MEETING ON GWC-UAW BARGAINING COMMITTEE STRUCTURE THURSDAY 7PM
As a reminder, on Thursday January 26, at 7pm in Avery 114, we will hold our scheduled open meeting, during which we will discuss and determine the make-up of our bargaining committee. This will be another important step forward so that we can hold elections in the near future for our first GWC-UAW bargaining committee. We encourage union supporters to attend. For CUMC folks who cannot attend the meeting, we are also holding a session in Hammer LL1-119 at 1pm on the same day for those who want to ask questions and pass along feedback for the Thursday night meeting.
UPDATE ON UNIVERSITY OBJECTIONS TO OUR ELECTION
We have now had two days of hearings at the NLRB about the University’s objections to our election in December. The hearing has only confirmed our belief that these objections represent another effort by the University to delay bargaining in any way possible.
Join the majority of our colleagues and thousands of our allies by signing the petition urging Columbia to drop the objections and agree to bargain
The University’s lawyers have so far produced no evidence or testimony that gives credence to their position that our election should be overturned due to improper behavior by the Union or the NLRB. In short, the University’s whole case continues to rest on the assumption that if all challenged ballots were determined to be eligible voters AND they all voted no, the election MIGHT have been close. But even if one took this assumption seriously, the University’s testimony so far has underscored the shaky nature of the content of their objections as well. We firmly believe the NLRB will agree with us and uphold the results of our historic election.
See below for a few examples of the University’s testimony and our responses so far.
On allegations against the Union: In support of its assertion that “a crowd of union supporters” set up a tripod and camera to engage in “surveillance” of voters in front of Earl Hall on December 7, the University’s lawyers provided an administrator who asserted this allegation with no concrete evidence actually showing that representatives of the Union set up the camera. In response, we have now provided a video filmed at the time in question by a student working on a class project in journalism-not an “agent of the union” as alleged by the University.
On allegations against the NLRB: The University claimed that at one point the Board agent at CUMC “closed the doors to the polling place…which prevented eligible voters from voting in the election.” The Union election observer at the time testified yesterday that the door had been propped open and that it was not closed by the Board agent, but appeared to have been inadvertently closed when a voter bumped into the garbage can propping the door after voting. Moreover, he testified that the door was closed for no more than three minutes and remained unlocked the whole time with the Voting Location sign outside the door.
More generally, the University lawyers continue trying to suggest widespread voter fraud, even though their witnesses have produced no evidence of anyone attempting to vote fraudulently.
While we know the University is only using these objections to delay our democratic choice to start bargaining, we will continue contesting their claims in hearings today and will give further updates. We are hopeful that the hearing will conclude this week.