Today, the regional National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a decision rejecting Columbia’s objections to our historic unionization election. The NLRB hearing officer recommends “overruling the Employer’s objections in their entirety” and concludes that Columbia “has failed to demonstrate that any alleged objectionable conduct occurred which could have affected the results of this election, in which the Petitioner [GWC-UAW] prevailed by more than 900 votes.” You can read the full report from the NLRB hearing officer on the GWC website.
While we find today’s ruling to be a huge affirmation of our election, we also know that Columbia administrators and their lawyers have delayed collective bargaining for more than two years. Now is the time for us to raise our voice and increase efforts to convince Columbia administrators to refrain from any further delays, respect our democratic vote and agree to start bargaining. Click here to join our Rapid Response Network to help increase efforts to get Columbia to start bargaining!
A majority of RAs and TAs, and more than 30,000 of our allies on and off campus, have signed our petition urging Columbia to start bargaining. 168 faculty have also signed an open letter demanding that Columbia respect the results of the election and start bargaining. Now the regional NLRB has affirmed the validity of our election. As the University’s lawyers have two weeks to decide whether to challenge today’s regional decision with the NLRB in Washington, DC, we plan to engage in numerous efforts to make sure Columbia hears the message loud and clear—respect our democratic voice and start bargaining now. Click here to get involved.
Fill out the GWC-UAW bargaining survey. As we work on getting Columbia to the bargaining table, we continue preparing for negotiations, including our bargaining survey. Join more than 1,000 of our colleagues by taking five minutes to fill out the survey now.