AmNews’ request cover from the COVID-19 economic crisis, support, and keeping tuition low so that all for comment. what better way than to invest in a sure our students can have access to the quality Senator Andrew Gounardes, the main thing: our amazing public universities. Our education they deserve. sponsor of the New Deal for CUNY legisla- students deserve full time teachers, mental “These investments into CUNY are key to tion (New York Senate Bill S4461)—which is health support, academic advisors and the continued success of New York City and co-sponsored by fellow state senators Ales- buildings that aren’t falling apart. The New the entire state,” James said.
